A Young Mariinsky Prince: Nikita Korneyev from Russia to Germany…and back

A Muscovite raised in Germany, Nikita Korneyev is now in his ninth season with the Mariinsky and has long been dancing solo roles. Vaganova Today sat down with him to learn more about his international career path.  For the Russian version of this interview, please click here.

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You come from a ballet family?
My parents were both dancers, we have a dynasty in my family. They worked in the N.Kasatkina-V.Vasilyov troupe in Moscow but we moved to Germany in 2000. First they worked at the Semperoper in Dresden and later in Weisbaden and Essen.

Did you also want to dance?
Yes, I wanted to dance as well. My father, on the other hand, told me that it was a very difficult and hard profession. But that didn’t scare me. During my childhood I did lots of sports: I played tennis, track and field, and soccer. But when I started to take ballet, I understood that with my parents it would be a lot easier in this sphere, because they know a lot more about it than any of my other pursuits, and with their experience it would be easier for me to study.

I was in the theatre throughout my childhood since my parents worked there. I saw things backstage, from the wings, in the dressing rooms, and the performances. My first experience onstage was in Moscow when I was 5 years old in “The Nutcracker”. We rode on sleighs in the first scene, it’s a slightly different version of the ballet.

I was 11 years old when I started to study formally in Essen. There was a ballet circle at the grammar school, a separate class where I started to take ballet lessons.

How did you end up at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart?
In 2010 in the city of Essen there was an award ceremony at the theatre. The artistic director of the John Cranko Ballet Academy attended. He invited me to attend the school and 2 weeks later I moved to Stuttgart. I lived in the dormitories and my parents remained in Essen. Every weekend I came home, it was just 2 hours by train. One week at school was enough to completely reconsider my food regimen. The food was not as good there as I expected it to be and the schedule was full, so I couldn’t just eat when I wanted to.

Is the structure there the same as at the Vaganova Academy?
First I attended a typical academic school and then went to ballet classes at the Academy. During the last 2 years there I was at the ballet school from morning until night. I rented a single room in the dorms.

Were the lessons there strict?

Yes, most of the pedagogues either studied in Russia or did internships there. There were many pedagogues from Russia but not many students from there.

Given Cranko’s movement style, was the focus in the school more on “danceability”?
No, we actually had more of an emphasis on academicism. We studied technique and when we prepared for a performance, naturally we studied the dancing aspect during rehearsals, but our classes focused more attention on technique and academicism in performance.

Did you experience a culture shock when you moved to Germany?  No, because I was very little, only 6 years old, and my parents were always nearby, so I didn’t notice any big changes.

But when you graduated, one could say that you “moved back” to Russia. Did you not want to remain in Germany?
I wanted to. But it turned out that I auditioned in Stuttgart and they did not accept me at first. There were 8 boys and 10 girls in our graduating class and out of those 18 people they chose 6 to audition, and I was one of them. After that they said I was not a suitable candidate because I was not artistic enough. That is verbatim.

Afterwards I started to audition in other theatres –in Vienna, Zurich and Munich– and I happened to audition for the Mariinsky when they toured to Baden Baden. At first I asked simply to take class, because we had vacation and I needed to stay in shape for the auditions. Yuri Valerievich Fateev was giving the class. They watched me in one of the groups and Fateev immediately invited me to join the company. He said, “If you want, we’ll buy you a ticket and you will fly back with us.” I answered that I didn’t have my diploma yet, as I had not yet finished school. It was winter. He said, “Ok, first get your degree, and then come to Petersburg, we will look at you once more and then decide.”

But prior to and after that I still auditioned everywhere I could, because in some of the cities I had to pay for the auditions and I had already purchased the tickets there. I received offers from Zurich and Munich.

When I received my diploma, there were performances to which our Academy graduates were invited and we danced as the corps de ballet. After one of these performances, the assistant to the artistic director, who is now the artistic director, took me aside and asked about my plans for the future because they wanted to offer me a job. At that time I’d already signed a contract with the Mariinsky Theatre.

Since you are from Moscow, did you consider going to work in the Bolshoi Theatre?
Actually I didn’t even think about the Mariinsky. While I was studying in Stuttgart, for me the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theatres were unreachable, they were dreams. I mostly considered European theatres. And when the chance to work at the Mariinsky arose, I immediately took it. I didn’t consider the Bolshoi.


You
started working here at the Mariinsky in 2016. Was there an adaptation necessary? Was it difficult to shift from life in Europe to here?
No, I really enjoy being here, I feel at home. While we were living in Germany we often came to visit Russia so there was no shock in living here for me.

What was it like during your first season?
To be honest, at first I was ashamed to even enter the studio, because many colleagues who are working here now were out of my league. I measured myself against them and taking class alongside them was scary. I understood where I came from and that my training was at a lower level, at least compared to the Vaganova Academy. I felt that I was lacking in something in order to be a complete bona fide member of the company. But that passed after about 3 months.

I had a lot of work and I have a lot now. But thanks to my parents and being organized, I was able to learn all of the productions quickly.

You spent 6 years in the corps de ballet. Is that harder than being a soloist?
No, it’s harder to be caught in between – being in the corps de ballet, but working on solo parts and dancing them. They’re different workloads. Being in the corps de ballet, you have to follow the overall design, the lines, the choreography as a whole, but compared to solo parts the responsibility in the corps is slightly lower. When you perform leading roles, you are like the head of a locomotive who pulls the entire production forward and all attention should be on you, you have to tell the story and correct technical mistakes. It’s hard in both spots. They both heavily depend on each other: the corps de ballet on the soloists, and the soloists on the corps de ballet.

Who
is your pedagogue?
Danila Korsuntsev. We found a common language quickly, he sees the core of a problem and understand when something isn’t working. His corrections are very concise and understandable to me. I immediately start to understand what he wants from me and I try to correct it during the process.

