Daria Khokhlova, the first soloist of the Bolshoi Theater
— The incident that I want to talk about occurred during my studies in the second year of pre-graduation at the Moscow State Choreographic Academy. Then the first “adult” leading role was entrusted to me – the role of Princess Masha in the play “The Nutcracker”. Bypassing tradition, I performed both “little” and “big” Masha in one performance – usually in this version of the ballet two ballerinas dance, one young, one old. But I have a more complex and responsible option: a full-fledged two-act performance in which the image of the main character is developed, as in the theater.
Before the Nutcracker doll turns into the Prince, Masha throws a pointe shoe at the Mouse King, thus giving her gentleman the opportunity to pierce the enemy with his sword. According to the idea, the dancer should miss, but in the performance (to my great surprise, because I usually get nowhere) I hit exactly the performer of the Mouse King. Pointe shoes are hard and not light, I understood from the sound that the impact was most likely very painful. I was very embarrassed, but I did not have time to apologize, the performance continued.
Much later, I apologized when we unexpectedly remembered this incident with the prime minister of the Bolshoi Theater, Artemy Belyakov – it was he who turned out to be the King of Mice. By the way, this is almost our only memory of our school years together.
Premiere of the Bolshoi Theater Igor Tsvirko
– There was such a situation. I just came to the theater, I’ve been working for the first year. The play “The Golden Age” staged by Yuri Nikolaevich Grigorovich. On the day of the performance, an artist gets injured and says he cannot perform. And among the substitutes there are only two people: me and my equally young classmate. I learn the order of the poster section of the “propaganda brigade” two hours in advance and am urgently called to the stage 15 minutes before the performance. I show what I know from the first picture, they bring me a suit and make me wear it.
The performance begins, the actors tell me the order of the legs, and at some point I understand that the entire Bolshoi Theater troupe is behind the scenes. They’re checking to see if I lied about the order. The excitement is extreme. Complex lifts, maintenance intervals, synchronization, all must be monitored. I finish my number and there is applause backstage. And an artist comes and says: “Now you will be a lifesaver.” And so it happened.
Dmitry Smilevsky, prime minister of the Bolshoi Theater
“Unfortunately, injuries happen frequently in our profession, and sometimes it happens right on stage. This was my third year in theatre. We show the ballet “The Nutcracker” every year at the end of December and the beginning of January. That year, I played the roles of the Prince and the China Doll on different days. He was supposed to appear in the show on January 2 as Prince’s understudy. The second act (doll dance) began and then the artist playing the Chinese doll was seriously injured. I was sitting backstage in street clothes, ready to leave, and I ran up to him and asked him what was going on and if I needed to wear a costume to finish the dance for him. He said yes.”
Without asking anyone, I ran into the dressing room and asked the dressers to bring suits. But since I didn’t need to dance anymore, my Chinese doll costume was already taken away. I had to wear another artist’s costume (it was too small). All this happened in 3-4 minutes. And so I ran onto the stage, fully dressed. When I reached the backstage, I realized that I had time and immediately jumped on the stage and dived into the music. Most of all, I was afraid that I would get a reaction from the management because of such a decision. But everything went well and they even thanked me for my intelligence.
Anastasia Smirnova, the first soloist of the Mikhailovsky Theater
— I have been working as the first soloist of the Mikhailovsky Theater for four years, performing in leading roles and being a laureate of international competitions. Different things happened during this time. There were intrigues, gossip, changes in theaters, trips abroad, spontaneous changes in performances. I remember a bright moment from the summer. During my vacation, I went to the United States for a gala concert and performed at the annual Yellowstone International Arts Festival in Montana. This was my first experience on the open stage in the mountains. It was difficult to breathe, it was the first time I experienced lack of oxygen. But overall we still had enough altitude for health. I was told that a ballerina’s lungs nearly collapsed during a performance in the mountains in Chile.
So everything went well until the moment of performance. Of course, it started to rain, but the festival could not be postponed until a day later. I had to get out somehow. I danced the pas de deux of the ballet “Don Quixote” in the first act, but it was so slippery that I had to lift the variation and fouetté to avoid getting injured. Fortunately, the rain stopped by the second act and the rest of the performance went smoothly. The journey home took 24 hours, with three transfers.
