August 4th , 2014. Issue No. 349

August, 4 2014 Bolshoi Theatre in the Internet For reference: Anastasia Meskova is a Bolshoi Ballet first soloist. Born in Moscow. She danced in the V. Loktev Ensemble. She won the Morning Star children's television competition which enabled her to tour extensively in Russia and abroad. I n 2 002, h a vin g co m ple te d h e r tr a in in g a t th e M osco w S ta te A ca de m y o f Choreography (Sofi Golovkina's class), she joined the Bolshoi Theatre corps de ballet.
She has twice carried off prizes at ballet competitions: at the Fouette Artek International Competition of Classical Dance (2000), she was awarded the gold medal, and at the International Competition of Ballet Dancers (2001), in Vienna, she won the Grand Prix. Her repertoire includes parts in such ballets as "Don Quixote", "The Flames of Paris", "Moidodyr (Wash'em Clean)", "Marco Spada", "La Sylphide" and many others. In the ballet "Lady of the Camellias", which was staged at the Bolshoi Theatre with the support of VTB Bank, she performs the part of Prudence. On the Bolshoi Theatre official pages in the social networks, we published the following information: On August 1st the 75th anniversary of the VDNKh (1992 - 2014 All-Russia Exhibition Centre) was celebrated. The Bolshoi Theatre prima-ballerina and a People's Artist of the Russian Federation Maria Allash and the Bolshoi Theatre leading soloist and an Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Andrei Merkuriev performed at the celebration. The artists performed on a special podium inside of the working fountains. They presented separate numbers from the modern interpretation of the ballet "The Tale of the Stone Flower". They performed three times, at 1 p.m., 6 p.m. and 9.45 p.m. Soloists of The Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre Ballet Company - Olga Sizykh, Evgeny Poklitar, Denis Akinfeev, Maria T yurina, Marianna Urusova - and ballet artists of Moscow's leading music theatres participated in the project as well. Pictures from the rehearsals are available at:

W e also published pictures from Saratoga Springs, where the Bolshoi Ballet has closed its guest performances: The house was packed for the Bolshoi Theatre performances at the Festival in the USA The Bolshoi Ballet artists and the Bolshoi Orchestra performed in the city of Saratoga Springs (NY) at the International Summer Dance Festival for the first time. They presented the ballet "Don Quixote" to the music by L. Minkus at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC). Five thousand people in the audience greeted the Russian artists by giving them a deafening ovation. As Marcia White, the SPAC president, mentioned in her opening speech, "the Bolshoi Theatre performing in Saratoga Springs is a historical event; this is the first time that this world famous company visited our city. SP AC has become one of the three venues where the company presented its guest performances in 2014. This is a great honor for us". The production was followed by wonderful fireworks. The artists stayed sin the US until Saturday; they demonstrated their mastery to their American colleagues. For articles published July 31st 2014 The New York Magazine carries a major article called Life in Pictures that follows Bolshoi Ballet principal David Hallberg as he prepares to dance Swan Lake with the company at Lincoln Center and other photos about his life. The New York Observer writes about the Bolshoi Ballet's season at Lincoln Center writing that the Bolshoi Ballet performed at the Lincoln Center Festival for two sold- out weeks and there were "clouds of wild approbation (from the audience, particularly the Russian portion of it) and disbelief (the critics, at the stupidity of the repertory)". "The mysteries and scandals of the Kremlin are nothing compared to the mysteries and scandals of the Bolshoi". The publication writes that the Bolshoi Ballet's artistic director Sergei Filin was in the audience after being nearly blinded by an acid attack from another Bolshoi dancer "The Bolshoi's gallant, handsome Sergei Filin was in the audience, with dark glasses, his elegant bearing and superb hair bravely on display". The Weekly Standard (New York) reviews the Bolshoi Ballet's Swan Lake at Lincoln Center with the headline Wounded by Scandal, The Bolshoi Returns to America. About the performance of Swan Lake the reviewer writes "Still, the audience offered a standing ovation, and the company took several well-deserved curtain calls. And Galina Stepanenko, Svetlana Adyrkhaeva, Ekaterina Krysanova (Kitri) and Semyon Chudin (Basilio) after the performance of the ballet "Don Quixote" on July 30th. Saratoga Springs. Photo: Katerina Novikova Newsletter August, 4 2014 while the staging may have felt somewhat outdated, it seemed appropriate for the company that originated the most beloved ballet of all to trump all previous productions in virtuosic ability and technical prowess". Metroland reviews the Bolshoi Ballet's Don Quixote at Saratoga Springs writing about "the unstoppable energy of the company's dancers in this Spanish-style ballet that truly stole the show". The Oneida Dispatch (Local Saratoga Springs publication) writes that Ukrainians protested about Russian policy in the Ukraine at the opening night of the Bolshoi Ballet at SP AC. The International New York Times writes a large article about how in ballet conductors help the audience and build a bridge between the dancers and the audience. About the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra, it writes, "The orchestra is superb, with a muscular, focused sound most American ballet companies can only dream of". The article also interviewed the Bolshoi's conductor Pavel Sorokin.
In brief Kirov mass media: Russia's only professional flutist came to Kirov Students and teachers of music schools, art schools and students of secondary and high education institutions from Kirov, Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Cheborksary (16 people) participated in the master-classes. Nikolai Popov, a laureate of the All-Russian and international competitions and a Bolshoi Orchestra soloist gave theoretical and individual lessons on performing art. /…/
On August 1st the gala-concert of the master-classes' participants took place at the organ and chamber music concert hall at 6 p.m.