Ana Turazashvili – Landgraf on Dance

14. September 2026

Legendary

“Swan Lake”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
September 7 and 8, 2026 (Historic Stage)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

The Bolshoi Ballet is legendary for its Swan Lake. The first performance took place in 1877, almost one hundred and fifty years ago. This September, the swans danced for the 1,868th time, which translates to roughly thirteen Swan Lakes per year. Since 2001, the company has performed Yuri Grigorovich’s version, which includes scenes by Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, and Alexander Gorsky.

Grigorovich’s Swan Lake is grand. Its concepts and ideals represent the highest achievements of humanity and culture—dignity, decorum, grace, love, and unmatched beauty—and it shows how easily human nature can be led awry. Compared to Vladimir Bourmeister’s Swan Lake at the Stanislavsky Theatre, a ballet that reveals the protagonists’ inner life like none I’ve seen so far, Grigorovich portrays them as emblematic figures in an allegory, the sad ending of which Tchaikovsky’s prologue forebodes.

For the first act, Simon Virsaladze designed a Gothic castle of majestic height. Its trombone players are positioned in mirror image and wear partly red livery that conveys the court’s harmonious order. The entrance of twelve couples, along the line of which Prince Siegfried jetés in, infuses the stage with dynamism. Soaring high, he combines prowess with elegance. The lakeside to which Rothbart (“The Evil Genius”) directs him like a puppeteer is lit by gray moonlight and streaked with wisps of cloud. From a rock at he rear, the Evil Genius oversees his spell. Like a yin-yang symbol, his emblem, a curtain in the shape of a coat of arms, shows white and black swans opposite one another. It has a vicious look and, when lowered, hides the Evil Genius’s machinations or serves as a screen for the Prince’s visions. For Act II’s ball, the retinue swapped their red garments for turquoise. The non-dancing court society wore medieval-ish robes, including pageboy wigs for the men (costumes also by Virsaladze). My favorite part of the outfit was the Russian delegation’s pearl hair accessories.

On September 7th, Darina Moseyeva’s Odette was a fragile swan woman who seemed to live on the air she breathed. A highly sensitive creature, Dmitry Vyskubenko’s Prince treated her with utmost care. Moseyeva immersed herself so deeply into the role that she really seemed to transform into a bird-human chimera. Unfortunately, for undisclosed reasons, she didn’t dance in the second act, and Yaroslava Kuprina replaced her after a prolonged break and an announcement. Kuprina’s Odile was a perfect masquerade of wickedness—sharp and calculating, yet alluring. Presumably having rehearsed all day for her actual Swan Lake on the evening after next, Kuprina ran out of steam during the fouetées but regained her energy in the final scene at the lakeside. She was met with intense applause at the curtain calls, and the Vietnamese delegation that attended the performance in the Imperial Box expressed its appreciation with an announcement and a flower basket for the company.
Vysubenko was an impeccable partner throughout. His entrechats were stunningly filigree, and in the vision scene, his port de bras turned the air velvety.

September 8th’s Odette (Arina Denisova) and her Prince (Makhar Mikhalkin) were mesmerizing in their adagio pas de deux. It touched the soul in a way that cannot be grasped intellectually. Denisova’s Odette was calmer than Moseyeva’s and most aflutter when the Prince swore his love. Her sparkling Odile’s arms undulated like a snake; her gaze was compelling and her smile sure of victory. Of Mikhalkin’s solos, I especially admired his picture-book manège of tours en l’air.
Egor Gerashchenko’s Evil Genius darted along the line of his black swans like Spartacus; on the following evening, Igor Tsvirko danced the role, spreading menacing vibes far into the auditorium.

Akib Anvar’s jester jumped and capered fabulously, his tours, split jumps, and daredevil combinations propelling the energy at the right moments like an engine. Of the Prince’s two friends, Kristina Petrova and Margarita Shrayner danced more polished than Antonina Chapkina and Elizaveta Kruteleva. However, the latter had to deal with the quick tempo that Alexey Bogorad set at the conductor’s podium (Pavel Sorokin’s tempo on the previous evening was more moderate). At times, he also hastened the swans.

Of the brides-to-be, Ana Turazashvili’s was a self-assured, top-notch Hungarian bride who paid remarkable attention to every detail of her variation. Elizaveta Gaponenko, by comparison, made me think of Raymonda. Both Russian brides (Antonina Chapkina and Maria Konkova) were warm and giving, their arms as soft as the most gentle breeze. The Spanish brides (Anastasia Smirnova and Kristina Petrova) glided across the stage with space consuming steps, which showed off their full, flowing skirts. The Neapolitan dance led by Valeria Bespalova was vivacious, whereas on the following evening, Sofia Maimula and her Neapolitan companions hurried to keep up with Bogorad’s brisk pace. Taisia Konovalova’s Polish bride’s male entourage faced the same challenge. On the previous evening, Olga Marchenkova and her men were unremarkable.