As soon as I arrived in Helsinki, my partner Julian Mackay called me and asked me to return to America: His partner flew to a gala concert, and we danced in the same program at the festival. At that moment, my eyes were on my forehead because the fatigue of flying was incredible. But I agreed to help him. Luckily, there was a direct flight from Helsinki to Los Angeles – eight hours. I was on the road for more than 30 hours in total. But it was worth it, I got a lot of positive emotions. That’s how bright and sometimes spontaneous the life of ballet dancers is.
Yulia Lavrentieva, ballerina of the Primorsky stage of the Mariinsky Theater
— I work on the Primorsky stage of the Mariinsky Theater in Vladivostok, where difficult weather conditions often occur. Three years ago Vladivostok was at the center of a massive weather collapse. The city was plunged into darkness as in primitive times; There was no electricity, light or heat. The monthly norm of precipitation in the form of rain and snow literally fell on Vladivostok, and the Russian Island almost immediately found itself in captivity of ice. The thickness of the ice crust surrounding trees and wires was up to 12 mm. Traffic is prohibited on the Russian Bridge for security reasons. It took nine days for the bridge cables to be cleared by professional climbers. All this time, the island’s inhabitants were cut off from civilization. They could only reach the city by rare ferries that waited in line for hours.
Many artists of the Primorsky stage of the Mariinsky Theater live on the island, it was almost impossible to go to work! I had to get up at six in the morning to wait in the ferry queue. The theater had to continue its activities despite the emergency conditions. There was no light, heat or water in the building during rehearsals. We went up to the sixth floor, combed our hair in the dark, rehearsed without heating, and in the evening, taking some time off from the last rehearsals, we ran to catch the ferry to the island. It was an unforgettable time! Despite all the difficulties, we managed to prepare for the show. This performance was oddly enough “The Nutcracker.”
I also want to tell you about one more case. The Primorsky stage of the Mariinsky Theater has many own productions, one of them is the ballet “Corsair”. One day the administrators decided to change the order of the numbers. In the second act, it was decided to swap the Forban and Adagio parts of the leading soloists. All the artists were ready, but the conductor either did not know or had forgotten. This is what happens. After the pirates, the romantic music “Adagio” begins to play, and the “Forban” soloist, who is tasked with dancing, flies from the first wings with two pistols in his hands and, without understanding anything, describes the semicircle backwards. upper wings! You should have seen his face on stage. He expressed the full spectrum of human emotions in those seconds. It’s a good thing that the lead soloists are warmed up and ready to take the stage backstage.
Anfisa Oshchepkova, second soloist of the MAMT ballet named after Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko
— It was the beginning of January 2021, the year I graduated from the academy. On one of the first school days after the holidays, I wake up, get ready to wash and realize that I cannot take a single step: my knee locks up. Background: My knee hurt during my school years but nothing serious, it just kept hurting, no injury or diagnosis was made – they said it was a teenager.
I try to sit down, I realize that I cannot bend my leg, I try to take a step – nothing. I understand that I cannot go to school: I need to understand what happened to my leg, so I start calling MRI centers.
It turned out to be a torn meniscus. Doctors say: You need surgery, there is no other option. There are many thoughts in my head at once: what’s next, this can’t be happening, this is senior year. However, it was necessary to make a quick decision and look for a good doctor, rehabilitation doctor and physiotherapist for the surgery. Without thinking twice, following the recommendations, St. I made an appointment with one of St. Petersburg’s best sports surgeons and soon found myself on the operating table.
Ahead of us is the recovery period: physiotherapy, special gymnastics, exercise therapy and, most importantly, the right attitude and the desire to return to duty as quickly as possible. Senior year was very important for me, as it is for every student. This is your best form, you also need to go to theater performances, pass exams in all special disciplines as well as general education subjects. There is no time for injuries and sick leave.
And already in February, thanks to the support of loved ones, doctors and a great desire to return to duty, I stood at the head of the baton and taught ballet lessons. I didn’t want to give up, let alone stay for the second year, because few people believed that I would recover in time for graduation and, in principle, take the final exams.
Yes, I had to enter the learning process slowly and control everything very closely. It wasn’t easy to watch your classmates do some moves, jump, try something, but still you can’t do it because either your leg doesn’t allow it (it was too weak) or you risk getting injured again. I wasn’t in a rush, but of course I really wanted to. I started preparing for the graduation show in March.