Ask Responses: Tough Questions #2
Can you explain the differences in style between the Vaganova teachers? For example, how do Kovaleva’s dancers differ from Dudinskaya’s and Udalenkova’s and Vasilieva’s? Also, how can a teacher train two dancers and have them be so different? It amazes me. Like Lopatkina and Volochkova. Oh and also, on a side note, what exactly happened to Volochkova? And wasn’t she given the chance to dance Swan Lake while still at ARB? Why her, when in my opinion, Lopatkina would have been better?
I’ve received some tough questions recently (six of the, to be exact). I find these particular questions challenging for a number of reasons: some subject matters are potentially controversial; my personal opinion on certain subjects is not especially nice and I’m cautious when it comes to sharing it; or I simply don’t have enough information to give a good answer. Either way, I will do my best to answer these questions honestly.
Vaganova Ballet Academy professors all teach the same program, but they also have their individual “signatures” – something that sets their students apart. If I’m perfectly honest, I don’t think I have a keen enough eye to immediately identify a teacher by watching their student perform. I think you’d have to be a professional to do that (I’m not). It may be helpful to look at some of the dancers who had graduated under the four professors you named:
Udalenkova
Ekaterina Kondaurova
Irina Perren
Eleonora Sevenard
Renata Shakirova
Kovaleva
Diana Vishneva
Olga Smirnovay
Ekaterina Borchenko
Maria Khoreva
Vasilieva
Yulia Makhalina
Viktoria Tereshkina
Olesya Novikova
Egenia Obraztsova
Dudinskaya
Ulyana Lopatkiva
Anastasia Volochkova
Margarita Kullik
For me, personally, it’s hard to compare these dancers or to identify which qualities mark them as the students of a particular teacher. If I remember correctly, even professor Kovaleva couldn’t pinpoint exactly what sets her students apart or why her “signature” is so recognisable... I am curious to know what others think. I also don’t like comparing dancers, and it’s especially difficult in this case. You can’t compare Lopatkina and Vishneva. Despite coming from the same school and having a superb technical base, these two ballerinas are unique individuals. Does this say something about how different their teachers were? Or maybe they were both lucky enough to have teachers who recognised and nurtured their individuality?
You can learn more about how she teachers and which methods she uses from this video (English), and I think that answers some questions:
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I believe that the personality of the teacher also plays a role in forming the student. For example, Ulyana Lopatkina noted that Dudinskaya was a strong woman and an optimist, and she worked to instil these same qualities in her students. Udalenkova has a rough (to put it lightly) childhood and youth, and is known to be quite tough on her students. Sadly, I know very little about Vasilieva – the one teacher I am most interested in.
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This is one of the toughest questions I’ve received because it concerns Volochkova. The thing is, I have nothing nice to say about Volochkova, so answering this question poses a challenge. I try to avoid writing about people I strongly dislike. Also, there is a group of people who tend to leap to Voloshkova’s defence and I foresee getting some angry emails.
You asked me what happened to Volochkova. The answer is pretty short: stupidity and alcohol. Volochkova hay have been a decent dancer very early on in her career, but by the time she gained serious fame she was more interested in celebrity lifestyle than anything else.
In terms of the “Swan Lake” debut, Volochkova’s contemporaries have two words to say on the matter: casting couch. And while I dismiss such statements as a general rule, in this case I actually believe it. The Mariinsky’s management at the time was, by all accounts, hella corrupt and got up to all sorts of shady nonsense. Add to this the fact that ballet students in Russia have historically been targeted by creepy older men (even Keenan Kampa recalls this from her time at VBA) and you get a pretty toxic mix. To be clear, if this is indeed the case, I do not blame Volochkova for what happened. She was a teenager. In some ways Volochkova is a tragic figure, but she’s also made a lot of very bad choices and has never really accepted responsibility for her actions. I actually don’t know how one teacher can produce two dancers like Lopatkina and Volochkova. Literally night and day.
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I’m actually glad that Lopatkina didn’t dance “Swan Lake” straight out of the gate. She had the time to develop as an artist, spent some years in the corps and wasn’t rushed to perform huge roles. I think that’s the healthier way.
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