Mariinsky Ballet Principal Dancer Alina Somova Swan Lake 2008 Black Swan Fragment

[ajv2014]

Her classical roles have gotten much better! In the past her oversplit jetes/developpes were a bit excessive, but this is nice. I'd love to see her in something contemporary, like Forsythe.

[Bailey1995D]

where are her famous high extensions????? She is known for her almost inhumane flexibility and I don't see it here!!!

[nicanor79]

I really dislike her... no elegance, no stage presence at all... her fouettes are horrible (and not because of the mistake)

[theamazingsoter]

@StravinskyGal97 So you stopped liking Obratzsova ONLY because some lifeless losers from a ballet forum post negative comments about Somova? Wow, I hope you don't consider yourself better than those who criticize Somova only because she was promoted instead of their favorite because you aren't. You're an hypocrite.

[5FnX17]

Lopatkina, Vishneva, and Zakharona are much better.

[nutcracker201201]

@5FnX17 Lopatkina and Zakharova are best in SL. But not Vishneva. This role is not good for Vishneva.

[Spampiglets]

Did anyone else read the comments and have to google fouettes?

[theamazingsoter]

@Spampiglets Nope :)

[makORmalonek]

@Spampiglets Not here but like two years ago I had to do the same, don't worry. :)

[DancePink26]

The fouettes...hard to watch. But good dancing in the odile variation just not the coda.

[bwoodsfinest]

I don't understand. If she's principal, Obraztsova should have been promoted eons ago.

[me2totoo]

fouettes, AAAH!!



[JessieCullen94]

her pirouettes are lovely!! :D

[akmudd23]

She also has beautiful feet and a VERY flexible back

[akmudd23]

she's amazing! And jeez her legs are insanely long!

[LylaBallerina]

haha nice fouettes. loll

[cjoyoates]

Her arebesque seems cheated...

[TheBlockIsland]

She will be one of the greatest ballerinas of the century!

[TheBlockIsland]

she is wonderful!

[fallyas]

please watch "black swan pas de deux it's a 8 years old russian ballerina"

[CCmuggle22]

her fouettes were... well not the prettiest thing to look at

[me2totoo]

@CCmuggle22 i agree but each dancer can fall somewhere she's still amazing!

[littlesheep11]

Why is everyone picking on her!? she´s an amazing dancer and I would like to see you guy´s doing what she does on stage! Her technique is simply amazing, okay here and there she lacks in showing personality, but who the hell is perfect? Everyone has to be perfect and out of the world these days, I really hate that attitude. She´s a great dancer!

[gabibarba98]

linda.. mas quando ela dá fouette ela acha que está lutando??? tá meio estranho!!! mas ela é linda

[theamazingsoter]

I wish you had shown more of the Pas de deux, BalletAll. I did like her variation, but I'm sure the adagio was much better.

[94bananapancakes]

she seems so bored throughout the whole thing :/

[Erato969]

fouettes... ;/

[nohasayedalahl]

her bow at the end to the audience was the most expressive part in the whole piece!

[rheahinlo]

not for anything...it was clumsy.

[ballerinashappiness]

Beautiful dancer!! Awful fouéttes, but so what!

[nATaLiEGee97]

those fouettes were TERRIBLE.

[zobidou]

@nATaLiEGee97 like "awesome" or horrible? :p



[thedridis]

I think she's awesome

[EmmaLoves2Dance]

those fouettes were ugly

[ballet1707]

Im sorry but i doubt any of you can do what she can do and have had the harsh traning she has gone through so don't be so mean just respect what she can do and not complain at what she cannot

[sparklepointe227]

Thumbs up if you just read about her in Pointe Mag!

[JenyaZ14]

Her fouettes are terrible!!! Kids doing better!! She isn't proincipal she has to be in cordeballet

[JeanneLaHaine]

i would want my money back...and the stolen hours of my life...

[GotThaFunk227]

@JeanneLaHaine Are you kidding? Think of how much work and skill this has taken. Like you can do any better. haha I bet you've never accidentally fallen out of a fouette before! Just think of how nervous she must've been. Don't act like such a snob.

[woaibailewo]

@GotThaFunk227 I doubt JeanneLaHaine was saying that they could do better, but they were making a valid point. Many students can do better fouettes then Alina demonstrated in this video, but like you said, it was probably a combination of nerves and this day being an "off day" for her so to speak.

[panyatna]

Whatever happened in those fouettes, she did something pretty impressive to stay on balance and keep going!

