Added: 4 years ago
From: irachika
Views: 289,843
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (255)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • what's with the guy at the beginning? when he prepares for pirouette he isn't even in fourth...it's like a weird in between position

  • Uliana is a unique ballerina because she VISUALIZES THE MUSIC. Her perfect technique and art of performing a character on stage serve that chief goal. Her poses, lines, accents reveal drama implied in the subtle turns of the tune. The music is not a mere accompaniment to her beautiful movements nor her dance is a common illustration to the music. Uliana is the MUSIC itself.

  • Her arms are beautiful but her face looks like she has suffered a lot. Threre's something almost sad in her dancing. Exquisite technique, though.

  • Even though I don't like the break in the music after the foutees, I think they're both great. I love how she moves her arms when she's lifted at the end.

  • Great!

  • my favorite swan queen. she effortlessly pulls off both parts equally amazing. i also like the male in this. fouettes, amazing.

  • perfection!! by far my favourite swan queen <333

  • yes because there are true athletes but have to pretend they're not

  • this is my favorite black swan! looks so effortless and amazing!!!

  • She seems to put alot of focus in her arms. I like that. alot of people seem to think that ballets all about legs.

  • uliana lopatkina is the one who makes me love swan lake

  • @garnetpasion I saw her live in swan lake the other day. She is spectacular, right? beautiful. She truly is amazing.

  • Out of all the Swan Lakes I've collected on DVD, this one (Decca 2007) is my favorite, both because of the excellent quality of the video and because of Lopatkina's magnificence.

  • Uliana is my favourite ballerina, she is great, he will be in the history of world's ballet.

  • Can anyone explain why people get really annoyed when a woman's leg is bent during an arabesque but men always have their legs bent?

  • One of the only art forms, some of the only artists, with the ability to bring me to tears. Just magnificent.

  • I love the combination of precision yet reckless abandon at 6:12-6:19

  • Out of all the Odile variations I've seen love her! She is always spot on with the music and as a musician I am very keen to that aspect. I doesn't matter how good you are, dancer or musician, if you can't keep up to the music, your performance will seem kind of...off?

  • Such long limbs for a ballerina. She's very tall, apparently 175cm.

  • where can i watch the whole of this???

  • nobody dances black swan as gorgeous as zakharova anyways ;)

  • i wonder why the queen never dances? oh and i cant wait to see lopatkina live XD

  • @EvanescenceROCKSS Because it is a mime role only, always was. It's usually done by 'retired' (ie old!) ballerinas. Can I come with you to see Lopatkina?!! Lucky you, have a great night. lol

  • @MrKLT1945 lol yh sure i can take a suitcase in with me with u rolled up tight. lol! but yea, I'm sure it will be superb: she is amazing! But also i always wondered - if the prince knows about rothbart, then why doesn't he find it strange that rothbart is there? I mean, and all of a sudden "odette" feels as though rothbart is her dad. I never understood why he is in the palace scene. any ideas?

  • Lopatkina, Murphy... yeah, but what about Korsuntsev? He's a brilliant dancer. I had the honour of watching him in "Swan Lake" with Viktoria Tereshkina.

    "Swan Lake", or indeed any other ballet, is not all about the female role!

  • those fouettes were almost perfectly executed! she and gillian absolutely BLOW MY MIND. this makes me want to dance again:(

  • the audience loves her! and she loves the audience back, so beautiful! :)

  • Her arms are amazing!

  • i love both gillian murphy AND uliana lopatkina! uliana is so graceful and beautiful as odett AND SO IS GILLIAN, gillian is so seductive and sexy as odile AND SO IS ULIANA! so stop judging them!

  • so far, she's the only person who's really made me believe that her arms could be wings...

  • @sugarplumcherry6 I agree!!! I <3 Ulyana. But Maya Plisetskaya's Dying Swan...is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. She is truly a swan woman!

  • @sugarplumcherry6 i definitely agree. they worked for her opposed to against her. as if they were a part of her self.

  • she's very good, and plenty elegant, but not the best swan queen I've seen, nor the most graceful. And when she's executing the fouette turns, the music speeds up so much so suddenly that it makes it appear as though she can't keep up.

  • I feel people like Gillian more because of how the choreography fit more with the music, also in Gillian's version the music is going faster which allows it to feel more seductive.

  • She is just só graceful! Absolutely the best swan I've ever seen!

  • We met her also in Toronto, and chatted for about 15-20 min, absolutely amazing person. After seeing her outstanding performance on the stage, we couldn't believe when we saw her outside in the "real world" and she stopped to give us the autograph! I think that she is a real celebrity, someone who has a great work and performance behind her plus stays normal person, not like these new "stars" with 15min of fame...

