Yevgenia Obraztsova (Dancer)
Evgenia Obraztsova was born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) on 18 January
1984 to a family of ballet dancers. Her future career choice (which course her
parents made for her initially) was predetermined by the girl’s liveliness,
energy, excellent physique and obvious artistic talent. Moreover, the world of
ballet was close and intimately familiar to Evgenia from a very young age. Tied
to her theater seat with a belt from a ballet robe, lest she jumped onto the
stage to join the action, she saw the entire classical ballet repertoire. But by
the time Evgenia had to make a definitive career choice, she also became
fascinated with dramatic theater. This love for the theater developed into a
lifelong romance and almost cost the world the great ballerina that Evgenia was
to become. Nonetheless, the unity of music and theater, the stylistic beauty and
the incomparable atmosphere of the ballet world ultimately tipped the scales in
its favor. Another reason why ballet ultimately won over Evgenia was the St.
Petersburg Philharmonic. Evgenia still vividly remembers her first acquaintance
with the Philharmonic: Evgeny Svetlanov was conducting, and the artistry that he
displayed that night taught Evgenia how to truly hear and appreciate music. The
Philharmonic was to become her third home for many years; it was a place where
she would come every evening after her classes at the Vaganova Academy of
Russian Ballet.
During her years at the Vaganova Academy, Evgenia worked with a number of
teachers who played an important role in shaping her style and personality as a
ballerina. At different points in time, her class was taught by Lyudmila
Sofronova, Inna Zubkovskaya and Marina Vasilieva, and each of them imparted
something of her own that helped shape the overall individuality of the young
ballerina. Lyudmila Sofronova, one of Vaganova’s last students, instilled into
her girls the rules and the genuine feel of the St. Petersburg ballet style.
Inna Zubkovskaya helped them develop their inner strength and a true ballerina
aplomb, while Marina Vasilieva, a highly experienced teacher, enabled them to
systematize the knowledge they received and made them feel self-confident. One
must also mention the graduate of the Moscow ballet school Nikolai Tagunov, who
developed an impeccably clean dancing technique in his students through hard
discipline. As for the Vaganova Academy’s acting skills instructor A. A.
Styopin, Evgenia continues working with him to this day and happily turns to him
for help when preparing new roles.
In 2002, Evgenia graduated from the Vaganova Academy and was accepted into
one of the world’s best companies — the Mariinsky Ballet Theater. At the ballet
school Evgenia had already appeared on the stage of Mariinsky multiple times..
However, the real start of her artistic history as a Mariinsky dancer was marked
by three crucial life events in the 2002-2003 season. First, during her very
first year at the theater, she was invited to take part in the Mariinsky’s tour
in Paris. Second, Ninel Kurgapkina, a sublime ballerina with a God-given talent
for teaching, took Evgenia under her tutelage at the theater’s request. A
guardian of the true St. Petersburg style, Kurgapkina later helped Evgenia
prepare for the roles of Shirin, Princess Aurora, Sylphide, Maria, Giselle,
Kitri and many others. But that was still to come, in the meantime, the third
and most fateful event of Evgenia’s first season at the Mariinsky occurred — she
was given a major role debut as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet by Leonid Lavrovski.
For this role, still among Evgenia’s favorites, she prepared for an entire six
months together with her tutor and acting skills teacher.
2004 started for Evgenia with a second major role at her home Mariinsky
theater — the title role in La Sylphide, now generally considered to have become
her calling card. To help prepare for this role, Evgenia and Ninel Kurgapkina
enlisted the help of S. Berezhnoi, a guardian of this ballet’s traditions at the
Mariinsky. The preparation was very meticulous, as Evgenia and her teachers
wanted her Sylph to be an example of the true St. Petersburg ballet style. In
general, the City on the Neva River has meant a lot for Evgenia as an actress.
For one, even Marius Petipa, when he created his famous semitransparent
descending shadows scene in La Bayadere, was inspired by images of St.
