This is just a sneak peek as to what I saw! This is Medora performed by Anastasia Kolegova. She was wonderful. The most perfect Vaganova body; long hyper extended legs, beautiful extensions and jumps and a lovely flowing upper body. The other Principals were as follows: Conrad-Yevgeny Ivanchenko, Gulnare- Elena Yevseyeva (who I met today :)) and Ali-Filipp Smekalov. What I really love about the Mariinksy is that it was not about what tricks you could do, such as how many pirouettes(turns) you could do or how high you could get your leg, it was purely about the ballet art form. It was so pure and beautiful to watch and still see that one of the best companies in the world are sticking to the beauty of ballet and not turning it into gymnastics. I love to watch PURE, BEAUTIFUL BALLET!!! This was so amazing to be able to see in real life, it took my breath away and I'm so lucky I get to go to another performance tomorrow evening!

 

Outside the Mariinsky Theatre

 

The outside is so old and beautiful.

 

The Inside of the famous Mariinsky Theatre

I think the inside is even more stunning. What an honour it was to be able to watch a performance here by the Mariinsky Ballet and have such fantastic seats.

 

 

 

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The Mariinsky Theatre

All of us before we left for the Mariinsky Theatre to watch Le Corssaire. To the right is myself and Cleo, who I thought her name was Theo. The one day I said to her "Doesn't it annoy you when people call you Cleo?" Then she looked at me funny and said that is her name. We laugh all the time about that. How embarrassing..

 

The Mariinsky Theatre

 

The Outside

 

 

 

 

The Inside

 

 

The famous curtain.

It was so full, every seat was taken!!!

Myself and Cleo had such good seats. I really feel so honoured to have been to this theatre, it is a legendary theatre!!!

I snuck in a quick picture during the performance.

Me in one of the beautiful halls!!!

These are dolls that they sell in the gift shop for the Mariinsky Ballet. I really wanted to buy one but they are made of glass and I think it would break in my bag when travelling home.

Then of coarse I have to Skype James about the Mariinsky Ballet and tell him everything! Wish he could have been there with me, but the best I could do was buy him a T-shirt that says 'Mariinsky Ballet' on it ;)

Hi Everyone. Sorry I haven't updated. We went to Peterhof today, which is a beautiful Palace from the 1700's. We got back very late and I need to get some sleep for our 2nd week of hard work. So I will update tomorrow with some beautiful pictures of the famous Mariinsky Theatre where I watched Le Corsaire and some pictures of the Peterhof Palace. These pictures are really something to look forward to ;). So check in tomorrow evening for the next exciting update xx

Pictures

 

 This was really delicious ice-cream. I took a picture because I loved the little container it came in.

This is the main studio that we work in everyday. Its a round studio.

 

 

 

These are some of the younger girls in the Summer Intensive. The one in the white, her name is Sasha and she can only say hello in English otherwise she can only speak Russian. Sasha loves to give me hugs and cute little smiles throughout the day ;). The other 2 girls are Orphans. The whole purpose of the summer intensive is not only for us to receive the best training in the world, but the money paid for this program goes towards giving some Orphans the chance to having a better life. Life in the orphanages are really terrible for the kids and they just live everyday to get by and thanks to the money raised by this program some of these children are given the opportunities to have a dream and be able to strive towards it. The girl in the black, her name is Tatiana and the one in red, her name is Lobar. Tatiana has actually been accepted to be a student in the prestigious Vaganova Academy and Lobar was given a scholarship to study English in the UK. such a lovely story to think that they have gone from having no future to actually having dreams and being able to pursue them. Lobar can speak English, but Tatiana can't. Lobar was chatting with me and also translating for Tatiana and she was telling me that she loves tennis and wishes she could be a famous tennis player and she is also quite a little comedian too :). I asked her how she met Tatiana and she told me she doesn't know but she has been her BEST friend since she was 5 (and they are now 12 and 13) and they are always going to be best friends forever and ever. What a heart warming story. I really wish these 2 girls all the best success in the world.  

