I'm quite aware of that this might sound as gossip. But I came across an article on one of our tabloids today and the article says that Volochkova wasn't allowed to dance Swan Lake because she has put on some weight. So please delete this if inappropriate

This article is unfortunately in Swedish, but here is the link: Link to article about Anastasia

I was just wondering if it is something which is known world wide or just something this tabloid more or less has exaggerated?

The article says:
"There were no Swan Lake for prima ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, 27 years. The male dancers refuse to work with her because her ice-cream eating has made her too heavy. Anastasia Volochkova is one of Russias most well-known ballerinas. She is part of the Bolshoiballet-with which she has come in dispute with. Twelve hours before Anastasia was supposed to perform Swan Lake the board of the ballet called and told her that she wasn't going to perform since she had become too heavy. Volovhkova has belonged to the Bolshoi since 1998. She is taller than many other ballerinas and admits that she loves ice-cream. But she also adds that she has switched it to frozen yoguhurt with less calories."

There have been a lot of articles in the U.S. and Britisih press about this too, Susanne (and some discussion on the Kirov thread that we had to close because it did get too gossipy -- discussing articles in the press is fine, though.

I saw Volochkova four months ago, and did not think her at all "fat." She's tall for a dancer. The consensus seems to be that she can be difficult to work with, and that's the more likely reason for her current problems with the Bolshoi. (The "ice cream" comment is rather nasty, to my taste, and comes from the fact that on her web site it says she likes ice cream. )

Volochkova is certainly controversial. She did a season with a group of dancers a few years ago in London and was ripped apart in the press for it -- vanity company, cheap repertory, etc. -- and she gets into the gossip columns for off-stage behavior with some regularity. One newspaper article about this current flap called her "the most loved and loathed ballerina," and I think that's accurate.

I've only seen her in the past year -- on three separate visits with the Bolshoi -- and was prepared to be one of the "loathers" -- I'm not usually partial to dancers who wear glitter dust. In the "Don Q" pas de deux, I did find her performance too flamboyant, although it was at a gala, and so perhaps throwing her fan up in the air and catching it -- on the beat -- as it came down could be forgiven. But I liked her Swan Lake and Bayadere (Nikiya) very much. She's a "cold" dancer (odd, to be both flamboyant and cold), and in Swan Lake and Bayadere, technically chaste -- no extremes; perfect classical line, very thoughtful performances.

TOSSING the fan? And glitter? Sounds like my kinda dancer.

And given that she dances for a company which allowed a certain soloist to perform in both Shades and Giselle with what appeared to be day-glo white nailpolish at the State Theater a few years ago, well, just what are they complaining about?

I think everyone should see the fan toss at least once, Manhattnik. I've thought of you when watching Volochkova do Don Q (I'd also add that the partner who's quoted as complaining about lifting her looks as though he's big enough to lift Peter Martins.)

When she took my class a year ago she looked in great shape and certainly less than what I sometimes partnered with respect to length and weight. Is not a partner's job to make the woman look light and long?

I would love the fan toss in the pas as an excerpt - not sure in context unless Basilio gets to toss his guitar around - although he does get the glasses in the taverna scene variation!

Somehow I scream that the ice cream must be only one flavor of this story....

Indeed. Since the Bolshoi just hired Svetlana Zakharova, another very big (well, tall) ballerina, I doubt that Volochkova's size was the moving factor here . . .

When I saw Volochkova with the Bolshoi a year and a half ago, my reaction was the same as Alexandra's. In Don Q she looked like everything I'd been lead to expect -- vulgar, and a performer for whom ballet was a means, not an end. But in Bayadere (I didn't see her Swan Lake) she was entirely different, a serious and disciplined artist. Whatever her excesses may be, there is something genuine and worthwhile there. It's too bad that she doesn't seem to have been able to find a company with which she can work.

For those not familiar with Volochkova, this BBC video link may be useful, both an interview and a clip of her dancing are included. Scroll down and click onto:- "Fat" Russian Ballerina hits back at Bolshoi over weight claims. It's in the far right column.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/default.stm

Though I wouldn't claim to be a fan of AV, I find the media coverage of her present situation rather distasteful.

This debacle bears a striking similarity to a chain-reaction pileup on the highway. It's no good for anybody who gets involved with it, but once it starts, it's impossible not to watch.

