"MK" found out what is happening in the Vaganova Academy
What happens at the Vaganova Academy after Nikolai Tsiskaridze rode there on a white horse - to the post of interim rector ... What is the view from the inside, that is, from St. Petersburg? From Vaganovka itself after the dismissal of Vera Dorofeeva (Rector of the Academy) and Altynai Asylmuratova (her artistic director)?
“I watched a very sad picture yesterday at home: the child came all crying, as they began to talk - after 5 minutes, the tears were back. Almost everyone, starting with the little ones, was very worried yesterday ... They calmed them down with the words that the last six months were left, that Altynai Abduakhimovna would not be taken anywhere forever ... The love of children for teachers is worth a lot, ”such messages are pouring in a flurry from parents at the balletomane forum.
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Altynai Asylmuratova. |
There are not so many versions of what happened in Vaganovsky, but the main one is that the place was vacated under Nikolai Tsiskaridze. So, for example, thinks Ksenia Sobchak, who is little versed in ballet, but well versed in the world of political intrigues - by the way, is also a St. Petersburg woman. In her blog on the Snob magazine website, she writes: “The main diamond in the asset of Nikolai Tsiskaridze is Katerina Chemezova. She is the engine of Nikolai Tsiskaridze to the masses. The wife of Sergey Chemezov, Director General of the Russian Technologies State Corporation, has been friends with Kolya for many years. Nikolai rests in her houses, travels with her and generally spends time in every possible way ... ”It was she, according to Sobchak, who brought the idea of employing Tsiskaridze to life:“ In the spring of this year, Katya Chemezova, according to my information, persuaded Gergiev to help Nikolai and arrange him at the Mariinsky ... At the same time, for more than a year, Grigory Ivliev, deputy. Minister Medina. He pressed on the chief from below ... What is his interest is unknown, but there are suggestions that some financial interests connect him with Chemezova. Although, perhaps, Mr. Ivliev did it absolutely disinterestedly.”
Another version is "raider capture". According to the former rector of the academy, Vera Dorofeeva, and most of the teachers, the appointment of Tsiskaridze is another step towards realizing Gergiev's idea of creating a National Center for the Arts, which, under Gergiev, should include the Vaganova Academy and the Conservatory. And despite Medinsky's statements that there will be no unification, nevertheless, it is Tsiskaridze who will help Gergiev to bring this idea to life.
The phone of the former rector Vera Dorofeeva does not answer. Trouble in the academy.
Here is what Elena Sherstneva, one of the best teachers of the Vaganova Academy, the winner of the Soul of Dance prize, says. She was the first to file for resignation.
This is a crime, first of all, against our country, which is famous for its ballet. And he was lowered and actually destroyed. Especially in an anniversary year. What a meanness! All the more - in secret! Both Altynai and Vera Alekseevna Dorofeeva know every child by sight and preserve our culture. Of course, this greatly interferes with people who want to rule and nothing more. And no one can rule here, except for St. Petersburgers and students of our academy. This is a school! So far, no one has shown himself as the leader of the people who will lead the school.
Will others follow her example? My interlocutor, who knows the situation at the academy well from the inside, agreed to comment on it for MK.
There was a meeting. The teachers met with the new rector. Everyone is afraid of losing their job. Everyone is shocked by how ugly everything was done: to arrive in half an hour and say that you were all filmed. And we have an anniversary year, people coped with their work. Well, in Moscow everyone crossed themselves: “Thank God, he left!” And they gave us a little trick, like a man was sent into exile, away from the Bolshoi, away from Moscow, away from the press.
But still - not the scale, not the volumes that in Moscow. I am sure that it was necessary to attach a person, give him a good position: as if with a name, it has weight. Kolya's appointment here scares and alarms me! I know him. I went to his classes, I know him as a person - he is quite strange, to put it mildly! How will he get along with the children? With teachers? And the biggest question for me is how will he get along with Lopatkina? Imagine what a school is - how much effort and time it should take! There Altynai, when she started (by the way, she was given the condition to finish dancing), she completely immersed herself in everything: she went to every class, watched duets, went to the kids - she lived in the academy. And that's how to drive such an artist out into the street! Correctly, Dorofeeva said that this was a raider seizure.