 This is 12 year old Tatiana in class. As you can see, she has the most perfect ballet physic for ballet. She is really going to be a star one day. She is only 12 and already dances so beautifully. I already love to watch her dance!

This is my little Sonia. She is so sweet(and really flexible as you can see). Everyday she will walk in and say my name in her cute little Russian accent and ask many questions like what my mothers name is or do I like apples and oranges. She loves the word beautiful! She will tell me "Jessica", then point to my leotard and say "so beautiful" and then another time my clips, hair or feet and say the same thing. She said something really cute today. She thought I was from America and I said I am from Africa and then she said "Oh, you from Africa, you like banana?" he he... very cute (",). She is 10 years old. My little Russian friend xxx

This is me with Mr Semyonov. He was taught by the same teacher as Baryshnikov. His classes were really great! You work very hard in them. He now only teaches in the USA.

This is me with Mr Carreno who is an ex Principal dancer of the National Ballet of Cuba and was Carlos Acosta's teacher. For those of you who don't know who Carlos Acosta is, he is one of the worlds famous ballet stars and is amazing. Mr Carreno is an amazing teacher and the classes are so much fun!

 

 

 

 

 The Experience of Flames of Paris at Mikailovsky

 

This is a picture of all of us, minus my roommate because she had to go to the hospital for her back, in the lobby of our hotel before we left.

 

 

 This is outside the Mikailovsky Theatre. Beautiful isn't it...

 

 

 

 

 

This is the stage.

 

 

 

These are the balconies. There are 4 levels excluding the bottom where I was. 

 

This is the ceiling where it had paintings and the most stunning chandelier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
A picture of me inside the amazing auditorium. Cant wait to see the Mariinsky after seeing this beautiful Theatre.

Myself and my 'beautiful' little Sonia (",)

 

YUP! I REALLY DID SEE THE AMAZING IVAN VASILIEV IN REAL LIFE!!!! I still cant believe it!

The curtain call, I snuck in some pictures ;). 

 

One of their 7 curtain calls! The audience was going crazy. Wish the audiences in South Africa loved ballet as much as the Russians do. 

 

 

That sign says Flames of Paris in Russian.

All my little friends ;)

My friend Molly from Texas and the little one, Agate came 2nd in the Junior section at the same competition that I did in Latvia. Agate is from Latvia.

Finally went to Pizza Hut :D.

My delicious pizza...

 

 

 My American friends trying to sort out the complicated bill...

It was good pizza...

 

This is a video of the inside of the Mikailovsky Theatre!

Proof that I saw Ivan Vasiliev in REAL LIFE!

One of the little Russian girls, Sonia. Her English is pretty good, she talks to me everyday and loves the word beautiful, she uses it often ;)

Flames of Paris at The Mikailovsky Theatre

I am so sore and stiff from this intense training. The Vaganova class that we have in the mornings, by Ms Safronova, is really slow in order fro you to work your technique. I love to work on my technique, but this is hectic. ALL my muscles are in pain. Yesterday I couldn't walk because I was so sore and it was really difficult to do any form of dancing. I have been enjoying the variations classes with Ms Kolpakova. She is so inspirational! Ms Kolpakova was a Principal dancer at the Kirov Ballet(now known as the Mariinsky) and is now a coach for the Principals at the American Ballet Theatre. She has so much knowledge and her detailing is outstanding. We have learnt Jewels from Sleeping Beauty and the first fairy variation in the prologue of Sleeping Beauty. She told me that I am very good yesterday! Wow coming from her, that is such an honour!!!! I have also been enjoying the last class of the day by Mr Lazaro Carreno. He trained at the Vaganova Academy and was a Principal dancer at the National Ballet of Cuba, dance with Alecia Alonzo and was Carlos Acosta's teacher. His classes are so energetic and his he continuously says that you dance with your brain and not your body and sets very confusing exercises but they are so much fun. I really feel like I can "dance" in his classes. Its nice to get the pure technique class in the mornings and the performing class in the afternoon. My muscles are slowly getting used to the continuous hard work.

