Part 2 of 8 One of the Greatest Dancers Ever Andrei Batalov Kirov Mariinsky Ballet Don Quixote Kulik

One of the worst crimes in ballet history is the treatment of Andrei Batalov, particularly by former director, Makhar Vaziev. Andrei Batalov should go down in ballet history as one of the all time great dancers, but after winning Grand Prize at the International Moscow Ballet Competition, his stock declined in value rapidly at his home base, the Kirov Mariinsky Ballet.
This performance is the only video that exists of a full length Don Quixote performed by Andrei Batalov, in what should be his most renowned ballet. Today, when people talk about great Basil dancers, the name of Batalov is unknown and that is a crime. This performance was at the end of 1997. In June, Batalov had won Grand Prize in Moscow and then later in the year, Batalov came with a group of Kirov dancers to the USA in what was billed as Stars of the Kirov. Two of the ballerinas in this performance were on that USA tour, Margarita Kulik, who dances Kitri with Andrei: and Maya Dumchenko, who does the Grand Pas variation in the final act. This performance was done shortly after their return from this USA tour.
In 1995, Batalov danced Basil in what should be a historic video, when Vaganova student, Diana Vishneva, danced Kitri with the Kirov Ballet. A little of her performance was filmed and can be seen on video, but Batalov was ignored and the full ballet was never filmed. After this late 1997 video that you are watching, Batalov rarely danced Don Quixote in full length versions and stopped going on company tours. Artistic director, Makhar Vaziev, unlike his predecessor, Oleg Vinogradov, did not like Batalov, most likely for personal reasons that had nothing to do with Batalov's amazing dancing. He finally went on a Mariinsky tour early this year to Hong Kong and danced one performance of a full length Don Quixote; however it was a closed performance for very poor school children and probably not one person in the audience would have noticed the difference in dancing between Batalov and a 5th year Vaganova student... He did not dance in the other 4 or 5 performances open to the knowledgeable public.
Since I am 100% certain that Andrei Batalov is one of the greatest male dancers ever, I will discuss those worth considering. Prior to 1950, I only see three men worthy, Vaslav Nijinsky, Konstantine Sergeyev and Vakhtang Chabukiani. In the late 1950s, two phenomenal male dancers emerged. As with the case of Sergeyev and Chabukiani, who were both born in 1910, Vladimir Vasiliev and Yuri Soloviev were both born in 1940. These two dancers are probably the two greatest male dancers ever and the dancer from their generation that seems to get most of the acclaim is the defector, Rudolf Nureyev, who was vastly inferior to both of them. Nureyev certainly had a great stage presence, but due to his late start into ballet, his dancing technique was greatly deficient and results in him being the most over rated dancer of our time. Kirov dancers, at the time Nureyev was with the Kirov, all admit that Soloviev was far superior.
I will go forward and obviously in the 1960s emerged Mikhail Baryshnikov and then in the 1980s emerged a great, Irek Mukhamedov. but he was not at the level of Vasliev or Soloviev. Faroukh Ruzimatov is the true great one that emerged in the 1980s with his one of a kind style. The 1990s should have been the emergence of Andrei Batalov, but Vaziev wiped Batalov out from recognition. In the new millennium, many consider Ivan Vasiliev as the one, but he is inferior at a comparable age to Batalov and he is less suited for princely roles than Batalov, who is the same height as Baryshnikov, who had no difficulty with princely roles.
The future greats are impossible to predict, but the Mikahilovsky Ballet has possibly the next great one in a true prince, Viktor Lebedev, who will begin his professional career this week.

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Tags:

• Kirov
• Mariinsky
• Ballet
• Don
• Quixote
• Andrei
• Batalov
• Margarita
• Kulik
• Maya
• Dumchenko

[Brunno948]

Thanks a lot for uploading this jew. I`m very sorry about Andrey. I agree with you althoug I d'ont have your knowlegment; He is just AMAZING, FABULOUS, unique so far as you say; shame what they did to him. I wish him the best for ever.

[Liv2Dance22]

WOW a real horse :D

[opensecret51]

It is such a true plesure to see this great performance!!!!

[opensecret51]

What are the names for the main dancers in this part?

[Bnesque]

I'm madly in love with the street dancer variation, I don't know why.

[pediatrapaola]

also the quality of the film is good,really outstanding surprise.