Something that I find a bit annoying is that, in general, the media pay very little attention to ballet and barely mention any "serious" news (great performances, death of a dancer, stagings of ballets...), but when it sounds stupid and superficial ("a ballerina who eats to much ice-cream") suddenly they pay much attention to it! :angry:

Estelle, I agree. In America, at least, decades ago ballet could also make the news for political reasons -- a new defector. (When Alexander Godunov defected, for example, the Bolshoi's plane was held up in New York until U.S. officials were certain that his wife was not being held against her will; this got serious coverage, though as politics, not as art.)

I find the mass media online reviews of the new movie "Company" that I've read so far appalling. "So, like, Altman decided to make a move about -- ready for htis? BALLET! Have you stopped laughing yet?" Or "well, if this is your kind of thing you might like it," etc.

Sorry for the diversion -- back to Volochkova and her ice cream.

Anyone know what flavor? Rocky Road? Bittersweet chocolate.... Creme no more

Chubby Hubby? Hey! Idea!! "Russian Ice" a new custom-designed flavor.....

I really think this calls for a special new flavor of her very own!

Big Blueberry Ballerina? Gargantuan Glitter Grape?

I see a need here. Will no one fulfill it?

Somehow, Vanilla Volochkova just doesn't seem appropriate...

:angry: The whole is nothing but (strong word, probably not allowed here) pathetic. The poor woman has gained a kilo or two, OK, that can be gotten rid of in no time. No, I smell a rat here. Probably some underlying disputes or personal grievances or something else.

Pamela, I think the consensus is that there's nothing wrong with Volochkova's weight -- she's not gained. She put on her web site that she liked ice cream, and the tabloid press -- whoops, that was BBC, wasn't it? -- picked that up and ran with it as a headline. It's in all the American papers now too, adding to the body image problems which already plague young dance students. (I think the consensus is also that Volochkova was a controversial personage at the Bolshoi both back stage and on stage, and that there are, indeed, other reasons for her departure.)

Lest anyone coming in on this thread think that the "name the ice cream" comments are meant to be unkind digs at the ballerina, they weren't -- but rather suggestions for a new, perhaps temporary, sideline (on my part) and on mbjerk's, whose mention of "Rocky Road" (a real ice cream flavor here, with a particularly apt title) merely a witty comment on the situation. (For non-American readers, "Chubby Hubby" is also a real flavor. I have no idea what it is, but it's on sale at Giant Supermarkets this week, if anyone needs to fatten up a husband.)

I thought pretty much everybody liked ice cream , so I don't really see why it's such a big deal. Sylvie Guillem said in an interview that she likes ham and nobody went insane over that.

She could always do an endoresement for the Kitri Kreme on 72nd St.

Ari wrote:
"Since the Bolshoi just hired Svetlana Zakharova, another very big (well, tall) ballerina, I doubt that Volochkova's size was the moving factor here . . . "
Height is not the main problem. Even a taller ballerina can be quite accommodating for her partners. Zakharova is quite tall but she is thin, thin-boned and light. No dancer ever refused to dance with her. Even such a 'sparrow' as the 20-y-o Sarafanov partnered her recently in London.
Other ballerinas (and not necessarily tall ones) have heavy bones or heavy legs or they are just difficult to dance with. Somebody reminded me a lovely remark by Maris Liepa: "When one lifts a ballerina, it is not her weight but her nature that causes the problem."
On the Russian RTR-Planeta channel, the presenter announced that Volochkova was officially sacked today by the Bolshoi's administration for her refusal to sign her contract ending by the end of December. Then there was a clip showing Volochkova herself standing at the Theatre Square, in front of the Bolshoi Theatre, talking and giving her autographs to people and interviewed by journalists. She said that she has no option but to sue the theatre.

Thank you for the update, coda. (If it moves from the ice cream parlor into the courtroom, my bet is our newspapers will drop it. For Moscow, it's another matter, I'm sure.)

I have to say I can't think of anyone who's won a lawsuit like this -- not that I know anything about Russian law, of course. (If the dancers are on year to year contract, as guest artists almost always are, over here at least, then if the theater chooses not to renew, or offers only a partial year contract, that's their right.) Generally, it's best to go away quietly.

