A young Californian boy completed his training at the Vaganova Academy and joined the Mariinsky Ballet not long ago. We met with Kian Manghise and discussed his career trajectory and what it’s like to dance in Russia. Kian, how did you start dancing? It’s a pretty classic story, my sister was dancing in a …
With the White Nights Festival in full swing, some of the Mariinsky’s traditional ballets feature relative newcomers on stage, not yet seen by most Western ballet fans. The administration has dipped into the ranks providing some of th youngest dancers with opportunities to dance principal roles. On 04 July, Daria Kulikova, a long-legged, expressive beauty …
The 282nd graduating class of the Vaganova Academy demonstrated the results of their training in 3 performances on the Mariinsky’s historical stage in a three-act mixed bill in early June. An except from “Flora’s Awakening” featured two girls cultivated by Academy rector Nikolai Tsisaridze. Ekaterina Morozova, who essayed Flora and, in Act 3, the Lilac …
“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 …
Coinciding with the birthday of the city of Saint Petersburg, the Mariinsky’s annual White Nights Festival began on 27 May with summer heat flowing through the city. A full house ushered in the start of this yearly celebration of dance, symphony, and opera delights. Although they’ve not performed together in this ballet previously, Oksana Skorik …