[idunnowhatimdoin]

i like that she's thin. we got too many fatties in this business.

lol just trolling.

[andreaballerina1]

her fouettes are HORRIFIC!!!!!

[ersteerste]

no story of her own and no character (( and it seems that she can't cope with her hands and legs. an absolute student. it's a mystery how she became a prima in the Mariinsky. i've seen her many times in different roles but i've never seen anything not even outstanding but just good. looking at her you can't get rid of the feeling that she has no control over what's going on to her body.

[pumilija]

@ersteerste you're right!

[conversesconestilo]

What an awful coda she did (horrible fouettes)... she looked possessed!

Only three words: PLEASE, MORE CONTROL

[robynparryXD]

For a dance like this you would expect more effort to be graceful, she seems to throw herself into some of it...

[forgetmenotF]

@lideclo1 finally someone said it! thank you.....



[margaritanoir]

Ok, she's perfect for the role by terms of beauty and grace and she's one of the fittest ballerinas you'll see (not too thin and with fairly trained arms) But when you see for example those fouettes.. it's hard to believe Mariinsky didn't find anyone more prepared to be a prima, in all Russia.. Excuse my honesty but after watching more than 20 Swan Lake performances this question inevitably came up to me :((

[pumilija]

@margaritanoir agree!!!



[avesraggiana]

Her sky high extensions don’t mask the fact that she has not turnout in her thighs and no ballerina polish in her dancing. Give me Obratsova, Kondaurova, Osmolkina or Pavlenko any day.

[rmonier75]

I think Alina Somova has made much progress since the movie Balerina. Her technique is very robust in this difficult variation and her developpes a la seconde are not lomger exageratedly high and a bit offset from the academic line as they may have been in the past. She is very talented and deserved her promotion..

[sunidak]

Ye-e-e-e-s...she looks more like the Sugar Plum Fairy

[erlyscuba]

I'd rather prefer Svetlana Zakharova ... she's "THE ONE"

[omgsls]

She needs more control in her dancng

[woaibailewo]

Alina has beautiful technique and I love her arms, but she needs a little bit a spice for Odile. While her Odette is very good, she needs more sauciness in her Odile for it to be convincing. She is still very young and I can't wait to see what she will become in the next ten years or so.

[sangfroidjen]

Alina is definitely better as Odette, her Odette is sublime. I prefer Tereshkina as Odile, as far as Mariinsky ballerinas go.

[vaganovafan]

@sangfroidjen

[NivoMjFan]

Where Can I Get The Music ?!

[vaganovafan]

@NivoMjFan if you go to paris ...gallery opera de paris, you find everything there love it!!

[Lizzitarock]

She is nice.. but her fouettés are terrible xD

[barbarac102]

She is amazing!!

[MlleOdilette]

even here she's much better than Lopatkina

[vaganovafan]

@MlleOdilette omg! what are you saying??I think you didn't saw many solo's of lopatkina,if mme lopatkina has one thing extrasprecial,then its control of her body !!! you can't say that of mme somova

[101katykitty101]

i love alina shes unique i think shes amazing!! but lets face it those fouettes were crap....

[bhaukes]

2:50 is absolutely not acceptable for a principle.. what the H is Mariinsky thinking? I thought they were supposed to be Russian..?

[bluz1231]

hm .. if we compare with Uliana LOPATKINA ...

she seems like a student ...

[abeydou1]

2:50 ????

[lukebccb]

Based on the comments I'd say the reply is that apparently something the folks at the Mariinsky sees something about Somova that others don't....... I STRONGLY suspect it has a LOT to do with what ALL *shows* usually base their decisions on: THE AMOUNT OF AUDIENCE THAT IS ATTRACTED.

[TheChaiTeaLatte]

@lukebccb good point. I saw her live recently. in technical terms, she's not all WOW but great (pretty wobbly when doing fouettes. I get that fouettes are hard. but for a prima they shouldn't be). there is this 'thing' about her that really made me pay attention to her. it's like she has the charisma to relate to the audience.. she was ethereal on stage really that her technical faults are almost concealed by this.

[nicolebriii]

jeez people she wasnt THAT bad...i think she looks good.

[chamuda610]

I wish I could kick that hard...sheesh Alina, it's a set of fouettes, not karate class.

[vaganovafan]

I am sorry,but I have a big problem with her extensions,it breaks the beautifull lines,and it bothers me,mme Guillem has also an extreme flexability,but she stops when its necessary an with mme somova it looks like she wants to dazzel the audiance and trick them to not see her technically faults ,still the first part I liked but when the coda comes I hate it too see that she doesn't control her speed,force and flexability.ronaldo christiano cant kick a ball like her in her fouettes!

