#anyuta

[alberichw]

[elegantballetalk]

Today’s watch:

Ekaterina Maximova in Anyuta (Tarantella)

[rwpohl]

барышня и хулиган - the lady and the hooligan, yevgeni slavinsky 1918

[tikitania]

Mariinsky Observations...

I was looking over the playbill and noticed that the company is going to present Anyuta in early December. It seems to be the same one that the Bolshoi performs. I've never seen it but will look for clips online. The cast has not been announced, but there is a list of dancers rehearing lead roles. I was happy to see Alexandra Khiteeva's name in there. I also noticed that David Zaleyev is rehearsing…I don't think he's returned to the stage since his horrible accident, so I hope this is a sign that he will soon return to the stage.

Coming up…the Mariinsky's last performance of Jewels in the foreseeable future. I've read that their license expires soon, so the 11/28 performance is their last. Tereshkina & Shklyarov will lead in Diamonds. The are the dream couple here, but I would have loved to see more performances just to see how other dancers handle the choreography. My pairings would be: Skorik & Capitaine, Iliushkina & Korneyev, Batoeva & Stepin. Khiteeva in Emeralds. Alas… I hope that there are lots of recordings of this last performance. Maria Bulanova seems to be underutilized these days. I haven't read anything about an injury, so I hope she's rehearsing and preparing new roles. Anyone have news about what she's working on?

[miss-mollys-ballet-blog]

Renata Shakirova as Anyuta.

[taffetastrology]

The signs as Anyuta ballet costumes

Aries

Taurus

Gemini

Cancer

Leo

Virgo

Libra

Scorpio

Sagittarius

Capricorn

Aquarius

Pisces

[shakishkinaa]

Anyuta is based on the story Anna on the Neck! it's a silly pun that more or less tells you what the story is about - having Anna on the neck refers to having a woman named Anna as your wife, but also refers to the Order of Saint Anna (honor award during Imperial Russia) which is worn at the lapel.

In this story there is a disgusting middle-aged man who marries Anyuta (freshly 18, only doing it because she wants the money to support her family). She hates him and he largely ignores her, kind of just seeing her as a prop and barely ever paying attention to her and not even helping her family. Anna becomes depressed upon realising she's effectively married this gross man for nothing. But at the party, Anna charms the socialites (including her husband's boss) and the husband realises he has a lot to gain from effectively letting Anna sleep with his boss - it's not that explicit in the ballet but it's more or less hinted at in how they leave the ballroom together and the corps just explodes into chaos (I love this scene, the music is great and there's a moment where the boss chucks away his wedding ring for Anyuta and one of the corps girls slumps into a dead faint)

Anyway Anyuta discovers she likes the attention, not just from that one specific man but from a variety of men at the party, who all treat her better than her husband. By the end, her husband does receive the order of Saint Anna which was his goal all along, but he becomes incredibly unimportant in the whole story and Anyuta pretty much acquires his assets and importance in society because she's just so much more well-liked in high society. It's pretty much about the slow corruption of Anyuta as a person, also kind of provides a glimpse into corruption in late Imperial Russia which is kind of cool!

also Anyuta has EIGHT dress changes which is just obscene for a two-hour ballet. one of them is a full-length wedding dress and veil which she wears for under twenty seconds. it's incredible.

😮😮😮Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to explain this to me!! Sounds like Anyuta has all my support! Gross men taking advantage of teenagers is all too common.. she's doing what she's gotta do😅 Added to my list of ballets I'd love to see live.

The costumes really stood out to me, I'd love to see all the changes and the drama... I wonder if/why the Mariinsky is just doing those three performances for the foreseeable future. They have their reasons, I'm sure. But it seems like a great role for Renata and I'm glad it was a successful debut for her. I saw a bit of Batoeva's performance and enjoyed it as well, but Renata is just so full of life and character!

Anyway, thank you again!!

[melmothblog]

Ekaterina Maximova performing the tarantella from the ballet "Anyuta". 1982. Maximova would’ve been 81 today.

You can watch the full ballet here:

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