- That is, you think that Tsiskaridze will eventually (although they said that this will not happen) surrender the academy to Gergiev?
After what happened, I'm not surprised anymore. If they tell us one thing today and something else tomorrow, then this option is quite possible.
It seems that difficult times are coming for the Vaganovsky School. Someone's painful ambitions, vanity, connections and undercover games, bureaucratic indifference and a desire to bend over did their job - excellent professionals were replaced by others - simply needed. Vera Dorofeeva, as a valuable manager, the director of the Mikhailovsky Theater, Vladimir Kekhman, seems to have already offered to become his deputy. An interesting fact is that the famous ballerina Yulia Makhalina, who before Lopatkina was offered to become the artistic director of Vaganovsky, refused such a flattering offer - she considered it indecent to sit up Asylmuratova, whose authority in the ballet world is much higher than that of Tsiskaridze. But Asylmuratova did not have such miracle workers as Nikolai's acquaintances.
Talk about Tsiskaridze's employment has been around for a long time; many are seriously concerned about this problem. The artist himself took care of her.
The main diamond in the asset of Nikolai Tsiskaridze is Katerina Chemezova. She is the engine of Nikolai Tsiskaridze to the masses. The wife of Sergey Chemezov, Director General of the Russian Technologies State Corporation, has been friends with Kolya for many years. Nikolai rests in her houses, goes on trips with her and generally spends time in every possible way. This, among other things, I asked him during an interview with "Sobchak Alive".
In the spring of this year, Katya Chemezova, according to my information, persuaded Gergiev to help Nikolai and get him a job at the Mariinsky. Theater professionals have long known that Gergiev's ballet always comes after opera. Therefore, the intrigue was to launch Tsiskaridze into the Mariinsky. But this brilliant idea did not inspire Gergiev, although he did not want to lose the friendship and favor of the all-powerful Chemezovs, so Gergiev relied on his diplomatic skills and found another place for Tsiskaridze.
At the same time, Grigory Ivliev, Deputy Minister of Medinsky, has been actively making efforts to find Tsiskaridze for more than a year. He pressed the chief from below, talked for a long time with Tsiskaridze, promised to help. What is his interest is unknown, but there are suggestions that some financial interests connect him with Chemezova. Although, perhaps, Mr. Ivliev did it absolutely disinterestedly. Here we can’t say anything, but we can only speculate about the reasons for such zeal.
Finally, Mr. Medinsky himself, in his entourage, said that he was under pressure from above about Tsiskaridze. The same Chemezov was meant: it is unlikely that Putin himself called on this issue.
The situation unfolded as follows. On the one hand, Gergiev, who does not want to let Tsiskaridze into the Mariinsky at all. On the other hand, Urin showed himself in a completely unexpected way at the Bolshoi Theater. After being appointed to Urina, they tried to put pressure from the Ministry of Culture (Medinsky personally called) and raised the question of making Tsiskaridze an artistic director. Urin showed unprecedented rigidity, declaring: “Only through my corpse. I will not make any compromises - either me or Tsiskaridze! I will not let him become the artistic director of the Bolshoi.” This position shocked the community of the Bolshoi Theater and earned great respect. As a result, Urin retained his place and fought off Tsiskaridze, despite clear hints: if you decide the issue in favor of Kolya, you will find protection for yourself.
So, the two key theaters that Nikolai wanted to go to made it clear that this was impossible. By this time, Medinsky had already formed an agreement with the Kremlin Ballet and personally Kozhin, so that Tsiskaridze would head the ballet troupe. And I must say that the Kremlin Ballet is now, to put it mildly, in the ass. A good combination was planned: Nikolai gets a troupe, the opportunity to put the ballet on its feet, to show the result. At the same time, Kozhin had already made this deal, and the combination seemed to work quite well.
But here Tsiskaridze himself showed character. His position is that he will not even consider this option. The Kremlin Palace is completely useless to him. He does not agree to anything, except for the largest theaters in the country, that is, the Mariinsky, the Bolshoi, and the Vaganovsky School.
And this perseverance of Nicholas turned into an incredible success. At the birthday party of Denis Matsuev, Marianna Sardorova, Sati Spivakova and Katerina Chemezova had an interesting conversation, which I learned about personally from one of the participants. In this sweet ladies' conversation à trois, Chemezova talked about the appointment of Tsiskaridze as an accomplished fact. From May to the present day, apparently, the issue was resolved technically.
