Suddenly needs a job

Altynai Asylmuratova has been replaced by Ulyana Lopatkina as the Artistic Director of the Vaganova Academy. It's an ugly story that we won't go into here, but you can read about it.

So it seems that Ms. Asylmuratova may need a teaching/coaching job, at least a part-time one. Below is a line from her resume. It could hardly get any better than this. You can bet that we won't be seeing anything remotely like this from ABT's lady mazurka crew this November although we can expect to be mesmerized by the Prelude sylph on Saturday.

 

Comments

[Kit]

I just read about this on Ballet Alert. When I first saw the thread title there I gave a disbelieving laugh. What a farce.

[Haglund]

Agree. But this is what happens when you have ballet controlled by people who don't care about it and who consider it a political tool instead of a national treasure. I don't see Tsiskaridze trying to do anything other than undermine everything that Lopatkina tries to do. The beautiful Vaganova style is in danger of disappearing if the academy is run by him. It will be up to the rest of the world to preserve it.

[angelica]

Hi Haglund, Google Translate gave me a poor translation, but I will try again to piece it together. This is just to say that I recall a snippet from a video clip somewhere in which Ms. Asylmuratova is speaking harshly and disparagingly of the then graduating class of the Vaganova Academy, calling the dancers "lazy" and saying they are "like children." Ouch.

[Haglund]

Angelica, I'm not familiar with that video clip. I'd be curious to know who was in that class and where they are now.

[angelica]

I tried to find the clip, Haglund, but I couldn't. There was one clip on YouTube in which Ms. A spoke of all the flaws and mistakes that she saw in the graduation performance, and added that although she is unhappy about the flaws and mistakes, they are to be expected because they are children. Then she said that she loves the children and never singles anyone out as her favorite because she wants them to have the same opportunities to develop. In the one I'm thinking of she actually said they were "lazy," but I can't find that.