First of all I have to say that civil law is pretty much in its infancy in Russia at the moment, but if Volochkova chooses to sue she doesn't have good grounds for winning. The Bolshoi has probably sacked her more for her antics in the past week than for any other reason. The short contract she was offered reflects the fact that Ratmansky, the new director designate who takes up his post in January, may well wish to review Volochkova's position within the company. Volochkova was imported from the Kirov along with her partner Ivanov. Why the Bolshoi engaged her when it had so much more interesting female talent and why she went on to perform more often than any other dancer, remains a mystery. Now that her partner Ivanov is injured through partnering her and the other male dancers have all refused to replace him, that does in effect make her redundant within the company.

In 1994 principal dancer Gediminas Taranda sued the Bolshoi for unfair dismissal and lost. His circumstances were very different, as he had been fired for dancing abroad without prior permission. Just about all the other dancers were doing the same thing and it appeared that he was being made an example of to deter the others. In a British court he may have won as his case was a strong one, but the weight of the Bolshoi bore down on him and he lost the case. Volochkova, it could be said, has become a public nuisance in the past few days and I think the courts will uphold the Bolshoi on this one.

Well, if I remember correctly, Patrick Dupond finally won a lawsuit against the Paris Opera for unfair dismissal (it was a complicated story, and he had lost his first lawsuit but won the second one; basically the POB said they had fired him because he had gone to the Cannes film festival to be a member of the jury and so had skipped some rehearsals, but in fact it was shown that anyway his roles for that period had been cancelled even before he decided to go to Cannes and so he hadn't missed any necessary rehearsals, or something like that...) and so the Paris Opera had to pay him more than 200,000 euros.
I guess that perhaps the Paris opera is lacking good lawyers, as they also had lost some lawsuits against conductors a few years before...

But that situation is quite different from that of Volochkova, as Dupond's contract was a permanent one, and in general, even though the POB dancers are not civil servants, their position is quite "secure".

Mashinka wrote:
"... her partner Ivanov is injured through partnering her ..."
Please allow me to correct the name. Volochkova's partner who claimed an injury was the Mariinsky's Yevgeny IVANCHENKO. Not to be confused with the Bolshoi's Konstantin IVANOV who also dances some leading roles.

This story has moved from the tabloids to the front page of the New York Times, complete with color photograph of Volochkova, so it must be important.

I have to say that when I first heard about this little soap opera, the only aspect of the story I got was the ice cream. Not surprising, since I do live in America after all (cursed yellow journalism). Even then I didn't have too much sympathy for her (ice cream is not very high on my list of ballerina-friendly foods). And now that the truth comes out, well, I have to say it doesn't really surprise me. Just reinforces the concept that we are disposable, right up to the high-and-mighties. I'm afraid I burst a few bubbles when I brought up that point on a discussion of the situation on another website. But the little angels had to find it out sooner or later. I'm sorry it had to be me who told them so, but this is a vicious business. Being a world-famous prima doesn't exempt you from that.

Estelle, thanks for the information on the Dupond matter -- and I think there are other dancers who have won money -- reimbursement of back salary, or something of that sort. I was thinking, though, of getting one's job back -- that I don't think has happened. It's the same in business or any bureaucracy. They may need to keep you, legally, but they'll give you an office in the basement and no work. A company may be forced to take a dancer back and list them on the roles, but not force them to cast the dancer or give him/her performances.

I've posted a long, long list of links in the Bolshoi forum, and also on the Links forum for today's news. It's been a long time since any ballet story has gotten this much coverage -- shame it's not about ballet

Oh, just had a flashback!

Wasn't the plot of the notorious Gelsey episode of "LA Law" along the lines of a ballerina discharged for what she felt was unjust cause?

Yes! And he was choreographing a brand new ballet -- "Giselle" -- too. (I don't think she won that one, either.)

Network news report:

ABC closed with the Volochkova story tonight. That's the only news I watched -- any others?

Yeah, I saw it, too. I believe they mentioned her stats to be 5'7'' and 109 lbs.

New York Times measured her at 5'6". And yes, she was reported to weight 109lb. That just confirms that height and weight have NOTHING to do with this issue. They're just exuses being used to fire her.

Supposedly, none of the men are willing to dance with her. We are not told why, and may never know. But that is probably closer to the crux of the issue.

Out here in the L.A. region, we just got Volochkova on the 4 o'clock news - ABC also.
There were sections showing the end of Dying Swan I am assuming and a clip of D.Q.
Footage of her coming out of a limo and speaking to the press. She was very contained and ofcourse elegantly dressed.

I remember seeing this ballerina perform in London a few years ago with an independant group. She was very 'glamorous' and talented and yet.......hummmmmm. This show was definitely built around her stardom ..... Did anyone else see this event?