Gergiev, receiving patronage, sympathy and - let's not think badly - maybe some additional subsidies from the Chemezov couple, was quite interested in such a scenario. As a result, firstly, they lagged behind him about the Mariinsky. Secondly, for Gergiev, the grateful Tsiskaridze at the head of the school turned out to be a very convenient figure.
In recent years, the level of the Vaganov School's ballet has grown significantly: when the Mariinsky Theater, with Gergiev's light hand, became interested in opera and brought it to the world stage, the Vaganov School began to take on a primary role in ballet productions. This could not suit Gergiev in any way. The appointment of Tsiskaridze for him made it possible to subdue the politics of Vaganovsky.
It is clear that the current artistic director will not remain with Tsiskaridze. Therefore, a plane was sent to the USA for Irina Kolpakova. Negotiations were held so that, having come from exile, she would become an artistic director: according to the charter of the Vaganov School, this post can only be headed by its graduate. This law was not formally violated, making Tsiskaridze the rector. But in the end they found a compromise and offered this position to Ulyana Lopatkina, who, however, never taught.
If we digress for a second and look at the history of the school, the combination looks strange. The rectors of Vaganovka were Prince Miloradovich, and Prince Sergei Volkonsky, and Vladimir Telyakovsky, and the playwright Alexander Sumarokov. Ballerinas have never been appointed to this position. But just the ballerinas working in Vaganovsky became artistic directors. This tradition has been preserved inviolably since tsarist times and was spelled out in the charter. It could never have occurred to anyone that, just as Putin furnished everyone with a third term by nominating Medvedev, they would also bypass the charter of Vaganovka by appointing a ballerina not an artistic director, but a rector.
Lopatkina never taught - she was appointed to the position of artistic director. That is, Tsiskaridze will be responsible for mops, rent, pipes and parquet, and an outstanding ballerina, but not a teacher Lopatkina, will be the artistic director. This combination gives Tsiskaridze status and influence to Gergiev. Despite the fact that, for example, Grigorovich also came from the Vaganov School, he was not offered this, as we understand it, was not.
Vladimir Kekhman, who took an active part in its implementation, was also vitally interested in this combination. From reliable sources it is known that yesterday at the Mikhailovsky Theater urgent negotiations were held with the Minister of Culture, Mr. Medinsky, and Kekhman was directly involved in them.
Only one question remains: does the Vaganov School itself want this? As the joke says: “But what the elephant thinks, no one found out, because he was very modest.” Nobody asked the Vaganov School itself, although its staff had already written a letter (including Gergiev) with the question: why is the school's fate being decided without the participation of the troupe? It is only known that the ex-rector of the academy, Vera Dorofeeva, right in the presence of the minister in Vaganovka, leaving her post, said the following: “At stake is either me or the unification of the Mariinsky Theater with Vaganovka. If I leave, the minister promised that the academy would remain independent.” The letter directly indicates the names of Tsiskaridze and Kolpakova, which indicates that the troupe is not at all for, but rather against.
Here is a combination played out before our eyes. And the key figure here is not Nikolai Tsiskaridze, but the ambitions of Grand Dame Katerina Chemezova. Perhaps Katya Chemezova would like to strengthen her position as the patron of the arts, to head the board of trustees of the Vaganova Academy, but it is possible that she is simply helping her friend. For humanitarian reasons.
The head of the Imperial Theaters, Telyakovsky, complained in his memoirs that every ballerina has a patron, and each one complains a little to him, and each patron strives to remove him, Telyakovsky. So, the ballerina Kshesinskaya was more successful than her colleagues - she ran to shoot the director to the Grand Duke himself. So the favorite of the ace of trumps, who removes the valiant head of a very large theater, is an old plot.The Bolshoi Theater was built on the site of a plague cemetery. In his backstage, the plague always smoldered. After the revolution, Lenin was going to close the Bolshoi in general. They didn’t drown in it, they didn’t pay the artists. But the ballerinas were mistresses of their comrades in the revolutionary struggle, and the comrades explained to the leader that the theater could be used to educate the masses, and besides, it was convenient to hold congresses there.
