What is the name of the ballerina man? Ballerina in the big city

Conversation between two little girls:

- An aunt in ballet is called a ballerina. What is the uncle's name, do you know?

- No, but how?

- Ballerun!

The life of men in ballet is very closed. It was much easier to write about ballerinas, for example - you can find many articles about problems and successes, there are a lot of statements and memories on the forums. But the ballet men...

No, well, the problems of ballerinas also fully concern them: injuries and occupational diseases, hard labor and complete immersion in the profession, and, as a result, unsettled destinies, poor health, etc. But at the same time, a huge number of rumors and tales around this profession, nowhere else, perhaps, is there such a thing. Ballet dancers have been brought to the point that at the first meeting they try not to talk about where and by whom they work ... And the wives of dancers do not like to expand on this topic.

Here, for example, is what the author writes on one of the forums under nickname ballet: "... As casually as possible, I say: -" My husband is a ballet dancer. "Alas, how many times I did not try to immediately translate the topic of the conversation, nothing worked. bombarding me with the most ridiculous questions: “Yes? ..”, “Wow, how interesting! ..”, “Where does he work?” (of course, in the theater, and where else can a ballet dancer work.) “And what does he eat?” (dry special food for ballet dancers - I answer), “Does he play sports?”, “Are you jealous of ballerinas?”, Or even cooler “Does he get an erection during a performance?”, “Do you have him bisexual?"

He is called the prince born on New Year's Eve.

At the age of 10, a little boy named Kolya Tsiskaridze entered the Tbilisi Choreographic School,

at 13 he continued his studies in Moscow,

at 19 he was accepted into the troupe of the Bolshoi Theater, and at 23 he received the title of Honored Artist of Russia. His dance is technically impeccable, distinguished by spirituality and joy, in his art there is that measure of internal tension and external restraint, which creates the majestic beauty of plasticity.

N. Tsiskaridze : "I was led to ballet by curiosity - I really wanted to move behind the orchestra pit, because I was far from the mysterious behind-the-scenes world and I'm not sure that if I had been shown the wrong side, the inside of ballet art in childhood, then I would have chosen this particular professional path. At the age of three, I first got into the puppet theater, then the opera and, finally, the ballet. It seemed to me that it was all easy and simple, but in fact, oh, how much hard work must be spent so that the dancer's movements are light and beautiful.

I was brought to the choreographic school at my insistence; no one in the family had anything to do with ballet.

In the choreographic school, boys have a special position - it is understandable, very few of them go there. This is probably why the tuition fees at first are different for girls and boys:

For girls 100 thousand rubles. per year (10 thousand rubles per month);

For boys from 1-5 cells. - 50 thousand rubles. per year (5 thousand rubles per month).

Gene. