In this post, I am incorporating the notes I took of the five ballerinas portrayed in the documentary, Ballerina, along with images of these women.
Alina Somova
The first
ballerina the documentary detailed was Alina Somova. At the time, she was
seventeen. They showed her taking class in her eighth year of training at the
Vaganova Ballet Academy. The eighth year is the last year; girls start at the
age of 9-10 and finish at the age of 17-18. At the end of the year, Alina
performed as the star of their end-of-the-year ballet and was subsequently
hired by the Kirov Ballet, a great feat for her. The Kirov Ballet, one of the
two most prestigious companies in Russia, holds their performances in the
renowned Mariinsky Theater, where most of the famous Russian Ballets were
originally premiered. The documentary shows Alina starting at the bottom, in
the corps de ballet, where all newcomers start and checks up on her afterwards,
showing her improvement and that she has started receiving little solo and duo
parts.
Evgenia Obraztsova
The second ballerina the documentary details is Evgenia Obraztsova. Evgenia was
my favorite from watching the film. Evgenia seems the most human out of all the
dancers. She is driven out of a love for dancing and a desire to succeed. She
does not take criticism personally and is always willing to try again. The
documentary shows Evgenia having been at the academy for one year after Alina
was accepted. I looked her up, and it shows that she is now a Prima Ballerina.
Evgenia was a dancer who had to slowly work up the ladder. She went from the
corps de ballet to having small solo and duo parts. After a few years, she was
promoted to a soloist.
Svetlana Zakharova
The next dancer featured was Svetlana Zakharova. She was not highlighted much
in the documentary, and I didn’t feel as though I got a great picture of her
after watching. She was certainly very talented. The start of her career was
very quick. She was hired by the Kirov at 17 and promoted to soloist,
officially, a year later (despite the fact that she had been performing solo
parts all along). She is most well known for her performances as Odette and
Odlie in Swan Lake.
Diana Vishneva
The third ballerina highlighted was Diana Vishneva. I really liked Diana
because she is immensely talented but in a nontraditional way. She got the
highest marks ever achieved at the academy, was quickly hired by the Kirov, and
promoted to Prima after only a year. She also worked all over the globe. A
renowned French dancer who partnered with her for a few ballets stated that
Diana was “not necessarily the best dancer in terms of textbook lines, with
high kicks, etc, but her intelligence and the way she presents herself on stage
immediately mark her out.”
Ulyana Lopatkina
The last ballerina featured is regarded as the best ballerina of her
generation. She is considered to be one of the best, if not the best,
ballerinas in the world. She was Prima when she was forced to stop ballet for
an ankle injury. During a two-year hiatus, she was married and had a daughter.
She then returned to dancing and (during the time of this documentary) is
considered to be even better than she was before.
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