Stalin, unlike his predecessor, loved ballets and operas. Favored Lepeshinskaya, who was the party secretary of the Bolshoi. Opera prima donnas Shpiller and Davydova were also favorites of the tyrant. Ballerinas, not covered by the NKVD, in the 30s, almost all were married to generals. The tradition of "tyrant plus ballerina" is another of the eternal plots of the Bolshoi.
Former director of the Bolshoi Iksanov kept the theater aloof from politics for a long time. For example, he did not allow a single pro-Putin party to hold a congress there. And his opponent Nikolai Tsiskaridze chose the right way to get to the trough - he began to actively dance with the wives of Putin's entourage. So, the ballerina became friends with the second wife of Putin's closest ally Sergei Chemezov Catherine. Tsiskaridze taught ballet to the daughter of Putin's ally Igor Shuvalov. And according to Tsiskaridze, Messrs. Chemezov and Shuvalov were itching for their patron at every scandal in the theater, and that annoyed him.
PATRON wants nothing more than nothing to happen in the country at all. To keep everything quiet. Let all the bulldogs gnaw under the carpet, as long as nothing comes out. As it was in Soviet times. Then all the scandals smoldered deep in the hollow, there were no social networks, and criticism of Gaevsky, who dared to criticize Grigorovich, was no longer published in all publications controlled by the Soviet authorities.
While the Bolshoi was under reconstruction, there weren’t many people who wanted to steer it. As soon as the Bolshoi opened, Iksanov formed a Board of Trustees, brought in a crowd of sponsors, and those who wanted to come ran. And from that time on, Iksanov began to resemble a lonely bunker: the front had long since left, and the lonely fortress was being fired back.
He had many educated supporters. After the scandal with Filin, Tsiskaridze again occupied the ears of Sergei Chemezov. But then a group supporting Iksanov, who knew the value of this leader, rushed in, and, thanks to Prime Minister Medvedev, a contract was signed with him until 2014. Anatoly Iksanov calmed down and stopped firing back.
And here is an extremely unfortunate set of circumstances. Maria Leonova, head of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography at the Bolshoi Theater, has long been against Iksanov. She has long had not the most glorious reputation of a woman who enrolls the “necessary” girls in the Academy, and then in the Bolshoi Ballet, far from having beautiful eyes. Under Iksanov, the Moscow Ballet School, where the daughters and granddaughters of the general secretaries studied, had the label “under the Bolshoi Theater” peeled off, because the school passed there, and it was more profitable to take ballerinas from Vaganovsky. There was just the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. Leonova ruined the business, and she could not bear it.
And Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Olga Golodets, who considers herself a person versed in ballet, still goes to Leonova to practice ballet barre. And now, look at the alignment: on the one hand, Golodets and Leonova united against Iksanov. And on the other hand, Chemezov, whose wife welcomes Tsiskaridze, immediately fussed and brought Golodets to Putin. Chemezov has long been Tsiskaridze twisted, has long snapped his teeth, which Serdyukov took off, put everyone he wanted, but Iksanov could not. Chemezov was accustomed to his omnipotence and was great at breaking off that the director of the Bolshoi was too tough for him.
Two fronts merged into one. And then - a combination of circumstances. Iksanov stopped firing. And he overlooked how they offended the favorite of the Kremlin, Svetlana Zakharova. And now, on the nose of the premiere of the ballet Eugene Onegin. But the choreographer Reed Anderson, who brought this ballet from Stuttgart to the Bolshoi, categorically did not want Zakharov in the first cast.
I suppose because Zakharova is empty. She is more suitable for classical ballet, she is the great Odette-Odile, the beautiful La Bayadère, a beauty with an outstanding line of legs and arms, but where not outstanding data is needed, but filling, she does not win. Lack of stage intelligence. (Svetlana Zakharova is an Orthodox patriot, we will not argue that Orthodox patriotism deprives brains, let it be left to the discretion of the public).
But the prima absolute considered that Iksanov, with whom she was friends and to whom she was loyal, should have defended her, persuaded Filin and Reed Anderson. Iksanov did not want to upset Filin, and also did not have the right to put pressure on Reed Anderson. And then just the Universiade in Kazan. And just a couple of days after Golodets' visit, through Chemezov, prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova carries the flag, and in the evening she sees Putin at a reception after the opening.
