From Russia, with love
The iconic Bolshoi Ballet Academy performs a holiday classic in the Crown City
By Tracy Spicer 12/21/2006
It's officially the most wonderful time of the year, but Christmas wouldn't be Christmas for many of us without a few certain holiday essentials.
The season would definitely feel incomplete without watching George Bailey's ups and downs during the annual television broadcast of Frank Capra's “It's a Wonderful Life.”
And it doesn't get much better than Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole crooning holiday standards like “White Christmas,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and “The Christmas Song.”
The same goes for a festive performance of “The Nutcracker,” especially when it's done by a Russian powerhouse like the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. The Pasadena Civic Auditorium welcomes this stellar production with five special performances scheduled today through Sunday.
You don't have to be a ballet aficionado to recognize Tchaikovsky's “The Nutcracker.” While ballets like “Paquita” and “Chopiniana” may not ring any bells, the magical story of a young girl who vividly dreams of her toy nutcracker coming to life, battling a seven-headed mouse king and triumphantly escaping to the Land of Sweets has been a perennial holiday favorite. “The Nutcracker” has seen its fair share of exposure in countless stage performances, films and even amateur school productions throughout the world.
However, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy's rendition isn't what you would normally find at a local recital. These international award-winning young dancers combine impeccable movement, agility and grace to make every pirouette, pas de chat and grand jeté all the more awe-inspiring during well-known whimsical numbers like “Waltz of the Snowflakes” and “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy.”
Led by Academy Rector Marina Leonova since 2002, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy has performed this specific production in Greece, Japan and China. “The Nutcracker” features 55 young performers, ranging in age from 12 to 19, from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Sweden, Japan and Latvia. Many of the performers, including Artem Ovcharenko, Nina
Volkova, Daria Khokhlova, Olga Marchenkova and Maria Mishina, have garnered gold, silver and bronze medals in international dance competitions in Berlin and Sochi, Russia.
Due to a November engagement in Greece, Leonova explained that this year the academy had only one month to prepare for “The Nutcracker” before touring.
“The majority of the dancers are from different grades from the Academy's school,” Leonova said (as translated from Russian by Weekly computer technician David Shtromberg). “The process of choosing the dancers is general, which is based on who's the best. It's a standard process: We audition as many kids as possible and then choose the most talented.”
While the United States claims baseball as its national pastime, Russia has the ballet niche covered.
The Bolshoi Ballet Co. is a major player on the international dance circuit (bolshoi means big), housed in one of the world's most famous theaters of the same name. At the company's core, its academy molds and refines emerging talent, generation after generation.
What began as a dancing school for the Moscow Orphanage in 1773 has evolved into one of the world's leading educational arts institutions, not to mention one of the oldest in Russia.
Students at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy — now officially known in Russia as the Moscow State Academy of Choreography — not only partake in professional dance-training courses, but they also complete regular academic studies during an intense eight-year program.
These young up-and-comers — some as young as 9 — practically eat, breathe and sleep ballet, following the popular “Vaganova Method” of classical ballet teaching, which stresses flawless technique, a strong lower back and graceful arm movements.
Academy alumni have gone on to perform for the Bolshoi Ballet Co., as well as perform with other top-notch international troupes. Famous Bolshoi Ballet Academy graduates include choreographer Igor Moiseyev, prima ballerina Natalia Bessmertnova and Maya Plisetskaya, who is widely considered the greatest ballerina of modern times.
Leonova herself is a Bolshoi Academy alumna, who studied under the well-respected Sofia Golovkina and graduated in 1969. She was then invited to perform with the Bolshoi Ballet and starred in leading roles such as Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake” and Giselle and Mirtha in “Giselle,” two productions the company is known for.
And “The Nutcracker” production in Pasadena will introduce the Bolshoi Ballet Academy to American Christmas festivities during their stay through Monday. Instead of anticipating Santa Claus, many Russian children await the arrival of Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and Snegurochka (Snow Maiden) during the Orthodox Christian Christmas on Jan. 6 and 7. They then celebrate the New Year Jan. 13 and 14.
“For the Orthodox Christian Christmas, the kids will have their school break and will be celebrating the holiday with their parents,” Leonova said. “With great pleasure, we will be enjoying the celebration of your Christmas here in Los Angeles.”
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