Petersburg — a city filled with music and poetry, a city that may feel bit
distant and cold, but at the same time be one of the most romantic cities in the
world. The ethereality and poetry of Evgenia’s heroines are also in great part a
reflection of her native St. Petersburg.
In the same 2004, Evgenia performed another important role in her career —
that of Shirin in The Legend of Love by Yuri Grigorovich. Having herself been
handed that role directly by Grigorovich many years ago, Ninel Kurgapkina made
it the only one that she specifically requested for her protégé. Kurgapkina
truly loved that character and, thus, demanded extreme precision and attention
to detail from Evgenia’s performance.
2005 was another key landmark in Evgenia’s dancing career. That year she won
the Gold Medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition. Having arrived to
participate in this competition entirely on her own, without counting on
anyone’s support, Evgenia managed to outshine a number of strong rivals and win.
Winning the medal was a goal that Evgenia had set for herself while still
graduating from the ballet academy, and this victory opened up the international
ballet scene for her. Already in 2005, she started receiving her first personal
touring invitations. Her first such experience was in the premiere of Konstanin
Sergeev’s version of The Sleeping Beauty in the USA. That same year, she was
invited by the Teatro Dell’Opera di Roma to take on the highly complex, yet
interesting work in Carla Fracci’s Cinderella. Evgenia would later return to the
Roman Opera as a guest soloist several times: first in 2006 as Margherita in
Faust by Luciano Cannito, and then in 2010 in the title role of Giselle by Carla
Fracci. Italy witnessed two other very important events in the ballerina’s
career. In 2006, Evgenia was invited to dance alongside other world ballet stars
in the famous Roberto Bolle and Friends project, which was the first time that
she performed on the stage of La Scala in Milan. In 2007, she made her first
appearance at the renowned Arena di Verona, where she danced at the invitation
of Maria Grazia Garofoli. 2005 also gave Evgenia interesting experience in
cinema work, when she tried her acting skills in front of a movie camera in Les
Poupees Russes (The Russian Dolls) by French director Cedric Klapisch.
In 2007, Evgenia graced her admirers with a performance of the title role in
Giselle. Evgenia may not appear as often as the audiences might have liked it in
this role, probably the most important one in the romantic ballet repertoire.
But every time she does perform it, her heroine changes, with her inner world
becoming ever deeper, and the audiences being less and less able to hold back
their tears over Giselle’s death in the first act or their admiration for the
fortitude of her immortal soul in the subsequent scenes.
2008 brought an unexpected and, thus, a much welcome treat for ballet
audiences when Evgenia took on the role of Kitri in Don Quixote. Rarely do
ballet heroines, even the vivacious ones, manage to survive and attain happiness
at the end of a play, but Kitri is one of the few fortunate exceptions. The
audience discovered Evgenia as a completely different actress –mischievous,
light-hearted, but with a strong personality, a classical St. Petersburg
ballerina, yet with a genuine southern temperament. Soon after the debut as
Kitri on her home stage, Evgenia was invited to reprise this role in Sergei
Vikharev’s version of Don Quixote with the Tokyo-based ANB Ballet company. This
Japanese Don Quixote was one of the many collaborations between Vikharev and
Obraztsova. She danced in his other ballet productions as Flora in The Awakening
of Flora, Columbine in Le Carnaval and Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty.
2006 brought a whole kaleidoscope of ballet premieres for Evgenia. She
debuted in the role of Maria in The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, then made her long
awaited appearance as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, and took on a new and
unfamiliar dance plastique in Cinderella choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky.
Finally, 2006 was also the year when Pierre Lacotte’s Ondine premiered — the
first ballet staged specifically in collaboration with Evgenia. The French small
step technique, uncommon for the Russian style, as well as health problems that
caused significant hardship during final rehearsals and the premiere — all of
these were overcome by the ballerina with such effortlessness and grace, that
the unsuspecting audience was nothing short of amazed at her virtuosity and
lightness, and heartbroken together with Leonid Sarafanov’s character by the
ballet’s tragic climax. The role of Ondine earned Obraztsova the most
prestigious theatrical prize in Russia — the Golden Mask.
