Gennady Yanin – Landgraf on Dance

12. November 2026

Harmony Born From Love

“The Sleeping Beauty”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
November 3, 2026 (Historic Stage)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

Only as I sat in the Bolshoi Theatre’s auditorium did I realize that this was my first time seeing Yuri Grigorovich’s The Sleeping Beauty live. A 2017 live stream was impressive, but Ezio Frigerio’s and Franca Squarciapino’s opulent set and costumes distracted from the piece’s essence: the awakening of an inner beauty. Of all the choreographies of The Sleeping Beauty I know, Grigorovich’s most successfully projects spirituality.
In 2024, the Bolshoi revived the far more restrained décor of Simon Virsaladze created for Grigorovich’s revised 1973 version of The Sleeping Beauty. It was streamed live at the season’s opening. But on screen, a ballet looks different.
For example, during the live stream, I didn’t notice the frame of green-gray legs turning the stage into a peep-box to a fairy realm. I also missed the effect of the backdrops’ loose brushstroke technique. The palace garden’s hazy vegetation offers nothing that sticks in the mind. One doesn’t think much about the staircase beyond that it leads somewhere pleasant. The mysterious lake in the forest hints at depths our consciousness does not plumb.

Taken together, the set, the Historic Stage’s enormous breadth, and the decorum and grace at court induce an inner calm that allows true beauty to reach the soul. It happens subtly with Princess Aurora’s awakening. Tchaikovsky’s brisk prologue heightens anticipations for a fabulous dance piece.

Maria Koshkaryova’s Princess Aurora was a graceful, delicate young woman with innate modesty. Glamour wasn’t part of her character. As she played with the spindle presented to her by the wicked Carabosse (Gennady Yanin), the entire court watched her as though she carried a defused bomb. High flying grand jetés carried Prince Désiré (Dmitry Vyskubenko) on stage (Prince Siegfried in Grigorovich’s Swan Lake enters in the same sweeping way). Vyskubenko has elegant lines, excellent jumps, and a likable nature. His performance was polished to perfection. In the hunting scene, each step of his solo spoke to the superb coaching he went through.
Alyona Kovalyova’s mature Lilac Fairy stood above all evil. Her calm and unwavering kindness reduced Carabosse to an incorrigible (but manageable) troublemaker. Except for Angelina Vlashinet’s Fairy of Audacity, the good fairies who bestowed their well-wishes on the newborn Aurora exaggerated their characters. Yuri Ostrovsky, whom I often saw in the role of a churchman, played Catalabutte, the Master of Ceremonies who hardly ever got it right.
Of the fairy tale characters, I especially liked Makar Mikhalkin’s powerfully soaring Blue Bird. Anastasia Smirnova was his lightweight Princess Florine.
The star of the evening was the corps whose perfect lines enraptured me. Regardless of the pace, their unity in the vision scene was impeccable and surpassed everything I’ve seen elsewhere.
The Bolshoi Orchestra played under the baton of Pavel Sorokin and was, as always, outstanding.

Link:		Website of the Bolshoi Theatre
Photos:	1.	Dmitry Vyskubenko (Prince Désiré) and Maria Koshkaryova (Princess Aurora), “The Sleeping Beauty” by Yuri Grigorovich, Bolshoi Ballet 2026
	2.	Dmitry Vyskubenko (Prince Désiré) and Maria Koshkaryova (Princess Aurora), “The Sleeping Beauty” by Yuri Grigorovich, Bolshoi Ballet 2026
		all photos © Bolshoi Theatre/Damir Yusupov
Editing:		Kayla Kauffman

10. July 202615. July 2026

Stellar

XV International Ballet Competition—Laureates’ Gala
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
July 05, 2026 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

After three rounds of competition in ten days, the XV International Ballet Competition’s jury awarded medals, certificates, and diplomas to 50 of 131 contestants. Due to the high standards, discussions to determine the laureates continued late into the night after the final round. A laureates’ gala concert concluded the competition.

Of the seven gold medals, three were awarded to competitors from the USA and the Republic of Korea and one to a Japanese dancer. Russian dancers received seventeen prizes, Chinese six, and Mongolians four. Western Europe wasn’t represented, and only a few dancers from Central Europe scored: the Swede Auguste Marmus (bronze medal men, duet), coryphée and, as of late, Kammertänzer of the Hungarian National Ballet, the Serb Jana Zimonjic (bronze medal women, solo), and the Slovene Vid Vogrin (silver medal boys, duet). What mattered, though, wasn’t nationality but talent. Continue reading “Stellar”

4. July 202610. July 2026

“It is necessary to notice talent and to help it.”

XV International Ballet Competition
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
June 25–July 05, 2026 (live streams)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

Last week, the International Ballet Competition kicked off in Moscow for the fifteenth time since its foundation in 1969. This year, it is dedicated to Yuri Grigorovich (1927–2025), the competition’s artistic director and permanent chairman of the jury for more than half a century. His Legend of Love, performed by the Mariinsky Ballet, opened the competition.