Socalgal, I didn't see it, but I think the consensus was it wasn't going to make the all-time Top Ten list of artistic endeavors. But I, and several others, thought her quite different in regular company performances -- and yet another but, still many others (see the Kirov forum) think her talent overrated across the board. I think one of the earliest news stories called her Russia's "most loved and loathed" ballerina.

Coming out of a limo? Oh, give me a break...

Maybe Volochkova can finesse the whole thing by adding a number, complete with vocal, set to the "Too Fat Polka".

I don't want her, you can have her,
She's too fat for me.
She's too fat for me.
She's too fat for me. (all repeat)

I get dizzy,
I get num-bo
When I'm dancing
With my jum-jum-jum-bo!

I don't want her, (etc.)

Ya feets too big,
ya feets too big,
ya know i can't love ya cause ya feets too big....

Just a glancing side-light -- Markova was said to be very hard to lift. (Can I be remembering this right?) I don't know where I read it, but I have a distinct memory of a complaint by one of her partners that Markova did NONE of the lift herself, no jump to get it started.....

Volochkova sure seems to be winning hte PR war -- but maybe she's the Madonna of ballerinas (not an original idea on my part) -- And then some: if she can get the New York TImes to come over and MEASURE her, she's the Phineas T BArnum of our age.And if she can toss her fan and catch it (musically, of course) in DonQ, I hope I get a chance to see it....

Maybe she'll move to my fair state and run for governer. THey've delayed the election... next thing you know, they'll re-open the candidacies...

Oh, you guys!!! :grinning:

Could said partner have been Erik Bruhn? I remember reading an article about/by him comparing the degrees of cooperation of some of his ballerinas, complaining about one who insisted she would look lighter without a preparatory jump. I found that odd, because it is the man's effortlessness that makes the woman look weightless, isn't it? And wasn't Markova really, really tiny?

Still, I would be alarmed to see a 5'6" dancer at 109 pounds. Wouldn't she look rather emaciated? Didn't the skeletal Heather Watts (5'6") weigh about that in her dancing days? Did the Times check the scale's accuracy to be sure that, with nothing on it, it balanced at zero?

Volochkova has just hit the news in Aus. ( yes we are a bit slow, too involved with Waltzing Matilda and Rugby World Cup but that's another story) It was implied- no it was more than implied- that her partner(s) were suffering from back injuries trying to lift such a big, icecream loving sheila.

About the being hard to lift because of no jump--I remember reading that about Kirkland in someone's autobiography--Villella's or LaFosse's?

Also, whether she is 5'6" or 5'7", 109 lbs is incredibly thin; I'm surprised she can dance at all at that weight! No one the proper height should have trouble lifting someone that tiny. But haven't there been tales of rather wimpy Bolshoi men these days? Maybe that's the real issue....

Carbro, I've read the story, from Bruhn, about Markova being too hard to lift because she wouldn't help -- it was one he often repeated (I always thought it was ungentlemanly of him, and besides, as you point out, it's his job to make her look weightless, in my book).

Paul, you already have at least one ditzy blonde on the ballot -- the one running around in the pink convertible? (forget her name). I always thought Volochkova would be perfect for Vegas, though -- in her fan-catching mode, at least. I should also say that I have several colleagues who saw her when she was 18 and loved her. Thought she was going to be the Kirov's next great ballerina -- very pure, and so beautiful. Then the Madonna syndrome set in (although, as I've said before, I've also seen her dance some very beautiful performances.)

I think there are quite a few dancers who would be in the 5'6 - 110 pound range. I remember a story from about 15 years ago of a young ballerina at a major American company who was 5'7 and weighed 120 pounds when she was 19 being told she had to lose ten pounds -- and she did, and strength was not an issue. Willpower is a strange and wonderful thing. It also has a lot to do with body frame. I also know of two Washington-trained dancers who, at 17, were 5'4, 5'5 and weighed 90 pounds, according to their press people, and it was believable. They had very straight bodies (no hips, perfect for unitard ballets) and were small-boned.

Dame Alicia is a tiny woman. Perhaps Bruhn was having difficulties in partnering her because of the height mismatch? And Gelsey had a jump of considerable power, but at times when she was in trouble, her faculties would just shut down, I think La Fosse wrote about this phenomenon in his autobiography. Still, it is ungallant to tell tales like that off the stage. I have to give La Fosse points, though, as he was describing a sort of pathology.