2007 presented Evgenia and her admirers with an encounter with Giselle.
Evgenia may not appear as often as the audience might like in this role,
probably the most important one in the romantic ballet repertoire. But every
time she performs it, her heroine changes, with her inner world becoming ever
deeper, and the audience being less and less capable of holding back its tears
over Giselle’s death in the first act or restraining its admiration of the
fortitude of her immortal soul in the subsequent scenes.
2008 brought an unexpected and, thus, much welcome treat for ballet audiences
when Evgenia took on the role of Kitri in Don Quixote. Rarely do ballet
heroines, even the vivacious ones, manage to survive and attain happiness at the
end of the play, but Kitri is one of the few fortunate exceptions. The audience
discovered Evgenia as a completely different actress —mischievous,
light-hearted, but with a strong personality, a classical St. Petersburg
ballerina, yet with a genuine southern temperament. Soon after the debut as
Kitri on her home stage, Evgenia was invited to reprise this role in Sergei
Vikharev’s version of Don Quixote at the Tokyo-based ANB Ballet company. This
Japanese Don Quixote was one of the many collaborations between Vikharev and
Obraztsova. She danced in his other ballet productions as Flora in The Awakening
of Flora, Columbine in Le Carnaval and Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty.
2009 turned out to be both happy and very sorrowful for the ballerina. The
tragic death of Ninel Kurgapkina ended their 8-year creative union that gave
audiences a number of performances by Evgenia that were truly moving in their
depth and precision. But 2009 also brought new roles — first and foremost the
first duet in Jerome Robbins’s In the Night, as well as the character of
Syuimbike in Shurale by Leonid Yakobson — and marked the start of Evgenia’s
creative collaboration with her new teacher Elvira Tarasova. Another very
important event in the ballerina’s life that year was her appearance in the role
of Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty as a first-time guest soloist at the Royal
Opera House at Covent Garden, where she had performed previously on multiple
occasions while on galas or on tour with the Mariinsky Theater. Although Aurora
had been in Obraztsova’s repertoire for some time by then, at Covent Garden she
had to master a new version of this ballet, as well as the English ballet style,
which significantly differs from the Russian. According to critics and
audiences, Evgenia accomplished this task brilliantly, successfully conquering
yet another leading world ballet stage.
Among Evgenia’s other notable accomplishments have been her performances at
Staatsballett Berlin, where she appeared twice in the ambitious Malakhov and
Friends project, as well as at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow
Musical Theater, where Evgenia has been a guest soloist since 2010. It was on
the stage of the Musical Theater, where Evgenia, for instance, had her first
encounter with the work of the remarkable choreographer Jiří Kylián, and where
in 2010 she also danced Giselle together with one of her favorite partners, the
Paris Opera etoile Mathieu Ganio. Just prior to this engagement, she
participated in the Etoiles Gala au Japon event, where she first danced the duet
from McMillan’s version of Romeo and Juliet (together with Ganio), and also
starred in Pierre Lacotte’s new ballet The Three Musketeers (set to the music of
Michel Legrand) in the role of Constance Bonacieux. Partnering with Evgenia in
that performance were such renowned world ballet stars as Mathias Heymann,
Benjamin Pech, Matheu Ganio, Alexandre Riabko and Jiří Bubeníček.
2011 for Evgenia without a doubt became the year of Swan Lake. Obraztsova
spent over six months preparing for this role — probably one of the most
important and difficult ones in a classical ballerina’s repertoire. The premiere
took place in April 2011 at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow
Musical Theater where Swan Lake is danced in the version of Vladimir
Bourmeister, which is one of the most interesting, yet complex versions of this
ballet. By taking on the role of Odette-Odile, Evgenia once again had to fight
against popular preconceptions regarding her typecasting, and once again she
came out victorious! In spite of her touching fragile vulnerability and the
desperation of her tragic fate, Evgenia’s Odette was still a character of royal
blood — not a strong powerful leader, but a gentle flower that had known only
beauty and love until brutally and mercilessly torn out of her familiar world.