Svetlana Zakharova is extremely loyal to Putin. She owns. In 2009 there was a unique event. Putin, who never went to the Bolshoi as a spectator (he was only at two receptions that had nothing to do with art - the anniversary of Kommersant and a concert in honor of Yeltsin), came to Svetlana Zakharova's rehearsal and congratulated her. And at the invitation of Zakharova, the entire State Duma came to her benefit performance - all the richest short men with security guards. In one of the European theaters, Zakharova somehow took the stage shouting “For the Motherland!”
Iksanov, by virtue of his distance from politics, was an alien element to Putin, he was not his own, he was not a party member. Zakharova is her own, and Putin always harnesses for his own. The policy of the permanent Russian president is the selection of personnel based on the principle of personal loyalty.
We can only speculate what exactly Svetlana Zakharova said to Putin. Perhaps she did it in a very feminine way. I wanted, they say, to invite you to the premiere, but I was filmed, I don’t dance. And that was the last straw. The cup of patience overflowed. I'm tired of people complaining about the Bolshoi Theater from all sides.
The order to shoot Iksanov was given personally by Putin on the morning of Monday July 8th. In the morning Iksanov was called to his personal enemy Golodets. There was no order to remove it until Wednesday, which infuriated the head of the government apparatus, Sergei Prikhodko. But everything was immediately leaked to the press in order to make Iksanov's resignation irrevocable and irreparable.
Nikolai Tsiskaridze took Iksanov's resignation as his victory - he sent joyful faces to all his colleagues from his phone. Damn him, with Tsiskaridze, his inadequacy is progressing so much that he does not expect anything good from a ballerina. To hell with him, with Iksanov, in the end, he remained a decent person in such a difficult post, he will be allowed into paradise. Yes, and the Big One will stand. And we are all sorry terribly, it's a pity that a person-epoch can be found a replacement for a DAY, if his enemies got through to the first person.
["Snob", 02/05/2013, "The Scandal at the Bolshoi Theatre. Part I: Iksanov's version": On November 9, 2012, it became known about a letter to Vladimir Putin from twelve cultural figures asking for Iksanov's resignation and the appointment of Nikolai Tsiskaridze as General Director of the Bolshoi. The letter, in particular, was signed by Mark Zakharov, Oleg Tabakov, Galina Volchek, Alisa Freindlikh, Gennady Khazanov and others. Some of them later withdrew their signatures. Rumors spread around Moscow that behind Tsiskaridze’s plans to take the director’s chair at the Bolshoi are influential business representatives, namely the billionaire Rashid Sardarov and his wife Marianna, as well as the head of Russian Technologies, close to Putin, Sergey Chemezov and his wife Catherine. In the government, among the supporters of the appointment of Tsiskaridze, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets was named. Tina Kandelaki, who is engaged in the PR business, is joining the promotion of Tsiskaridze's candidacy. Observers drew attention to her connections with Sergei Chemezov. In particular, Tina's company received a contract for one and a half million dollars for the rebranding of Russian Technologies. However, in an interview for the Dozhd TV channel, Tsiskaridze denied rumors that Chemezov and Golodets supported his candidacy. [...]
Uskov: That is, a letter from cultural figures to Putin with a request to appoint Tsiskaridze as the general director was sent at the request of Tsiskaridze?
Iksanov: Certainly. He went personally, he went to those signatories, they told me about it. And it is clear that he wanted this with very serious support. It broke again. The Minister of Culture signed an agreement with me for the next two years. - Inset K.ru]
[TK "Dozhd", 07/09/2013 "Tsiskaridze, Chemezov, Golodets. Who contributed to the resignation of Anatoly Iksanov": Influential patrons of the dancer from among people close to Putin helped Iksanov to avenge Tsiskaridze - the head of Rostec Sergey Chemezov and his wife Ekaterina Ignatova. “Together with Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, who oversees social and cultural policy, they acted as the main lobbyists for the resignation, having managed to convey their point of view to the president,” says a source close to the theater. In addition, they feared that after Tsiskaridze, Golodets' girlfriend Marina Leonova, rector of the prestigious Moscow Academy of Choreography, would be fired; Leonova also feuded with Iksanov and even signed letters demanding his resignation. An employee of the Bolshoi says that the decision to remove Iksanov and appoint the now former head of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich Danchenko theater, Vladimir Urin, was made a few weeks ago. Iksanov himself, anticipating his imminent departure, was preparing to replace his special representative for international affairs Mikhail Shvydkoy but his candidacy was not supported. [...]