Markova coached me in Les Sylphides where she constantly told my partner not to jump, help or anything. Her words were, "Make him lift you!" It was the first time that I heard someone tell the woman not to at least feel a releve into a lift. I think I remember Freddie Franklin telling stories of how he partnered Markova in pirouettes telling us that he made the turns and she just help her pose.

Markova was wonderful. Another line was, "Of course if I were in training I would show you exactly." She was a true grand dame.

Markova's method may have been hard work for her partner, but it worked - I've never seen such an amazing illusion of flight as her entrance for the pas de deux in Les Sylphides - you could 'see' that her partner (Bryan Ashbridge I think) was holding her down rather than lifting her.

I was talking to a freind the other evening who first told me this. My initial response (having a tall dancing daughter) on hearing she was "fired for being to heavy" at 110 pounds 5'7" was that something must have been lost in the translation!

Then this morning -- in between hurricane blurbs -- there it was again on the TODAY SHOW!!! They were making light of the whole thing, but the story was this 109 pound Bolshoi dancer was fired for being too heavy, and the dancers couldn't lift her.

This is NOT something I want our young dancers to hear and take to heart. I can see starving adolescent ballet students collapsing in studios all over the country as they cut calories to the bone in an effort to be "not too heavy." Please, someone give us the real "skinny" on this story!!

About Kirkland being hard to lift, if I remember correctly in her autobiography after she started to study with David Howard, he taught her that "you have to go down to go up" or something like that. That pushing down to the floor as your partner lifts you creates resistance that results in a more stretched out form or arc. I think that's how it goes.

Anyway I've been reading all the comments about Volochkova and I think the Bolshoi is using the weight issue as a smokescreen to hide the fact that she is she is too opinionated for them. They can't fire her for that, but they can if they say she is too fat.

Here the media don't seem to pay any attention to that (perhaps they are too busy talking about the government budget deficit, the last soccer matches and some recent murders ) - but well, I think that I prefer that silence to silly comments about "ice-cream eating ballerina"- and Doris, I agree that it could be dangerous for young dancers, if they imagine that having such a weight and height is "too heavy" for a ballet dancer!

Well, that's just an assumption, but sometimes when male dancers don't want to partner a female dancer isn't it more a problem of personality rather than weight?

Yes, espeically if a ballerina brings a partner with her, passing over the company's men, who might -- just hypothetically speaking, of course -- then wish to turn the tables if the originail partner, for whatever reason, no longer wishes to dance with her.

There are some substantive stories in the news today -- check today's Links thread. Some are quite good, interviews with Russian critics and dancers.

Yes, that accurately describes David's coaching. So many dancers (male and female alike) forget that partnering is a partnership :grinning: It is about the timing and interaction of two people! Too many ballerinas think our their partner as the 'frame' who carries around the 'picture' and and young danseurs who consider partnering the 'necessary evil' until they get to do their variation.

Personally, I don't think this brouhaha has anything to do with numbers (though a declining technique may be part of the story), but perhaps Ms. Volochkova is not a person one wants to dance with...

Not just young danseurs either!

I like it when the woman lets me feel her weight in my hands as it allows us to move as one and gives me the control of the movement. Dancing Kylian is a great way to find this connectivity, although I was fortunate enought to have coaches throughout that made us feel each other and work with our individual qualities to make a better total performance.

What is the record for the most posts on a single topic in a short period?

Just a thought on the subject -- I am as irritated about this hoorah as anyone, and dislike the negative attention it brings to the ballet world. But I was horrified when I saw the story this morning on "Good Morning America." They interviewed a young dancer from the Joffrey School who actually said on national television that "most dancers have bulimia or are sick."

For heaven's sake!!! What an ignorant, lousy thing to say about your own art form. Someone needs to suggest to this young lady that she learn to exercise some control over her mouth.

I agree, pugbee. While it may be possible to dance at 5'7" and 100 lbs, that doesn't mean it's healthy, and it certainly should not be held up as an ideal. Just when you think the "anorexic" stereotype is starting to go away, here comes this story about an incredibly thin dancer who is supposedly "fat," and the ballet world is viewed as crazy once again.

While it seems to me that dancers are very healthy these days, I also think they are still far too thin, and I agree that partnering is really more about timing and coordination than actual weight (though of course that plays a role). Perhaps choreographers should start focusing on dancing as opposed to lifting...