Flames of Paris at the Mikailovsky Theatre

Ok so the highlight of my whole week so far was getting the most amazing opportunity to watch Ivan Vasiliviev LIVE in Flames of Paris on Wednesday evening. For those of you who don't know who Ivan Vasiliev is, please do yourself a favour and have a look at him on you tube. He is one of the stars of ballet of our time! The Principal female dancer was Oksana Bondareva. Let me start with her first. Ok, lets see... she is GREAT!!! She is from Ukraine and she is a turner... For her fouettes, she started off with a triple pirouette and then did turns in second(like the men, but on pointe) till the half way mark and then she did doubles for each fouettes till the end. What an honour it was to see Ivan Vasiliev in real life. He can do such amazing things. He did one combination where he did 2 sets of double tours straight after each other and then right after that did a TRIPLE!!! This is not something that you see everyday. There are not many men that can do this properly. I have never seen this in real life before. In fact I have never seen anything so amazing! If the Mikailovsky Ballet is this amazing, what is the Mariinsky Ballet going to be like on Saturday, oh yes I'm going to be watching Le Corsaire by the Mariinsky this Saturday and getting a backstage tour (",).

I will be posting some pictures of the Mikailovsky Theatre and will try upload some videos to prove that I really did see Ivan Vasiliev in REAL LIFE!!!!  

My First Day at The St Petersburg Summer Intensive

So today was my first day at the Summer Intensive. Um... WOW! It was so hectic, but really amazing. I learnt so much in one day and can already feel my body working in a different and better way.

We started the day by walking to the theatre that we would be attending our classes in. Of coarse it would be pouring with rain! I was very lucky that one of the American Mom's let me use her umbrella so that my pointe shoes wouldn't get wet. I felt so bad because she got so wet...
So when we got there, we got dressed and then went to our first class which was gymnastics. We did some really good exercises that strengthen your back, feet and core.
After gymnastics we had 1h30 mins class with Professor Ludmila Safronova who is 82 years old, a Professor at the Vaganova Academy and was taught by Vaganova herself! The class was very slow so that we could work our technique. When I say slow, I mean that you work VERY hard!!!
Then we went to variations class with Ms Irina Kolpakova who is a coach for the Principals at the American Ballet Theatre. We learnt Jewels from Sleeping Beauty.
We had a pretty long break and then we had character class. Now this type of character dancing is not what you would think of. Its a styl of dancing on its own where you do barre work and it has its on type of tendu's and degages etc. Then just when we thought we were too tired, we had another technique class with Mr Vladilen Semyonov who was taught by the same teacher as Baryshnikov! He was really great, gave me some good tips too.

Tomorrow we have the same day. I'm sure I am going to be really sore tomorrow from working so hard, but I'm so glad to be able to get this training. Its so amazing and I cant wait to share it with my fellow South Africans who are interested. Another thing that I found really cool is that I was with some of the students at the Vaganova Academy, WOW! I feel so privileged!

Until tomorrow (",)

 Myself and my roommate from Norway, Theo.

 My new friend from New York, Michaela.

Some beautiful buildings...

That is pure gold on top of the building!!!

This is the Romonav Winter Palace where the Queen would stay only in the winter.

A copy of the Flying Dutchman.

The largest River in St Petersburg and their colourful buildings. The reason why they paint their buildings in colours like pink, blue and yellow are because in the winter time(which is 8 months of the year) it is very grey and dull so they paint with these colourful colours so brighten up the city..

Doesn't this look a bit weird...

 

 

Peter, the man who created all of the style of the buildings in St Petersburg.

This is me in one of their beautiful gardens.

Really interesting statue. A story of how she is so beautiful and she is trying to wake him up with oil, something like that... hehe

Swan Lake ;)

The real Swan Lake ;)

Of coarse I had to visit the Grishko Store and I am going back next week before I have to leave.

Some goodies that I bought for myself, James and Sarahjane.