[SuperEfexor]

why somebody din't say to her to chenge the fouttes with a manège of piques. many great stars did it !

[ha347282]

I think she is technically very strong but in my opinion she looks like a student still when she dances to me. Not because she is lacking technique but because she has no artistry, she dosnt pull me into the story and make me feel what she is feeling. To me Natalia osipova or svetlana zakarova are much more deserving of the title principal and prima ballerina. The point of ballet is to tell a story without words and she just dosnt seem to get that. When I watch her I always feel like she isn't

[ballerinaa5]

Those were the weirdest fouettes i have ever seen, it's a wonder how she manages to stay on balance at 2:51...

[huixue]

Yikes...those fouettes! 

[dansergurrl123]

maybe she had a bad day...

[TheChaiTeaLatte]

she's good.. but the queen in the background is much better! she's just sitting there but oh my lord, she looks just like a painting very graceful just like a true fairy tale queen and really drawn my attention to her even though she's doing NOTHING. lol it's as if she's the focus here instead of alina

[theamazingsoter]

2:48 Oh my - what was that?!

[JillYvette1]

@theamazingsoter I didn't even notice anything...shows how much I know about ballet haha.

[theamazingsoter]

@JillYvette1 Well, at least she didn't lose her spot and stopped turning. It was pretty amazing the way she managed to relevé again after that and finish her fouettés.

[nicolezly]

I really don't understand WHY Mariinsky made her a prima in such a rush, since even her fans are still waiting for he to "improve" until today. She looks to be a ballet student forever, always doing what teachers tell her to do. She doesn't feel for the music and the story for herself.

[huixue]

@nicolezly Yes, she does seem to missing something...that extra bit of artistry and finish that you usually find with Mariinsky ballerinas. Maybe she will grow into it, but I am not sure it works that way.

[MariaCaIIas]

@nicolezly i wish I could do everything my teachers told me to do!!

[MariaCaIIas]

@MlleOdilette to follow your teacher's advise -especially when they belong to the greatest scholl in the world- is not exactly what you would call imitation... and after all when you are onstage you are always alone... the teachers cannot dance for you...

Never mind, I understand what you try to say but there is a very fine line between imitation and good schooling and in the case of this dancer I do not think she imitates... I do think she could use some more personality though...

[nicolezly]

@MariaCaIIas that's what makes her a terrific student. to be a prima of Mariinsky, however, asks for an ARTIST.

[bwoodsfinest]

@nicolezly So I see I'm not alone in thinking this. She still looks like a student still. She looks nowhere near the vicinity of ready to be a principal. Not drawing a comparison between the dancers but look at the quality Lopatkina an Zakharova had when they were starting. They bought something that she doesn't and I'm not speaking about technique. She's still weak and should be relegated to lesser roles until she improves. There's no flare with her. No life. Just a robot following orders.

[GiJackson20]

Sorry, but I think Yulia Makhalina is really better than her...

[ErisaRei]

I really don't understand why people like her that much. I find her unpleasant to watch. She has no control over her arms and I don't like her hand positioning either. I like most of the other Russian ballerinas, but she's seems out of control to me.

[deenibeeni]

@ErisaRei I agree. One thing I notice is that her knees hyperextend & that line is not beautiful. It's not something she can really fix. But she definitely looks better now than she used to, a few years ago I thought she looked like Olive Oyl or like a marionette that was all clacky with the joints going the wrong way. She seems to have gotten some of that under control, anyway. In many other ways she's quite lovely.

[loulie1997]

@ErisaRei Oh she still does need a lot of polishing but she's still young, those fouettes make me really uncomfortable but I think she'll make it! :)

[Oneof52girls]

@loulie1997 I'm sorry, but she has been a Principal for more than 5 years, the "polishing" period is over. And ballerinas reach their prime around 23; she's 25! How long do we have to wait?

[loulie1997]

@Oneof52girls Well that's ok, you're entitled to your opinion. I like her but I will admit here and know she is by far not the best principal. But I know she tries or she wouldn't be where she is today! :)

[fi202]

@Oneof52girls Alina Somova was made a principal in Nov 2008, ie less than 3 years ago.

[vaganovafan]

@fi202 that was a big mistake,they first should have chosen mme obratzova,kondurova,tereskina ,vostrotina,and then mme somova,she is not better than they,for the contrary ,maybe she has a pretty face??

