Graduation concerts of the Moscow Academy of Choreography were held at the Bolshoi Theater

The main theater of the country lured a talented graduate

The Historical Stage of the Bolshoi Theater hosted concerts by graduates of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, which is celebrating its 250th anniversary this year.

The Moscow State Academy of Choreography is the oldest theater educational institution in Moscow and one of the oldest in Russia. It traces its history back to 1773, when the first “dance classes” were opened in the Moscow Orphanage established by order of Empress Catherine II, created for orphans and foundlings, as ballet classes were then called. The first dance lesson was held here by the Italian Misoli, and this year is now considered to be the year of the formation of the Moscow ballet school. The children, “jumping without rest” under the guidance of their mentors Philippe Beccari and his wife, mastered the science of ballet to such an extent that even the first ballets began to be staged by their own efforts.

In 1780, the Moscow Orphanage released the first group of their pupils – seven dancers and nine dancers. Moreover, all of them were sent to St. Petersburg, to the theater of the private entrepreneur Karl Knipper. Four years later, the school came under the jurisdiction of the Petrovsky Theatre, and in those days it was called the Bolshoi Theatre, and since then it has been releasing its pupils specifically for the needs of this theatrical house.

The program drawn up for the glorious date, which is even more widely prepared to celebrate in the fall, impresses with its scope. This is not only the ballet classics of the 19th and 20th centuries, but also the ballet of Boris Eifman.

Eifman’s ballet was shown in the second part, and the first part was given to the classical program, consisting of masterpieces of choreography from the 19th and 20th centuries. And it opened with the Classical Symphony by Leonid Lavrovsky. This one-act ballet to the music of Prokofiev was first staged by the teacher and choreographer Leonid Mikhailovich Lavrovsky in 1966 for students of the Moscow Choreographic School, where he was then artistic director. The choreographer, recognized in the genre of dramatic ballet, at the end of his life created an exclusively danceable, plotless ballet in the style of Balanchine neoclassical.

Since then, this ballet has been an adornment of the repertoire of the Moscow State Academy of Arts, where students learn the school of classical dance. Current students and graduates have perfectly mastered the style of this work. The solo couple – the lyrical Polina Netsvetaeva-Dolgaleva and the long-legged handsome man Makar Mikhalkin – set the tone here.

Makar Mikhalkin, a tall dancer with noble manners and perfected technique, also distinguished himself in the final concert of the Grand Pas from the ballet La Bayadère. If on the whole this “Great Classical Dance”, in which Taisiya Konovalova danced the part of Gamzatti together with Mikhalkin-Solor, was not flawless, then Mikhalkin’s dance deserves all praise. The dancer did an excellent job with the part: he jumped high, landed softly, performed excellent lifts and aroused admiration…

It is clear why this young man turned out to be a bone of contention between the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters. Back in the spring, the Mariinsky Theater seized the initiative. And about. Yuri Fateev, head of the ballet of this troupe, who spotted the dancer at the Moscow International Competition, where he became a gold laureate in the junior group, offered the unusually gifted young man the status of second soloist and leading parts in the repertoire. The artistic director of the Bolshoi Mahar Vaziev, known for the rapid promotion of his wards up the career ladder, did not make such luxurious gifts and promises, but still outplayed his colleague: as a result, Makar ended up in the troupe of Mahar, however, so far only in the corps de ballet. But he is already rehearsing the main role of Lucien d’Hervilli in the Grand Pas from the ballet Paquita, which has been re-registered in the Bolshoi’s playbill this season.

In addition to La Bayadère, the pas de deux from Raymonda, with graduate Deimante Taranda, was impressively danced by such a bright and stylistically accurate soloist of the Bolshoi as Dmitry Vyskubenko, who moved to Moscow from Munich at the beginning of this season. By the way, he is also a graduate of the Moscow State Academy of Arts.

The first part of the concert also included a suite from Petipa’s ballet “Millions of Harlequin” directed and edited by Yuri Burlaka, the chief specialist in “antiquity” in our country. Together with Kolombina Maria Dokuchaeva, the dancer Ratmir Dzhumaliev, who also moved to Moscow a year and a half ago to study at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, but already from Alma-Ata, “lit up” here. I saw this dancer at a competition in Sochi two years ago. It was there that he was appreciated by the rector of the academy Marina Leonova, inviting him to move to Moscow. The training went to the benefit of the young man. His dance, while retaining its inherent virtuosity, has become more meaningful and academic.

The same Burlak staged at the academy the pas de sis from Jules Perrot’s old ballet Esmeralda, which has come down to us in Petipa’s version. Here we note the graduates Ksenia Trokhova (Esmeralda) and bouncing like a ball, Danila Klimenko (Gringoire).

Very many of the graduates listed here (almost 10 people) Mahar Vaziev took to the Bolshoi Theater. With its concert, the Moscow Academy, as always, confirmed the highest status of this educational institution.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29073 dated July 19, 2023

Newspaper headline:
The main theater of the country lured a talented graduate