Which ballets would it be better to see Natalia Osipova in at ABT this Summer: Giselle or Airs/La Sylphide?

Don Q ?

Anyway, I'd take Sylphide.

If Osipova at ABT this Summer had been cast for a Kitri, I think the lines would have begun at Christmas (just to buy standing room)!!!

I'm planning to see her Giselle.... I can already almost envision that 2nd Act diagonal of stag leaps where I'm sure she will make the audience gasp with disbelief!

Unfortunately, Don Q isn't part of the 2009 Met season.

Not to worry, both her Sylph and her Giselle were quite special, even if most people don't take it for granted.

I also have a ticket for Osipova's Giselle -- I actually am trying not to think about her jumps in Act II (though the fact that I have to try tells you something) and focus on the fact that the best video clips I have seen of her suggest that she really DANCES, each step flowing rhythmically into the other so that one almost ceases to see steps even though they are there. (Not every clip suggests that, but a few hint at it...)

After last year's Vishneva debacle (debacle for those of us flying many miles and paying for a hotel to see a dancer scheduled for a particular performance only to learn she was injured) I also picked the Giselle so I get a mini-festival of performances with different dancers I would like to see, including Vishneva, all scheduled for the same week.

If all the ballerinas I care about end up injured at the same time, then I will take that as a sign from the universe that it wants me to give up ballet going. Hope that doesn't happen though--and I am quite aflame with excitement about seeing Osipova.

Osipova's Giselle -- I love her port de bras, the way she uses her arms, so I'm also excited to see what she does with them in Act 2.

I have tickets to see Osipova in Le Corsaire in june, I thinks its the next best role for her after Don Quixote.

Osipova is more than just jumps and port de bras --

check out the youtube clip of her mad scene as Giselle -- she's a powerful dance actress with tremendous imagination -- she's young yet, and her taste is not always perfect, but she is a tremendous artist in the very early stages of growth, and not just a stylist or technician....

or at least that's the way it looks from just seeing the evidence on youtube.

Check out 3 things -- the Giselle mad scene, her Sylphide, and her peasant pas de deux to see three VERY different kinds of artistry -- and then look again at her Kitri...

Precisely, one of the greatest (pleasant) suprises in Osipova's development is her ability to adjust her plastique and style to the very different ballets she has been performing in recent years. There is absolutely no trace of a one-ballet ballerina here.

Have you ever seen Osipova at a live performance?

I have, at last year's YAGP Gala. Osipova's an amazing dancer,
all around, and beautiful just to look at before she starts any dancing.

Osipova's Kitri (from watching UTube) is beyond words.....
(full of every passionate, joyful description/adjective possible for that role).
I hope Osipova will guest at ABT with a Kitri one of these days.

I've made plans to see Osipova in DC in "Le Corsaire" on Sunday, after the Part "La Sylphide" at ABT. I'm looking forward to seeing both.

I checked out youtube and agree that Osipova seems to be able to combine artistry with technique in a wonderful way. I was convinced enough to buy tickets for Sylphide. I am typically not a fan of Russian dancers (Nina Ananiashvila being the exception on the woman's side). I look forward to post performance discussions.

I personally think that Osipova's strengths are on her physical works and techniques, so I think Don Q would be better than the 2 mentioned.

But I would prefer Sylphide over Giselle.