  • Went to see this performance yesterday! it was absolutely amazing! I have no words. I actually got the chance to meet Uliana Lopatkina in person, she gave me her autograph and we talked. She is so sweet!

  • I just saw Uliana Lopatkina in this role and it was so amazing. She's a wonderful dancer and even though I've watched a myriad videos of her dancing, when she came out on stage and danced I was in complete awe as though it were the first time I saw her dance anything. She's absolutely wonderful.

  • Alina Somova is directly descended from Lopatkina.

    If you don't understand sorry.

  • She is absolutely amazing. She's ridiculously famous in Russia and the world over. They treat ballerinas like rockstars over there. I feel like she has the perfect technique, but she's interesting to watch because she puts such personality and energy into her performances!! I love American ballet too, but I can definitely tell Russian ballerinas from the others. They train with military discipline and are really intense.

  • Her legs, they are so looong! They are endless O.O

  • Lopatkina never had an eating disorder. She was always VERY thin, with long lines. She was one of the few girls at Vaganova who never used laxatives. She ate bread, everything. She is just very tall and has very thin bones, the same as her mum. If you look at her in real life, she has enough flesh - look at the smooth face! It is the natural predisposition to be thin. For a woman to be healthy, she need to be at least 45 kg in weight. In Lopatkina, despite thinness, there is at least 51 kg

  • Amazing to watch, but, know I'm being a bit thick, can someone tell me the difference between a fouette and a pirouette? Know it's probably fairly obvious, but I don't know that much about ballet, so a bit of clarification would be hugely appreciated.

  • @LJC82SR a pirouette is basically a full turn en pointe (or on the toe or ball of the foot) and a fouette is a whipping movement of the raised leg it usually accompanies a pirouette.

  • I love the length of her arms. they show such elegance

  • @rainbow4life68 Classy!

  • i can't take my eyes off her...she is perfect!!!

  • Her lines are so gorgeous, I think taller dancers tend to move more slowly and thus more gracefully, whereas shorter ones tend to be faster. Her port de bras and characterization are phenominal, I don't see Lopatkina, I see Odile, Paquita or Esmerelda- I think that is the greatest asset to a ballerina.

    Somova is still very young though, so I think she will still mature artistically, as she was so quickly pushed up the ranks of the Kirov and IMHO didn't get time to develop.

  • Her lines are so gorgeous, I think taller dancers tend to move more slowly and thus more gracefully, whereas shorter ones tend to be faster. Her port de bras and characterization are phenominal, I don't see Lopatkina, I see Odile, Paquita or Esmerelda- I think that is the greatest asset to a ballerina.

    Somova is still very young though, so I think she will still mature artistically, as she was so quickly pushed up the ranks of the Kirov and IMHO didn't get time to develop.

  • Those fuettes... <33333

  • She's perfect! Lopatikina is the next Pavlova!

  • I was a gymnast but had many friends that were ballerinas and I think that ballerinas do not get near the respect they deserve. They are truly elite athletes with amazing talents, I don't think people realize how incredibly difficult a performance like this would be for anyone other than someone HIGHLY trained and talented! Much respect to all the ballerinas out there!

  • @kplsu It's true! Ballet is SO hard. My feet, knees, and mind couldn't take it. The fact that these women dance every single day and perform to such a high level is mind-boggling. I adore all professional ballerinas for having the guts to stick to it. My only hope is that they're healthy...ballet is lovely, but it caused a 5-year long eating disorder for me and many others I know personally. I wish all of them well and I will continue watching with awe and excitement!

  • @kplsu: Any persons knowing my past are floored when they find out I love ballet and that's because when I cleaned my act up and got to college some classes I took brought me near the dance studios where I was able to watch the ballet dancers in my spare time and I came to see how incredibly athletic and strong the dancers HAVE to be AND the grace they have to have to perform what they do ON THEIR TOES!

    If I hadn't screwed my life up when I was young I so wish I could''ve gone into ballet.

  • @kplsu finally someone with the same opinion like me!! :)

  • @kplsu your comment is funny... i always thought about gymnasts as kind of... artistic, talented, hard-working - but not quite in the field that would allow them to blossom to the fullest... And ballet dancers are just in that field.

  • sorry to be off topic, but its so nice to see an actual real professional ballet dancer through youtube! no offense, but if you try to learn about ballet through hollywood - you will be lost lol, like i was. love Lopatkina!!!

