Since January 2023, Even Capitaine has been working with the Mariinsky Ballet as a first soloist. We learned the details about his intriguing path in the world of ballet and in Russia. You can find the Russian language version of this interview here.

You have a unique story. How did you enter the world of ballet?
I attended a typical academic school and my mother wanted me to do something other than school. First I took fencing classes for 2 years, from ages 5 to 6, but then it ceased to be of any interest to me. At age 8, since my younger sister took ballet, I decided to try it. I went to a non-professional school after academic school once a week. For two years I did that, and then said I wanted to study more professionally. I was living in the French countryside in the small city of Sistelle near Toulouse. There aren’t many people there.

And so you had to travel to Paris?
Yes. At first they didn’t accept me. I continued to study ballet and did home school so that I could devote more time to ballet classes. I continued that way until I was 13 and the second time I applied, they accepted me in Paris.

Based on music from the opera by the same name but with a score recreated by Yuri Krasavin specifically for this production, Yuri Possokhov’s “Queen of Spades” premiered at the Mariinsky in July 2024. Describing the ballet, Possokhov stated, “It’s a fantasy. For me the most important thing is to give the production the meaning that I want the audience to understand.” This rather dark ballet thus focuses mainly on the story of the hero, German, his unquenched thirst for the secret of winning cards, and the concept of fatal love.  Possokhov states that he offers an author’s stage interpretation of a literary work using a unique libretto by Valery Pecheykin. That libretto, seemingly set in the 19th century, takes the overall themes of the luck of fate, and the power of gambling addictions to distract human beings from the most important parts of life, and turns them into visual vignettes over a two-hour program.

As a precursor to their week-long run of “The Fountain of Bakchisarei” at the Bolshoi Theatre in mid-July, the Mariinsky troupe presented three performances of this ballet at home first, which included a handful of debuts. On 12 July, Camilla Mazzi portrayed a gentle and tender Maria who was clearly in love with her fiancé, and projected the emotions of a princess while maintaining clean lines and careful positioning. Despite some partnering glitches between the two of them in the initial sequence of supported sissones, Alexei Timofeyev proved a strong partner and gracious prince as Vatslav, with the requisite epaulement in the right places. When his chivalrous attempt to protect her during the battle with the invading Tatars unfortunately fails, Mazzi’s fear was palpable as they snatched her away from the burning palace. Sparks literally flew onstage during the sword fight between the Poles and Tatars; and this impressive choreography reveals its complexity in the number of people onstage all fighting in different places at once.

As part of a three-day festival dedicated to Igor Stravinsky and falling on the composer’s 142th birthday, the Mariinsky offered several evenings of Stravinsky-based music, including the premiere of dancer/choreographer Alexander Sergeev’s latest work, “Concert Dances”, an intelligent multi-layered ballet that highlights the structures in Stravinsky’s score and includes allusions to choreographic works from Balanchine to Ratmansky.

The premiere was nestled into a mixed bill that started with Bronislava Nijinska’s “Les Noces”, always a challenging work with unusual counts and steps that the Mariinsky dancers handled with considerable mastery. Alexandra Iosifidi performed the role of the Bride alongside the extremely tall Vadim Belyaev as the Groom, and Anna Smirnova with Maxim Izmestiev as the two soloists.

“The Fountain of Bakchisarai”, referred to as a “choreographic poem” in four sections based on the work by Alexander Pushkin with a prologue and epilogue and created by Rostislav Zakharov in 1934, is a quintessentially Russian ballet in its philosophical leanings which juxtaposes the refined civilization of Slavic (in this case Polish) Europe with the barbaric practices of the Tatars. Yet overall themes of greed and grief underscore the moral obligation to temper desires and adhere to strictures that preserve life and love.

On the eve of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Mariinsky’s historical stage welcomed a full house to a rare all-star cast. Olesya Novikova, the lately appointed prima ballerina, danced Maria alongside fellow prima Viktoria Tereshkina as Zarema. Alexander Sergeev danced the dashing Vatslav, and Danila Korsuntsev, now a pedagogue and coach inside the theatre, has shifted to a handful of acting roles on stage, and he played a stern, distraught Girei, the head of the Tatar harem.

Even the most talented writer cannot find words that do justice to artists of the highest caliber, finely tuned ballet dancers in this case, who have spent years and sometimes decades of daily toil to perfect their art.

The Bolshoi Ballet troupe, now united with the Mariinsky under the same overall directorship of Valery Gergiev, launched its first set of “exchange” performances in early May 2024. The Moscow troupe brought three nights of Yuri Grigorovich’s “Spartacus” followed by another three nights of Balanchine’s “Diamonds” to the Mariinsky stage in St. Petersburg. Extra long last-minute ticket lines meant that the performances began 25 minutes after the intended curtain time, but that did not sway devoted fans – many of which who travelled north from Moscow especially to see the troupe.

Under Makhar Vaziev, who ran the Mariinsky until 2007, the Bolshoi has revamped itself. A set of younger dancers have been promoted to principal, the corps de ballet has improved its quality from a rather dismal state back in 2016, and a wide range of new works continue to plump up it’s Grigorovich-based repertoire. 

Leonid Jakobson’s version of “Spartacus” is a monumental, three-act stylistic ballet that immediately carries the viewer to ancient Greece through its unique choreographic style. Inspired, it is said, by the haut-reliefs of the Pergamon Altar, this “Spartacus” is littered with parallel (turned in) leg and arm positions intended to reproduce the two-dimensional images on Etruscan vases, scandalous positions in their heyday which veer far from the classical lexicon. There is not a pointe shoe in sight. Instead, it is as if an ancient Roman carving has come to life.

More than 30 years ago, few foreign dancers, especially those from Europe, joined Russian (then “Soviet”) ballet companies. Yes, there was the rare Baryshnikov, who hailed from Riga, Latvia, but for the most part, Russian companies retained native Russian dancers or those from its provinces. Through a strange series of circumstances, Fethon Miozzi, who hails from Italy, completed his studies at the Vaganova Academy at a time when few foreigners did so. He then performed in Petersburg, and finally became a pedagogue at the Vaganova Academy where he has taught boy’s classes for the past 16 years. VaganovaToday sat down with him to trace his life story and hear about the transition from stage to teaching. To view the Russian version of this interview, please kick here.

Impeccable training in the city of Perm, clean lines, and loyalty to classical traditions won Ksenia Ostreikovskaya entry to the Mariinsky Ballet after her  studies.

As the first swan, and first Bayadère shade, to enter the sacred Mariinsky stage thousands of times during her 25 years dancing with the Mariinsky, Ostreikovskaya also performed numerous solo roles in an extensive repertoire of works ranging from Petipa to Balanchine to Hans Van Manen.

She recently retired from dancing and began coaching other dancers as a pedagogue.  VaganovaToday joined her to discuss her stage years and her new role coaching others.