[yuanyi1993]

@vaganovafan I think the others are very pretty, too.

[miltonmq]

The evil-ness o Alina’s Odile is in her youthful energy and exuberant charms, whose powers she just begin to understand. For me this is the most genuine Odilles I have seen on stage or on screen, for that matter.

[FerocityQueen]

@miltonmq I wouldn't say the MOST,but certainly amongst the best ones.I always hate it when ballerinas try to project "evilness" in their Odiles by furrowing and grinning like they've come out from a cheap horror movie.ODILE is supposed to make the prince lose his mind about her so she has to be seductive first and foremost!

[balanchinedancer]

@FerocityQueen

I can think of one dancer whose rendering of Odile is equally impressive. Galina Mezentseva’s portrayal as captured on DVD is that of a more mature woman, a woman of aristocratic bearing and mature seductive powers. It is only at the very end when she reveals her true nature, throwing flowers to the face of the Prince, shaking devilishly from laughter – Evil impersified.

[FerocityQueen]

@balanchinedancer Have you seen Great Mezentseva live?I think the DVD recordings of her O/O and Giselle give only a glimpse of the revelation she was at her peak.Almost everyone who knows her only from these videos claims not to understand her huge reputation so I'm pleasantly delighted someone estimates her so much from afar!

[balanchinedancer]

@FerocityQueen

Unfortunately not. By the time I came to appreciate classical ballet other than Balanchine, Galina was no longer dancing. I can only imagine how wonderful she must have been on stage. Her dramatic talents were truly amazing, speaking about Shakespearean passions… Wow!

[TheBalletFan]

Greatest balletina of her generation! Love her!!!

[x3MADdiix3x]

i dont like those fouettes ! that form just looks awful to me the kicking

[marijke0607]

@x3MADdiix3x

that 's what I was gonna say.

it's the one thing she still should work on.

but in general; very, very beautiful.

[Fuzooky]

amazing. 

[sylphida]

i've always liked her Odile, when I saw her in Boston back in 2006 it must have been one of her earlier shows ...

[dancingonmygrave9]

@sylphida My sentiment exactly. She was still searching for her Odette then, but her Boston Odile was mesmerizing – beautiful young animal who enjoys toying with her victim, keeping her sharp claws hidden for the time being.

[XxBallerina4ChristxX]

...she's never really been good at doing fouettes but other than that I was impressed.

[sylphida]

@XxBallerina4ChristxX I like that last bit of choreography after the fouettes better anyway, and she was amazing there :)

[swanodileodette]

Russian dancers are the best!

[everythingforballet]

@swanodileodette

Yes but she not

[TheBalletFan]

@everythingforballet But swanodileodette IS

[portiabelmont1]

I love Alina, but man those were some dodgy fouettes! Just goes to show that even the best make mistakes.

The rest of her performance was stunning though <3 :)

[IllAlwaysDance]

love love love

[miltonmq]

Giselle @ The Kennedy Center with Alina Somova: sold-out and emotionally charged performance to remember. Hope they recorded it for posterity.

[russianballetvideo]

@miltonmq It was recorded, both performances and dress rehearsal.

[EvgenyOneginable]

There had been so many debates around young Somova that I made a trip to DC just to see her perform Giselle. Boy, was she gorgeous! I have never been a ballet lover but this girl made me one.

[MrRight1000]

Alina was unbelievably lovely as Giselle. Perfection with the heart.

[dancingonmygrave9]

DOES ANYONE HAS ALINA'S VIDEOS OF GISELLE? I was totally blown away with her last performance at the Kennedy Center. She is the best Giselle EVER!!!!

[russianballetvideo]

@dancingonmygrave9 Videos of her Giselle exist and she is the best Giselle ever. Since beginning to rehearse with Terekhova around the time of that 2008 performance, Alina's Swan Lake, like every other role, is vastly superior to what she was in 2008 and earlier.

[ballet81895]

Whoever is playing the cymbals during her fouettes is on crack.

But she looks lovely! Much improved since older videos.

[chun25011]

more alina's new videos please!! She's a really pure ballerina!!! I just love her dancing! Recently, I usually drop into youtube and look for her new videos!! SHE"S GREAT!!!

[PreuschoffPerrier]

beautiful ! Greets Inge

[onenumberone]

Safe for missed doubles ( fouettes ), she is technically solid and dramatically effective.

[EvgenyOneginable]

She is more dramatic than Natalie Portman.

[josevtolloto]

very beautiful