  • seriously i can't understan how mariinksy can have someone like lopatkina, who's not only a amazing dancer but also an amazing actress, and then go and hire somova who's nothing but a gymnast

  • @tominsugarland

    I can't believe that they share the same rank.

  • Is being able to see the ribs on the dancers normal for ballerinas? Or do the have to be that light for the lifts?

  • Don´t mean to be disrespectful to the arts, but this reminds me of the tom and jerry episodes... i think it´s the music and also kinda how they move :)

  • pretty sure you only think Alina Somova is better because she has higher extensions, and Gillian Murphy because of her triple fouettes . . . . if its character role, and technique your after . . . its infront of you on the screen.

  • @ToodyayDANCER4Ever MURPHY IS A GOOD TECHNYCIAN ,BUT HAS OWFUL ARMS IF COMPARED ALSO TO A SIMPLY MARIINSKY CORPS GIRL.VAGANOVA ACCADEMY IS STILL THE BETTER PLACE TO BECAME A SWAN.SOMOVA RECENTLY IMPROVED A LOT ,BUT COLD MAJESTIC OF LOPATKINA....

  • Comment removed

  • yes, I love both. Gillian and Lopatkina

  • Comment removed

  • What's with the Mongol lord Rothbart?

  • @saralissa3991 I NEVER UNDRESTOOD WHY LORD ROTHBART IS ALLOWED TO ENTER TO THE BALL DRESSED LIKE THIS.

  • @pediatrapaola BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA! Ahhhh. That made my day.

  • @Behk l started watching ballet since l was a boy of 16 ,now l am 56 and really never undrestood that matter,one other matter l never undrestood is how raymonda can prefears the boring jean de brienne to the fiery saracin.boh!! ballet misteries

  • boy, she deserves a better partner

  • @timmitthefrog Lopatkina's 5'10", so she's pretty limited in choice when it comes to partners XD

  • @GawkyBallerina oh really? didn't know that! i only knew that zakharova and bussell are pretty tall. good to know though, people always told me i'd be too tall to become a pro! :)

  • @Juventina1005 Haha yeah, It makes me feel better too. I'm 5'9", so it's great to see someone as tall as Lopatkina dance so beautifully.

  • Are you for real, she is one of the best Odette - Odiles I've ever seen in my entire life!!

    Viva Lopatkina!!!

    Viva Volochkova!!!

  • My favorite Act :)) Prince Seigfred and Odille in Pas de deux ♥♥♥

  • If I could see this live I would be one happy girl. Swan Lake is such a marathon, all these variations and there is still the next acts to come. I would be exhausted after the Black Swan dances.

  • strongly recommend watching marianela nunez do this

  • LOL! why does the king look so scary??

  • @neerod87

    That's Rothbart in human form..that dirty, low-down, no good swindler, he's got alot of guts showing himself at the palace...

  • @neerod87 he's no king. he's an evil magician

    she made her daughter (odille) look like odette

  • beautiful lines! great acting too

  • yeah i dont rele like gillian murphy tht much ....

  • her dancing is sublime

  • UGH why cant I find a video where the black swan actually does 32!!!!!!!!!

  • that guy has awesome legs! so long!! and lopatkina is a genius as always

  • By the way, I didn't realise that "Geronimo" was in this ballet. Perhaps he was one of Pyotr Ilyich's drinking buddies?

  • I am fairly new to ballet, but I find Swan Lake intruiging, especially this scene, ie. Prince is fooled into thinking that the girl in black is the same as the girl in white he met the night before.Really? well, I suppose they did only have candles in those days. As soon as he says he will marry the girl in black she immediately destroys the flowers, chucks them in his face and buggers off. Where I come from, this is called a "Cunts Trick". After all,flowers are bloody expensive.

  • @pydo7 in the story odile(black) was transformed by her wizard father to look exactly like odette(white) she only wears black in the ballet to show the audience that it's acually someone evil and not gentle like odette at all

  • @LilBalletDancerGirl So, the Wizard makes his daughter look like Odette does he? Perhaps he could also make my missus look like her. He would have to be one hell of a Wizard though.

  • I do not like why you have to put down other great ballerinas to sell the ballerina you prefer. Leave Svetlana Zakharova alone.

  • I love how she does not overpower her fouettes. A perfect display of effortless control.

  • I like Uliana Lopatkina and Gillian Murphy in Swan Lake much better than Svetlana Zakharova. Svetlana cannot act or have enough artistry in her dancing like they do!

  • best since pliesetskaya! Lopatkina owns this role!

  • Best port de bras out there.

  • That wasnt 32 it was 25......

  • @idinakristinwicked it's 32 counts musically wise. its not meant to be taken literally.

