May/June 2021 Ballet in Russia as Covid Continues

Mariinsky White Nights Festival
This year’s “White Nights” festival begins on June 2nd with a series of back-to-back performances throughout the month that include Swan Lake by the Jakobson Ballet Theatre, and on June 10, 13 and 14, the Vaganova Academy annual graduation performances. Currently, Alexei Ratmansky is setting The Pharoah’s Daughter on the troupe, with a premiere set for December 2021.

Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi held a press conference in May, announcing it’s 2021-22 season plans. Alexei Ratmansky will present “The Art of Fugue” in April 2022 set to music by Johann Sebastian Bach. July 2022 will bring three other new ballet premieres, rescheduled from the initial plans for 2020. Vyacheslav Samodurov’s “DanceMania” will appear on a bill along with Anton Pimonov’s “Made in Bolshoi” and principal dancer Artemy Belyakov’s debut work “Russian Seasons”.

Tragic News
On May 12, Mariinsky Ballet soloist David Zaleyev fell off of an electric scooter without a helmet, hit his head on the sidewalk pavement, and was immediately both immobile and unconscious. Two passersby as well as a semi truck stopped to attend to him, and he was taken to the hospital where it was determined he had experienced brain injuries, and was placed in a medicated coma (presumably to stop swelling). On around May 19th or 20th he was transferred to the Polenov Neurosurgery Research Institute in Petersburg, still in a coma. His chances, as the articles claim, are 50/50. We are praying for David, and hope for a miraculous and early recovery, and that he may dance again.