Svetlana Zakharova Daria Pavlenko in Class Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet

In 1995, a 16 year old student from the Kiev, Ukraine ballet school, known as Kiev Choreographic School, entered the Vaganova Prix ballet competition. First prize went to Vaganova graduating student, Maya Dumchenko. Second prize went to the youngest prize winner,Svetlana Zakharova and to another Vaganova graduating student, Alisa Sokolova.
Dumchenko got off to a great start in her professional career at the Kirov, now Mariinsky, but her certainty as a principal ballerina has never happened and is not likely to happen, having been stuck in first soloist level for what might seem to her as eternity.
Alisa Sokolova stood at the barre in Ludmila Kovaleva's class with Diana Vishneva next to her. Sokolova was an exceptionally talented ballerina with the definite talent to become a principal ballerina, but the new director of the Kirov Ballet, Makhar Vaziev, did not take a liking to Sokolova and what should have been a brilliant career as a famous principal ballerina, has resulted in16 years in the Mariinsky Kirov Ballet corpse ( the correct word is corps, but she probably felt like a corpse) de ballet. Of interest, the 3rd best student in Sokolova's class, behind Vishneva and Sokolova, was Sofia Gumerova, who Vaziev gave solo and principal roles to immediately out of school. Like Dumchenko, Gumerova has been a first soloist for many years. It is interesting to contrast the careers of Sokolova and Gumerova. Vaziev liked Gumerova and she has danced Odette/Odile and Nikiya around the world. Vaziev did not like Sokolova and she spent years in obscurity, now emerging as one of their best character dancers, for a dancer who should have been a star and not a character dancer, after many years as an invisible corpse (corps) de ballet girl.
Most ballet fans have heard of Svetlana Zakharova and many claim she is their favorite ballerina. After the Vaganova Prix, Zakharova was invited to skip her 7th year and enter the graduating class, graduating at age 17. One year later, 18 year old , Zakharova, danced the role of Giselle in London, opposite Igor Zelensky as Albrecht, to rave reviews from famous London critic, Clement Crisp. She later joined the Bolshoi Ballet, being a principal from the beginning.
Daria Pavlenko entered the Kirov Ballet in the same year that Zakharova entered. She has been a principal since 2002.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Zakharova
• Pavlenko
• Dumchenko
• Sokolova
• Vishneva
• Gumerova
• Kovaleva
• Kiev
• Ukraine
• Choreographic
• School
• Vaganova
• Academy
• Russian
• Ballet
• Kirov
• Mariinsky
• Bolshoi
• Vaziev

[bowieballet393]

Could you post some footage of the Vishneva/Sokolova exam?

[russianballetvideo]

@bowieballet393 Which year's class and since I am in Russia now, the videos are far from me for several months.

[elenaratelimit]

Thank you! Always love to see the class videos :)

[bonnieb118]

I was wondering where Svetlana was ... and then I realized the one that's PERFECT is her :)

[Ksanthipa]

Spasibo za video. kak velikolepno oni ispolnyayut vse uprazhneniya.,,. spasibo ogromnoe...

[TheHerothief]

what's with the description? being a first soloist is a very respected and hard to accheive position. and what's wrong about being in the corps?? if i were a professional ballerina anywhere, in any company, in any position, i would be offended by the use of the word corpse. not everyone can be a primma ballerina... if that were the case, there wouldn't be any companys, just one man/woman shows. ballet may have it's stars, watching a ballet it's about so much more than that!

[KiliniLove]

Who is sveltana an how old is she??

[MsEe17]

If you only knew how much they really work you would be amazed! Us dancers are told to make it look easy but people take advantage of that and insult us about it. " Ballet isn't a sport, it's easy!" ha in a million years! ballet is so beutiful and i am really luving this video1 :)

[EmmaLoves2Dance]

woow! that is soooo hard, and they just do it like it's nothing!

[2xklopwieisdaar]

I love Svetlana Zakharova but if you look at her grand battements (0:32) you can see that she is pushing her leg higher with her hips. my teacher told me she did that to and now she is teaching amateurs because she got injured. It's not good to do that. Never force your body to be flexible.

[jennyluvballet]

thank you so much for the amazing video & the intersting description!!! 

[breannaisafreak]

such beautiful dancers!!

[Akonkagva]

Please spell the capital city without the article!