  • @wigglebells

    uh actually the first black swan to perform the 32 fouette count did 32 of them not just 32 musically wise but 32 being able to be counted

  • @idinakristinwicked oh yea...and didn't she do them to her LEFT SIDE? but the following ballerina's couldn't master that feat so they switched it to the right.

  • @idinakristinwicked well today you don't do 32 because many ballerinas don't do simple fouettes but double as you can see in this video. but you're right, they used to do 32.

  • I dont have a preference. Frankly if they have the skill to dance so beautifully then I have to give them credit for it.

  • I dont have a preference. Frankly if they have the skill to dance so beautifully then I have to give them credit for it.

  • When a dancer gets to this level I can only but admire them they all do things brilliantly in their own way sure I have my favourites but who am I to pass judgement. Thanks for posting this video!

  • her and Sarah Lamp have the best port de bras I have ever seen.

  • i don' t like her fouettes.They seems like to be very heavy.she throws her foot side and she doesn't strech her knee..Nina ananiashvili and Tamara Rojo have the best fouettes ever!!!!

  • Agree with you - they looks heavy enougth, whatever enybody says... )) Need more work, much more... and then they would be bette r:)))

  • It's mean you are envy.

  • i love uliana soo much i love her grace and confidence on stage especially after what she had went through with her ankle and when she had to stop for 2 yrs...its as if she never got hurt..and lets not forget that shes just plain GORGEOUS =) i wish i looked like her

  • Lopatikina is my favorit swan EVER!!!!!! she's amaizing!! so confident,and pretty!!

    she dances so perfetc!! the fouettes are absoluty amaizng!!

  • i agree with the fouettes some of the neatest ive seen among russian ballerinas

  • The classic 32 fouettes... 5:08  I love how most of Tchaikovsky's most famous ballets were the ones he thought were the worst... Personally, I prefer Irina Dvorovenko though...

  • i like irina as a giselle way more then i liked her black swan but yes she's well also. I just think Uliana has that confident touch

  • I love how confident and mischevious Lopatkina makes Odile.

    Also, beautiful costumes!

  • Beautiful fouetté turns and amazing dancers!

  • I read that she has some grapefruit juice for breakfast, often skips lunch, and then has a biscuit and some Russian kefir for dinner. I can't imagine how she is living on such a diet, if it is true?

  • i'm pretty sure that's what she "keeps down" if you know what i mean. LOVE lopatkina

  • Yes, I read that too, she said that in an interview with the Sunday Times. She must be eating more that that, though; she wouldn't be able to dance on such a diet!

  • I don't understand why people feel the need to prefer one dancer to another. I love Uliana Lopatkina AND Gillian Murphy!

  • i agree with you but i personally dislike alina somova as a classical dancer a GREAT deal

  • @jankoraven Agreed!

  • Que maravilla de xica, es fantastica!!!

  • I bought the DVD and was very excited .. but when I watched it I was a bit disapointed; the original Kirov style is still there, but it seems the magic has gone away.. but maybe it's just me :-) Anyway, they will perform next week in Amsterdam and I will see Don Quichotte and the Sleeping Beauty .. I hope 'the magic of the Kirov ballet' will be there again.

  • Wow, fouettés. Blonde moment. =/

  • I wasn't crazy about the orchestral arrangement...or the fourttés...and thought it was tacky how the music stoped right after that..but other than that it was very good.

  • I don't understand why all these idiots keep saying they prefer Gillian Murphy and Alina Somova to actual dancers.

  • @lashenova It's because Gillian Murphy and Alina Somova is obviously better than Uliana in this role!!!!!! you know!? Uliana is not outstanding here......

  • @lashenova

    Точно!!!

  • she's wonderful. :)

  • Gorgeous!!! She really touches my heart...

  • at 1:25 there is a really bad 4th position

    but i liked the dance very much =]

  • It's a 2nd position turn, not 4th.

  • I liked the girls dancing better than the guy but it was good.

  • She really channels the music through her dancing...and that is so rare these days. And I love her control and precision - she doesn't sacrifice one for the other. Truly spectacular!

  • Ms Lopatkina is one of the tallest prima ballerinas in the world, so keeping the right (for all ballerinas) weight, she looks much thinner than other shorter dancers. If she didn't there would be very few Zigfrieds to lift her as effortlessly as now. ..

  • exactly. she's 5 foot 9

  • Skinny is skinny. It doesn't matter how tall you are or if you are only skinny so other people can lift you.

  • Yes me too, i exagerated........., of course she's a good dancer, and she has beautiful arms.........but, for the feet and legs, i prefer a dancer like zevtlana zakharova, she'more special for me..