Appearing in sharp contrast to this very embodiment of tenderness was Evgenia’s
Odile, a cold calculating vixen, whose brilliant glances were akin to flickers
of light reflecting off a cold and indifferent mirror. Odile was like a diamond,
a cold rock whose masterly cut enthralled and whose brilliance made one forget
that a stone is incapable of giving warmth. After such an Odile, it seemed that
the ballerina could no longer return in the finale as the same Odette, and she
did not. Odette in the fourth act displayed a different type of desperation — no
longer that of a girl torn out of the comfort of her world, but of a woman with
a broken heart. There was no sense of desperation in this Odette anymore, only a
sense of fate. She no longer saw the prince as her hero savior, but had rather
come to accept him just the way he was. Their devotion to each other was put
through a trial, and Odette passed hers, thus breaking her curse. She no longer
needed her wings, for now she had love. The change of masks between Odette and
Odile, as well as within the character of Odile that Evgenia displayed that
night was simply amazing. It was perhaps the chief artistic achievement of that
performance. Evgenia managed to accomplish something that few others can — she
created completely different characters in the same play and it was difficult to
tell which one was closer to her seemingly «obvious» typecasting.
Another important performance for the ballerina that year was the Russian
premiere of Pierre Lacotte’s La Sylphide in December 2011, also at the Musical
Theater, where Evgenia appeared in the title role, thus eagerly continuing her
long-standing collaboration with the famous French choreographer. Of course, the
French La Sylphide shares some kinship with the Danish version, but it is a
distant one. The music, the choreography and even the very image of the air
spirit are very different in the French ballet. The French Sylph was a true
femme fatale, a creature of witchcraft behind whose lovely smile lurked some
very intense passions. In the end, these passions burned down both the Sylph and
her unfortunate lover (partnering with Evgenia at that performance was Thiago
Bordin from the Hamburg Ballet), but not before she managed to weave an
elaborate threadwork of small steps characteristic of the French ballet
style.
In October 2011, Evgenia Obraztsova had a taste of what it is like to be a
prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater, debuting on its stage as a guest dancer.
For this debut she fittingly chose the role of Kitri, as Don Quixote can be
considered one of the more «Muscovite» ballets in the theater’s repertoire. The
Bolshoi Theater soloist Vladislav Lantratov became Evgenia’s Basil that
night.
Finally, in 2011, Obraztsova first tried herself on television, taking part
in the Russian Channel 1 program Bolero, which paired ballet dancers with figure
skaters in a dancing competition. Evgenia’s partner was a world famous skater
Maksim Staviski. While not without some controversy, this experiment nonetheless
proved useful and expanded the ballerina’s circle of friends and admirers.
Despite the fact that 2012 has just begun, one can already claim it as one of
the most important years in the ballerina’s career — in January 2012, Evgenia
Obraztsova became a full-time prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater! In this
new rank, she has already appeared as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty (version by
Grigorovich), debuted in the role of Anyuta in Vladimir Vasiliev’s eponymous
ballet and danced in Johann Kobborg’s version of La Sylphide.
Evgenia has a lot of wonderful roles, unorthodox character interpretations
and artistic treats for her audiences ahead of her. The ballerina does not aim
to confine herself to narrow typecasting, adhere to stereotypes, or follow
expectations dictated by conservative tastes. The main goal for the actress is
to live through and interpret her roles in a way that makes audiences truly
believe in the authenticity of the stage action. Among Obraztsova’s heroines
there are strong-spirited women, as well as naïve fairy-tale characters that
differ greatly among themselves. A sweet Sylphide today, a graphical Terpsichore
tomorrow, and on the following day a playful Kitri who transforms from a girl to
a grande dame over the course of a single play — all of these characters are so
distant from one another. Yet if a ballerina is a real actress that can be
convincing in each of these dissimilar stories, does it not mean that her
defining style is not a stereotype, but a collection of roles that one truly
senses, lives through and is able to relate to the spectator?
Text by Maya Farafonova Translation by Dmitry Kostov
|