Dissatisfied in the theater and the lack of position on the part of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who, as president, opened the historical stage of the Bolshoi after many years of reconstruction. “He simply abstracted from the situation with Iksanov, not wanting to come into conflict with Putin,” our source said. Another interlocutor recalls an incident when the Prime Minister's wife Svetlana Medvedeva was present at a discussion of one of the productions directed by Dmitry Chernyakov, after which she said: “Well, where is the art here”? I will add that Iksanov directed the theater for a record 13 years. At this time, there was a protracted and expensive reconstruction of the historical stage, as well as bold experiments in the form of Vladimir Sorokin's Children of Rosenthal, Dmitry Chernyakov's Onegin, and Kirill Serebrennikov's The Golden Cockerel. - Inset K.ru]
FLB: Who and how fired the general director of the Bolshoi Theater Takhir Gadelzyanovich Iksanov
Over time, some curious details of the scandalous resignation of the general director of the Bolshoi Theater Anatoly Iksanov become known. The Russian media continue to write about this this week.
“The scandalous situation around the Bolshoi Theater escalated after the dismissal of Nikolai Tsiskaridze from the theater, when influential patrons stood up for the dancer in the person of head of Rostec Sergey Chemezov and his wife Ekaterina Ignatova. Influenced and the recent scandal with the prima Bolshoi Svetlana Zakharova: the ballerina was not included in the first part of the production of Onegin, although she had long dreamed of dancing the part of Tatyana Larina in the choreography of the cult Englishman John Cranko. And the composition of the troupe was selected by the British director Reed Anderson - the leadership of the Bolshoi did not interfere in his decision, - the Dozhd TV channel believes.
The premiere of the ballet "Onegin", for which the directors of the Stuttgart Opera and Ballet Theater are responsible, is scheduled for July 12. As conceived by the directors, young members of the troupe should be present on the stage on the first day. So it was at the Paris Grand Opera, so it happened at the Bolshoi. For Svetlana Zakharova in the role of Tatyana Larina in the upcoming premiere week, two evenings were allotted. They say that I didn’t accept it, because of which a scandal erupted, the result of which was the absence of Zakharova’s name on posters.
While the Bolshoi was under reconstruction, there weren’t many people who wanted to steer it. As soon as the Bolshoi opened, Iksanov formed a Board of Trustees, brought a crowd of sponsors, those who wished came running.
After the scandal with Filin, Tsiskaridze again buzzed the ears of Sergei Chemezov, a secular journalist believes. - But then a group supporting Iksanov, who knows the price of this leader, and, thanks to Prime Minister Medvedev, with him a contract was signed until 2014. Anatoly Iksanov calmed down.
And here is an extremely unfortunate set of circumstances. Maria Leonova, head of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography at the Bolshoi Theater, has long been against Iksanov. She has long had not the most glorious reputation of a woman who attaches the “necessary” girls to the Academy, and then to the ballet of the Bolshoi Theater far from beautiful eyes, - suggests BFM.Ru. - Under Iksanov from the Moscow Ballet School, where the daughters and granddaughters of the general secretaries studied, the label “at the Bolshoi Theater” was peeled off, because the school rented there, and it was more profitable to take ballerinas from Vaganovsky. There was just the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. Leonova spoiled the business.
And to Leonova Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Olga Golodets still goes to practice ballet barre, who considers herself a person versed in ballet. On the one hand, Golodets and Leonova united against Iksanov. And on the other hand, Chemezov, whose wife welcomes Tsiskaridze, suggests Bozena Rynska.
Ballet connoisseurs Olga Golodets and Igor Shuvalov
Two fronts merged into one. And then - a combination of circumstances. Iksanov overlooked how the Kremlin's favorite Svetlana Zakharova was offended. And now, on the nose of the premiere of the ballet Eugene Onegin. But the choreographer Reed Anderson, who brought this ballet from Stuttgart to the Bolshoi, categorically did not want Zakharov in the first cast.
