#sofia valliulina

[tikitania]

Holy moly I think sofya valiullina just joined the Mikhailovsky !!!!!

Hopefully she can thrive and excel there, hoping for the best for her !!!

If true, that is an excellent place for her to land! And I cannot wait to see her on stage again. Adding this little clip as a reminder of what a great jumper she is!

[tikitania]

I saw Vailliulina had liked both Koshkareva and Kuprina's posts about their recent debuts in Legend of Love (very cute to see them debuting lead roles together for a second time after their Bright Stream paired debut), and I can’t imagine how that must feel — the three of them graduated together with the same opportunities, and now those two are continuing to debut lead roles whilst she’s starting over at a new theatre. I mean Vailliulina was very clearly ranked ahead of Kuprina throughout their time at school (tied with Koshkareva) right up until that Moscow Ballet competition and was dancing the title role in the graduation performance of Raymonda a full year before graduating.

I also cannot imagine, but I suspect she's made of stronger stuff than to have a pity party. She did survive 8 years of Vaganova, and then 2 seasons in the Bolshoi. No one is destined to greatness despite their talent. Many things have to align in order for a dancer's career to take-off and talent is the least of them. I'm actually way more impressed that she has dusted herself off and getting back to work in a much repsected theater. I cannot wait to see snippets of her on stage!

[tikitania]

Do you know what Sofia Valiullina's doing now? There doesn't seems to be a lot of new activity around her...

I have no idea, but I hope she lands on her feet and flourishes. Too much talent to just walk away from ballet.

[tikitania]

Valiullina getting the invite ahead of the other young Gamzatti debuts might be a sponsor/regional thing as the other girls are all from Moscow/St Petersburg but she is from Ufa (and interestingly so is Natalia Suprun who is dancing Nikiya during the same perfomance).

Definitely during her time at Vaganova she had a number of regional sponsors from Ufa that worked to promote her and fund things (like transport, extra costumes etc). I wouldn't be very surprised to find out that one of the sponsors for this festival (and maybe paying for Kimin Kim to come) is from Ufa/Republic of Bashkortostan - possibly connected to Komi Opera and Ballet because of Suprun who is principle there - and that they specifically requested Natalia and Sofia for this performance.

By the way even if this is the case I don't think it reflects poorly on Sofia or makes it less special for her to get to dance with Kimin Kim. Outside influences impact casting all the time and Sofia herself has almost certainly lost out on roles over the past year due to other dancers supporters/sponsors. She got support from these companies as a student because she was talented and hardworking and they (correctly) believed in her ability so wanted to give her the same opportunities the Moscow/St Petersburg girls get.

Thanks for sharing this, Anon! So interesting. Even if it's speculative, it's a reminder that there are so many behind-the-scenes influences to a dancers' career.