Held every four years, the International Ballet Competition is compared to an Olympic contest in which participation is an honor. This year, a record 362 dancers from thirty-five countries applied, of whom 131 were invited to Moscow. They compete in two age categories—the junior group, ages 15-19 years, and the senior group, ages 20-27 years (many of whom are leading members of a company)—each divided into solo performances and duets. Laureates will emerge from Continue reading ““It is necessary to notice talent and to help it.””

4. March 202625. March 2026

The Benchmark

“Coppélia”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre (New Stage)
Moscow, Russia
February 21, 2026 (evening performance)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

My hopes on a new video release were raised when I noticed the cameraman at the Bolshoi Ballet’s performance of Coppélia, until he explained that the recording was for internal use only. It’ll set the bar high for future generations of dancers.

Sergei Vikharev’s production, which he said is the most complete and exact rendition of what Nicholas Sergeyev noted from his St. Petersburg memories (his manuscripts are stored at Harvard University), has been in the Bolshoi’s repertory since 2009. It preserves all the details that fell victim to artistic, financial, and producing conditions in many Western stagings. Continue reading “The Benchmark”

25. February 202626. February 2026

Someone is in Control

“Master and Margarita”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre (New Stage)
Moscow, Russia
February 18/19, 2026

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

Around two years ago, I saw Edward Clug’s ballet adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita at the Bolshoi Theatre and found it fabulous. Last week’s two performances corroborated my impression. They also reminded me that, however chaotic the world might get, there’s no need to worry; someone is in control. In Clug’s version, it’s the Satan alias Woland and his accomplices. That hell and heaven commonly coordinate their actions went by the board.

Bulgakov intertwined two storylines (one deals with the absurd mayhem caused by Woland and his entourage on a 1930 visit to Moscow, the other is an eyewitness account of the trial of Jesus of Nazareth under Pontius Pilate’s governance), which are connected by the Master (an unrecognized Muskovit author, i.e., Bulgakov’s alter ego) and his muse, Margarita. Continue reading “Someone is in Control”

4. November 202329. January 2026

Fiendishly Fine

“Master and Margarita”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre (New Stage)
Moscow, Russia
October 29, 2023 (matinee)

I was skeptical whether Edward Clug was the right choice to tackle Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”. A Russian choreographer seemed better equipped to adapt this landmark of Soviet literature for the ballet stage than a Romanian-born working in Maribor, Slovenia. Two years after its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre, I was able to watch Clug’s “Master and Margarita” – and my reservations were proven thoroughly wrong. It’s a fabulous blend of entertainment and food for thought, brimful of metaphors and allusions. Yuri Possokhov, Clug’s Russian colleague, currently preparing a new piece for the Bolshoi, is full of appreciation for “Master and Margarita” as well. I met him at another performance where he told me that Clug understands the Russian soul perfectly well.

Interestingly, Clug, together with Christian Spuck (then artistic director of Zurich Ballet) intended to stage “Master and Margarita” in Zurich in 2015, but their plan was thwarted when the theater’s research revealed that ticket sales would be uncertain because the Zurich audience wasn’t familiar with Bulgakov’s novel. Destiny brought the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director Makhar Vaziev to the scene who decided to stage the piece in Moscow.

A lifetime could be spent exploring Bulgakov’s political and social satire and the biblical questions raised by the novel. In short “The Master and Margarita” (published only after Bulgakov’s death in 1940, first in an edited serial form in 1966/67 and uncensored in 1973) intertwines two plots: (1) the mayhem caused by the Satan (alias Professor Woland) and his entourage when visiting Moscow in the 1930s, and (2) the trial of Jesus of Nazareth in Jerusalem during Pontius Pilate’s governance. The connecting link is the Master, a Muscovite author (and Bulgakov’s alter ego) whose latest manuscript tells the Jerusalem plot. Margarita is the woman who loves him and – unlike Moscow’s critics – his work. Continue reading “Fiendishly Fine”

9. April 202313. April 2023

Hot!

“Don Quixote”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
April 5, 2023

“The Bolshoi Ballet” is synonymous with excellence – and if anyone can pull off “Don Quixote”, it’s them. This past Wednesday, though, the company left me flabbergasted. Pavel Klinichev wasted no time at the conductor’s podium, unleashing Ludwig Minkus’s score the instant he turned to face the orchestra. The effervescent pacing of the first few bars made clear that this “Don Quixote” would be a spicy one.
From the first moment that the goateed Don Quixote (Alexey Loparevich) and his loyal, oft-gluttonous squire Sancho Panza (Georgy Gusev) set off on their chivalrous journey, Valeriy Levental’s set transported us to the sizzling cauldron of the jam-packed port of Barcelona. Everything is perfect: the turquoise Mediterranean Sea glints under the bright summer sun; fresh fruit is piled sky-high; and the local youth remain in the merriest of moods. The happiest of all, Kitri (Elizaveta Kokoreva) and Basilio (Alexey Putintsev), quickly bring the scene to a boil. Kokoreva’s Kitri sweeps onstage like a torpedo, her fleet-footed legs and teasing fan leaving a trail of sparks. Klinichev’s brisk conducting seemed to spur rather than challenge her. I especially admired Kokoreva’s rock-solid balances – from which she descended only to hurl herself into a battery of snappy pirouettes. Continue reading “Hot!”