But the prima felt that Iksanov, with whom she was friends and to whom she was loyal, should have defended her, persuaded Filin and Reed Anderson. Iksanov did not want to upset Filin, and also did not have the right to put pressure on Reed Anderson. And then just the Universiade in Kazan. And just a couple of days after Golodets' visit, prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova carries the flag, and in the evening she sees Putin at a reception after the opening.
Svetlana Zakharova is extremely loyal to Putin. She owns. In 2009 there was a unique event. Putin, who never went to the Bolshoi as a spectator (he was only at two receptions that had nothing to do with art - the anniversary of Kommersant and a concert in honor of Yeltsin), came to the rehearsal to Svetlana Zakharova and congratulated her. And at the invitation of Zakharova, the entire State Duma came to her benefit performance. In one of the European theaters, Zakharova somehow took the stage shouting “For the Motherland!” Rynska gossips.
One can only speculate what exactly Svetlana Zakharova said to Putin. Perhaps she did it in a very feminine way. I wanted, they say, to invite you to the premiere, but I was filmed, I don’t dance. And that was the last straw. The cup of patience overflowed. I'm tired of people complaining about the Bolshoi Theater from all sides, - suggests the author of BFM.Ru.
The order to shoot Iksanov was given on the morning of Monday 8 July. In the morning Iksanov was called to his personal enemy Golodets. There was no order to withdraw it until Wednesday., which allegedly infuriated the head of the government apparatus, Sergei Prikhodko. But everything was leaked to the press instantly in order to make Iksanov's resignation irrevocable and irreparable, the secular journalist believes.
Nikolai Tsiskaridze took Iksanov's resignation as his victory - he sent joyful faces to all his colleagues from his phone.
Nikolai Tsiskaridze (left)
Earlier on FLB about the scandals around the Bolshoi Theater: “I did everything I could with the Bolshoi”, “Sergey Filin avoids a personal examination”, “Sergey Filin was splashed because of the lady”, “Pavel Dmitrichenko’s judicial entrechase”, “Hunting between” earthly and heavenly,
October 29, 2013, 13:49The RIA Novosti agency published the first information about the appointment on Saturday, October 26, citing a "source familiar with the negotiations." The source said the following: “After Nikolai’s relationship with the Bolshoi Theater was terminated, he immediately began to receive job offers. In particular, he liked the idea of the ministry to lead the ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Nikolai met with Gergiev, but, unfortunately, things did not go beyond the meeting.
There was an offer to lead the troupe of the Kremlin ballet, but it did not seem interesting to Nikolai. And the offer to head the Vaganov Academy completely coincided with Nikolai's desire to pass on his truly invaluable experience to young students. Over the weekend, the Vaganova Academy reported that it had not received a corresponding order from the Ministry of Culture. Minister Vladimir Medinsky noted only that "the earth is full of rumors." However, Deputy Minister of Culture Grigory Ivliev told the media that the Ministry of Culture had extended the contract with the acting rector of the Academy Vaganova - 67-year-old professor Vera Dorofeeva - for a period of one year.
“But further in age, the contract cannot be extended. Negotiations are underway. It is very important for us that the decision on a new appointment be conscious both for the ministry and for society,” Mr. Ivliev specified. However, already today, the Deputy Minister refuted himself: even before the official briefing by Minister Medinsky, Mr. Ivliev officially notified the same agency"RIA News" on the appointment of Nikolai Tsiskaridze as the rector of the Vaganova Academy.Simultaneously with the change of the rector, the current artistic director of the academy was also replaced. Instead of People's Artist of the USSR Altynai Asylmuratova, who has held this post since 2000,
People's Artist of Russia, prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater Uliana Lopatkina, who has been working in his troupe since 1991, became the Academy's artistic director. The 40-year-old ballerina, however, does not want to leave the stage and is going to combine her artistic career with the work of the artistic director of the Vaganova Academy (by the way, according to the charter of the university, only its graduate can hold this post).