Nelli Kobakhidze and Anastasia Meskova portrayed the Princess-Mother; Alexey Loparevich and Alexander Fadeyechev played the Prince’s tutor; Nikita Elikarov was the Master of Ceremonies at both performances.
The swan corps moved with impeccable precision and grace. Watching its beautiful patterns felt like a gift.

Link:		Website of the Bolshoi Theatre
Photos:	1.	Ensemble, “Swan Lake” by Yuri Grigorovich, Bolshoi Ballet 2026 © Bolshoi Theatre/Natalia Voronova
	2.	Darina Moseyeva (Odette), “Swan Lake” by Yuri Grigorovich, Bolshoi Ballet 2026 © Bolshoi Theatre/Damir Yusupov
	3.	Arina Denisova (Odile), “Swan Lake” by Yuri Grigorovich, Bolshoi Ballet 2026 © Bolshoi Theatre/Mikhail Logvinov
	4.	Dmitry Vyskubenko (Prince Siegfried) and ensemble, “Swan Lake” by Yuri Grigorovich, Bolshoi Ballet 2026 © Bolshoi Theatre/Elena Fetisova
	5.	Makhar Mikhalkin (Prince Siegfried), “Swan Lake” by Yuri Grigorovich, Bolshoi Ballet 2026 © Bolshoi Theatre/Pavel Rychkov
	6.	Ensemble, “Swan Lake” by Yuri Grigorovich, Bolshoi Ballet 2026 © Bolshoi Theatre/Mikhail Logvinov
	7.	Ensemble, “Swan Lake” by Yuri Grigorovich, Bolshoi Ballet 2026 © Bolshoi Theatre/Natalia Voronova
Editing:		Kayla Kauffman

10. July 202615. July 2026

Stellar

XV International Ballet Competition—Laureates’ Gala
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
July 05, 2026 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

After three rounds of competition in ten days, the XV International Ballet Competition’s jury awarded medals, certificates, and diplomas to 50 of 131 contestants. Due to the high standards, discussions to determine the laureates continued late into the night after the final round. A laureates’ gala concert concluded the competition.

Of the seven gold medals, three were awarded to competitors from the USA and the Republic of Korea and one to a Japanese dancer. Russian dancers received seventeen prizes, Chinese six, and Mongolians four. Western Europe wasn’t represented, and only a few dancers from Central Europe scored: the Swede Auguste Marmus (bronze medal men, duet), coryphée and, as of late, Kammertänzer of the Hungarian National Ballet, the Serb Jana Zimonjic (bronze medal women, solo), and the Slovene Vid Vogrin (silver medal boys, duet). What mattered, though, wasn’t nationality but talent. Continue reading “Stellar”

4. July 202610. July 2026

“It is necessary to notice talent and to help it.”

XV International Ballet Competition
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
June 25–July 05, 2026 (live streams)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

Last week, the International Ballet Competition kicked off in Moscow for the fifteenth time since its foundation in 1969. This year, it is dedicated to Yuri Grigorovich (1927–2025), the competition’s artistic director and permanent chairman of the jury for more than half a century. His Legend of Love, performed by the Mariinsky Ballet, opened the competition.

Held every four years, the International Ballet Competition is compared to an Olympic contest in which participation is an honor. This year, a record 362 dancers from thirty-five countries applied, of whom 131 were invited to Moscow. They compete in two age categories—the junior group, ages 15-19 years, and the senior group, ages 20-27 years (many of whom are leading members of a company)—each divided into solo performances and duets. Laureates will emerge from Continue reading ““It is necessary to notice talent and to help it.””

10. November 202312. February 2026

Style Over Substance

“Modanse”
Svetlana Zakharova Evening/MuzArts
Bolshoi Theatre (Historic Stage)
Moscow, Russia
October 31, 2023

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2023 by Ilona Landgraf

The title “Modanse” sounds like an à la mode ballet – classy, extravagant, and fashionable. It belongs to a double bill featuring the Bolshoi Ballet’s prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova. The external production includes dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet’s roster, and since 2019 has guested regularly on the Bolshoi Theatre’s stage and abroad.

