Over the last few years I have been interviewing dancers for several dance magazines. With the approval of the editor I would like to present here a selection of the interviews which were originally published in the Canadian quarterly dance magazine Dance International. The texts are reproduced here as published. All comments about these interviews will be welcomed on the usual address.
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"Not just because Ayupova is a star, but one can really make a performance with her. We feel each other. We can create something together. However, now it often is like: ‘I feel it. If you don’t, then just stand by me.’ That explains why there are no real partnerships anymore today, like we used to have with Maximova and Vasiliev or with Berezhnoi and Terekhova. Everyone dances far too much for himself these days."
"Galina Ulanova and Marina Semyonova were our idols. We stood paralyzed when we happened to run into them in the theatre. I watched ballerinas
like Ekaterina Maximova, Ludmilla Semenyaka, and Natalia Bessmertnova. When we grew up, our idols were Nadezhda Gracheva
and Galina Stepanenko. We used to go and see their performances full of admiration for their talent. Ballerinas
and dancers were like gods to us and the Bolshoi Theatre was something like Mount Olympus."
"When I started there were always the ballerinas who were older, who had more experience. You could observe them, study them and learn a lot of things from them. For example, how to behave on stage, how to take steps easier, how to make steps look better. That was also part of experience.
Maybe now they learn all this in a different way, but for me it was very important to be able to see somebody dancing, somebody with more experience on the stage. Because the things I knew, were not enough to dance. I don't know if they still have this now. Pity if they don't."
"When you watch a video tape of dancers of the old generations, for instance Galina Ulanova, Marina Semyonova, or a bit
later Natalia Dudinskaya, you can see a certain coordination of body and arms, a musicality -
you might call it 'singing with the body' - and above all an emotional depth to
the dancing which no longer seem to exist today. The technique was present alright, but it was
never there just for the sake of technique. The accent was first and foremost on emotion. However,
now it's all about high legs. I consider that a serious problem. All we seem to think about
today is how high the legs can go, but there is hardly any concern anymore about form, plastique, harmony,
and about what's coming from inside, about soul. That's something we lost."
"I recently was in St. Petersburg, doing class with the Kirov. It's incredible.
When some years ago Diana Vishneva first appeared in the theatre,
everybody was raving about her - 'those legs' etc. Then the
following year Svetlana Zakharova came - again 'those legs, those feet'.
But now they are all like that!"
"Sometimes you see a certain ballerina tackle a role which doesn't
suit her at all. Yet, I understand that for some dancers this is not an issue. They
just don't seem to care about emploi. Personally I would never feel comfortable in
La Sylphide for example. It's a great ballet, I have seen fantastic interpreters of the
role, like Evdokimova, Evteyeva, Kolpakova, but it's not for me."