Thus, most of the burden of leading the oldest and best ballet school in Russia, which celebrated its 275th anniversary this year, will fall on the shoulders of Nikolai Tsiskaridze.
Perhaps such a hasty change of leaders of the St. Petersburg ballet school is connected with an open conflict that broke out between the rector and artistic director of the academy, on the one hand, and the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater, Valery Gergiev, on the other. At a meeting held by Vladimir Tolstoy, presidential adviser on culture back in mid-October, the parties exchanged mutual claims: maestro Gergiev accused the academy of poor-quality training of ballet dancers, rector Dorofeeva of the desire of the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater to take possession of real estate andacademy rehearsal rooms.
It is worth noting that the accusations of Mr. Gergiev caused bewilderment in the professional environment: the world authority of the Vaganova school is still inaccessible, its graduates occupy a leading position in many theaters of the world, including, of course, the Mariinsky itself. Unlike the conductor's claims, the rector's accusations do not look groundless: it is known that the hostel of the Vaganov Academy has been attracting the attention of the head of the Mariinsky Theater for several years, who has received a sufficient number of artists from other cities in his theater. In addition, the new building of the Mariinsky Theater (Mariinka-2) has only one ballet hall, and when the historical building of the Mariinsky Theater closes for reconstruction, the ballet troupe, which has grown at the initiative of Mr. Gergiev, will simply have nowhere to rehearse. With the appointment of a new leadership of the academy, these delicate issues are likely to be safely resolved.
However, Mr. Gergiev's favorite idea of uniting the Mariinsky Theatre, the Vaganova Academy, the St. Petersburg Conservatory and the Institute of Art History under one leadership, Minister Medinsky, relying on the conclusions of experts, considered it inappropriate, and indirectly refuted the conductor's claims to the quality of ballet training by presenting dismissed leaders of the academy to government awards. Assurances that the merger of the Mariinsky Theater and the Vaganova Academy was not envisaged were once again heard at the briefing, but one cannot but admit that the new appointment of the Ministry of Culture killed two birds with one stone: it employed the people's artist Tsiskaridze and got rid of the uncompromising rector, who, however, , at first will advise his successor.
The appointment of Nikolai Tsiskaridze as rector caused a very ambiguous reaction from the workforce of the Vaganova Academy. In addition to the natural reaction to the suddenness of the ministerial decision, the age-old antagonism between the Moscow and St. Petersburg schools played a certain role in this. No wonder Nikolai Tsiskaridze immediately emphasized: “All my teachers studied here” (although in fact his school teacher Pyotr Pestov graduated from Perm, and the theater - Nikolai Simachev and Nikolai Fadeechev - from the Moscow Choreographic School). Innocent deceit and O. the rector is explained by the fact that Petersburgers (and not only them) do not question the superiority of their own teaching methods. Historically, Leningraders have repeatedly occupied key positions in Moscow (this was the case, say, in the 1930s, when a wonderful teacher Viktor Semenov was appointed head of the Moscow school), but in the entire almost 300-year history of the Russian ballet theater there was no precedent for a Muscovite to head Petersburg ballet academy.
The dissatisfaction of the teaching staff of the Academy is exacerbated by the fact that Nikolai Tsiskaridze does not have sufficient experience in working with children and, as can be assumed from the haste of the appointment, did not present either the Vaganova Academy or the Ministry of Culture with a detailed scientific program of methodological transformations.
It is worth recalling that under the previous leadership, the division of duties did not provide for the participation of the rector in the purely ballet activities of the academy - this was the responsibility of the artistic director. Professor Dorofeeva dealt with organizational, financial and general educational issues. However, with the employment of artistic director Lopatkina at the Mariinsky Theater, Nikolai Tsiskaridze is unlikely to limit himself to these tasks, which, moreover, he has never dealt with before.
Thus, the employment of Nikolai Tsiskaridze, with which not all of his subordinates agree, can undermine the solidity of the teaching staff of the St. Petersburg Academy and, accordingly, the successful course of the educational process. However, it is worth noting that another ballet school has recently appeared in St. Petersburg - Boris Eifman, an excellently equipped educational institution that needs experienced teaching staff. So it is possible that the appointment of Nikolai Tsiskaridze, fraught with industrial conflict, will be resolved in the most prosperous way.