As a seasoned artist, Zakharova must have an instinct about what suits her on stage. Hence I’m flabbergasted that she has kept Mauro Bigonzetti’s “Come un respiro” (“Like a Breath”) in the program. The 2009 creation, of which Zakharova acquired a reworked version, is ill-suited to make her and her co-dancers (among them Anastasia Stashkevich, Ana Turazashvili, Mikhail Lobukhin, Vyacheslav Lopatin, and Denis Savin) look good. Moreover, its succession of bland solos, pas de deux, and group dances fails to excite. Continue reading “Style Over Substance”

10. June 202311. June 2023

Invincible

“The Flames of Paris”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre (New Stage)
Moscow, Russia
June 04, 2023 (matinee)

“A highly unlikely work” – commented the late Clement Crisp in his Financial Times review about “The Flames of Paris”, which the Bolshoi Ballet performed at the Royal Opera House as part of their 2016 London tour. He argued that the dramatic scheme was papery and the chief roles were predictable.
I checked myself, watching the 85^th performance of the latest production at the Bolshoi Ballet’s home base in Moscow.

“The Flames of Paris”, first staged in 1932 at the Kirov Theater in Leningrad (today’s Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg) is about how French revolutionaries turned politics and society upside down. Its rousing score by Boris Asafiev draws on music by Lully and Rameau, including the Marseillaise, and climaxes in the powerful revolutionary song “Ça ira”. In 2008, the Bolshoi Ballet’s then artistic director Alexey Ratmansky restored and revised Vasily Vainonen’s original choreography. Nikolai Volkov’s and Vladimir Dmitriev’s libretto, initially spanning four acts, was condensed to two acts. It tells the story of the revolutionaries’ march to Paris and their storming of the Bastille in July 1789. Oblivious to the people’s fury, the monarchy and its representatives continue to debauch in festivities (including a court ballet) at Versailles, but eventually apprehend the looming danger. Puppets of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette are already mangled by the crowd, soon to seize the palace. Continue reading “Invincible”

17. March 201915. September 2026

Pipe Dreams

“La Fille du Pharaon”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
March 08, 2019 (matinee and evening performance)

Aspicia, the heroine in Petipa’s “La Fille du Pharaon,” was a highly coveted role among ballerinas. Carolina Rosati, an Italian ballerina whose insistence propelled the ballet to creation, danced Aspicia at the world premiere in St. Petersburg in 1862. Mathilde Kschessinska, the unofficial queen of St. Petersburg’s Imperial Theatres, claimed the role as hers at the 1898 revival—meaning that it was like a revolution when the role was given to Anna Pavlova in 1906. “La Fille du Pharaon” was Petipa’s first significant choreographic success. Pierre Lacotte’s take on the ballet for the Bolshoi Ballet in 2000 was a tribute to Petipa and to the famous ballerinas who had shared their knowledge about Aspicia with Lacotte: Lyubov Egorova, Mathilde Kschessinska, and Olga Spesivtseva.

The ballet’s rambling narrative is loosely based on Théophile Gautier’s 1857 novel “The Romance of a Mummy”. Fueled by opium, an English explorer imagines a slew of adventures with Aspicia, the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh. Aspicia, a mummy, resurrected from her sarcophagus, goes hunting and is saved from a lion’s wrath by the heroic Egyptian Taor (the Englishman), with whom she naturally falls in love. The duo, contending with Aspicia’s forced marriage to the King of Nubia, elopes to an idyllic fishing village. There, they are met by further hazards: suicide attempts, a detour to the underwater realm of the God of the river Nile, and more. Finally, Aspicia and Taor are reunited and happily married—until at the height of the rejoicing, the Englishman awakes from his dream. Continue reading “Pipe Dreams”

24. February 201722. April 2020

Grigorovich’s “Giselle”

“Giselle”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
February 18 / 19, 2017

“Giselle” is in the core repertory of almost every ballet company, whether in a modern interpretation or a traditional one. The Bolshoi even holds two traditional versions, one by Yuri Grigorovich, the other by Vladimir Vasiliev. Vasiliev’s 1997 “Giselle” follows the earlier versions of Leonid Lavrovsky and Alexander Gorsky. Earlier in 1987 Grigorovich had instead traced the choreographic lineage directly via Marius Petipa to Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli’s 1841 original. In honor of the 90th anniversary of Grigorovich’s birth, the Bolshoi presented three performances of his “Giselle” as part of the Grigorovich ballet festival, of which I saw two matinées with different casts. Continue reading “Grigorovich’s “Giselle””