How were you accepted into the troupe? After all, there is a large contingent of graduates from the Vaganova Academy who already know each other, and you joined as an outsider.
The accepted me very well and warmly, we just needed time to get acquainted, because nobody knew me and I didn’t know anyone. But with time they’ve welcomed me.

Do height and weight affect the result of partnering in a duet?
Weight does not. Height affects only how the viewers see you. Visually the couple should appear harmonious together. If we’re speaking about what is comfortable, of course with some dancers it is more comfortable to dance than with others but there needs to be visual harmony.

What’s the hardest part of your job? You get used to the workload and the high number of performances here. The hardest part is probably forgetting what happened yesterday, and starting to work again today with a clean slate. Yesterday’s performance will remain in your head no matter what, and the analysis goes on – what was lacking, what you need to fix. But you have to remain humble and continue work. And everything turns into a routine. Then you take the needed emotional components from that routine into the rehearsals and the performances.

What’s the best part of your job?
Living my characters on stage and having the opportunity to try on a specific era, specific costume and behavior, sometimes even the thoughts of the character, and giving that to the audience in the theatre in such a way so that it is intuitively understood. Probably that’s the most enjoyable and most interesting aspect of my job, and of course, when something works out well or you feel your own progress. That too.

What is your approach to roles when the character does not coincide with your own personality?
I always try to “live” in my role on the stage. In “The Pharoah’s Daughter” it’s easier to do, since it’s like a vision or dream. It was harder for me at first to show the behavior of a man from the upper class and his relationships as they exist in “Sleeping Beauty” or “Swan Lake”. It’s always important to me to show the difference in class and still remain a human being so that the viewer can accept me and sympathize with me as the character on stage.

Do you have any superstitions before going on stage?
No, but I have a basic process. Before curtain I always stand in parallel (6th position) to feel my body’s axis and understand which way I’m being pulled. This fine-tuning of the instrument, the body, helps me calm down morally speaking as well.

Do you have advice for young people?
Listen to your pedagogues carefully and trust them. And never stop trying to be better.

What dream do you have for the future?
I’d like to achieve the highest level in my career, that is, become a principal dancer, and of course I’d like for people to remember me from a professional point of view after I retire from the stage. In life in general, I’d like to be a worthy son to my parents, so they can be proud of me, and to be an honorable person, that’s probably the way of life to which I aspire.

Does being promoted depend only on talent?
There are many factors here: luck plays a big role, as well as personal professional growth and your relationship with management, because it’s management that decides to promote a dancer. The status of principal dancer or prima ballerina is the highest level and they don’t give it to everyone. The individual needs to be not just good but talented and there should be no doubts about the fact that they truly represent the face of the Mariinsky Theatre. It’s a standard for performing this or that role. And if there are no doubts, then I’d suggest that you can promote such a dancer. This concerns any promotion, for example from the corps de ballet to coryphée, or from corps de ballet to second soloist. You need to try to be better than others.

Does that create a competitive atmosphere?
Of course it does. Honestly speaking ballet is a professional sport which contains art. There is always competition among everyone. But we have a good group of dancers with good senses of humor, everyone understands each other well. However, you can sense the competition especially when there’s a new production and the choreographer comes to choose the performers. Everyone tries to show themselves under the best light to receive a part and the chance to work. We have a very short career and many possibilities. Everyone is trying during this very short period to gather a maximum amount of experience.

Did you ever doubt your choice of profession?
No, never. I like what I’m doing and where I’m going. The physical load becomes like a drug after a while. When you don’t have it, your muscles as for a workload themselves. During vacation everything starts to hurt and you want to work. So the more work we have, the better it is, because our body is not always tired, it is energy-saving. At work there’s the chance to expend all of your energy and that’s a pleasant kind of fatigue. If you sit in an office then of course that would be harder to adjust to. But since childhood I always did some sort of exercise, so I am used to it.

Do you like princely roles?
Yes, I like all my roles.

Is there a role you’d like to dance?
Spartacus in the ballet “Spartacus” either in the Jakobson or the Grigorovich version. Also “Golden Age” and “Manon” and “La Dame Aux Camellias”.

Do you do any cross training?
Yes I go to the gym to strengthen my joints and tendons and so that the pectoral girdle can handle the workload and not transfer all of it onto my joints. I also do strength training so that there will be fewer problems in partnering and simpler to handle it. That helps a lot. I also go to a manual therapist a few times per year and he attends to my lower back and spine. During vacation things start to hurt more, because your muscles relax and start to ache.

Do you need to have a special diet?
I watch how much sugar I eat and try to eat fewer carbohydrates. But I eat fruit. I started to watch what I eat when I started going to the gym. I work with a trainer and he created a food plan for me that lists how much protein, fat, and carbohydrates I should eat, and then I buy the products myself.

You’ve taught at a ballet school in Petersburg, please tell us a bit about that.
I gave master classes and sat as the jury on the exams in children’s schools but I don’t teach now. I can give advice in some cases but I think I don’t have enough experience to do it professionally yet.

Do you think ballet is your purpose and path?
I don’t think so. For example my younger sister didn’t go into ballet, she does gymnastics but in Europe that’s a hobby. Today you do gymnastics, tomorrow it’s horseback riding, and the next day play the violin. She doesn’t want to associate her life with ballet. In the children’s activities in Europe they don’t force children – if you don’t want to do it, don’t do it. It’s in Russia and China where professional gymnastics is a lot harsher.

Do you believe in Fate?
I believe in myself and in God.

Isnt GodFate?
Depends how you interpret it. I think anybody can not only change but build their own fate.


Photos by Mikhail Vilchuk and Natasha Razina for the Mariinsky Theatre.