  • now i see:) we just prefer different styles, you like more techical, athletic type Guillem, Zakharova. Lopatkina is more "seen" in Odette's part

  • Yes, i must agree..i'm fan of Guillem..!

  • it's not SHE, it's Ms Lopatkina, first

    it's technique, not technic

    i'll give you a linguistic prompt: Your parents conceived you technically out of bad technique

  • I think "She" is ok, even if Mm".." is a star or whatever....and for "technic"..sorry but english is not my first langage..so be cool..Your point is not very interesting...and daesn' change my opinion...

  • Beg your pardon for my rude comment

    Who, in your opinion, has good placement and technique in this role?

  • all are amazing dancers.... i tried the fouettes(not on pointe) but i couldnt do it flat.... i got dizzy

  • I knooow! I tried to do two and damn near fell on my ass

  • wow. even though it was slow in the beginning of her fouettes, she managed to hold on and keep going.

  • oh my gosh that man's butt <3

  • Why is everybody fighting over who is the better dancer?! If you dance you'll see the beauty in both of them - the reason there are more than just one set of company dancers in the world is for there to be variation! If you think one thing is more difficult, ok, however they are both extremely talented dancers and unless you consider youself on their niveau, stop judging and start appreciating!

  • How can people even compare this interpretation with that of Gillian Murphy?

    Uliana Lopatkina is just so more in control, look at those lines, how fluid she is, her port de bras this is nothing Madame Murphy can match. Honestly and personally I prefer less turns, but cleaner movements. These fouttées are so much better, so well controlled, perfectly balanced, arms are wonderful. Nothing like what Gillian Murphy does in the video here on youtube.

  • black swan is the hardest variation. thats why its rare for people to do it in yagp... its insane. she did an amazing job

  • oh c'mon, i don't think it's even fair to compare lopatkina with murhy. lopatkina is an assoluta, and murphy, i'm sorry, there are so many better dnacers than her.

  • you try doing 32 fouettes on pointe shoes!!! It's harder than it looks!!

  • yeah....someone doesn't know their ballet

  • a double pirouette en dehors followed by an attitude piroute finished with an attitude balance.. is there any variation more difficult than this one?? I dont think so!!

  • maisumnomundo, i agree. watch this version, the girl is crazy talented. double pirouette en dehors followed by a tripple attitude pirouette.

  • es horrible el trabajo del tipo!! no hay empeines ni rotacion ni suspension!

  • Comment removed

  • She's magnificent, like pliesetskaya

  • I must not count the fouettes correctly because evrytime I attempt to count 32 fouettes I end up counting 25 or something

  • i think you are counting the whips of her leg, not the actual turn. they mean complete rotation of the body.

  • Shes amazing Dancer. And whats about tourns is also amazing and totally musical. Her hands is also amazing what is important in dance. EVERYONE MUST KNOW THAT BALLET IS NOT HOW MANY TOURS YOU WILL DID OR PIROUETTE BALLET IS A SPIRIT AND CHARACKTER. ITS IPORTANT AND AMAZING AND NOT TOURNS.

  • her technique is lacking? Lopatkina has technique that does not make a spectacle of itself. Her characterization is at the forefront, as it should be. That is a ballerina, not a rhytmic-gymnast in pointe-shoes.

  • Her interpretation is great, she plays Odille with such a refined bitchiness ! Her leg though in the fouettees is not good and I don't like neither when the music stops right after them, it interrupts the flow. In the fouettees Pietragalla is my reference, she is the only one who does them with a magnificent steadiness, unlike almost every other dancers who tends to look unsteady and sloppy.

  • i love her arms, but definitely not her legs..

  • she's a very beautiful dancer, her interpretation of odile is perfect! but unfortunately she's not the best turner in the world... but of course still amazing!

    about him... he's a good dancer, that's for sure, but for some reason he does not amaze me. but his technique is brilliant!

  • totally agree. that's terrible when the music stops

  • i don't like when the music stops after fouettes. and her fouettes are good but her leg is under 90º

  • umm.. i don't like him :S

    she is amazing but i prefer gillian murphy

  • he's not that bad. but yes, i prefer Gillian too. she is definitely a swan. =D

  • this guy looks perfect!

    and lopatkina have amazing arms.she is so beautiful! i love her!

  • I felt uneasy with the orchestration, it was somewhat different from other versions... and I didn't like how they stopped the music after the fouettes, it cut too much the scene. Uliana=excelency. I love her dancing.

  • I can't stop watching her arms... they're so long that when they move it seems sort of surreal. xD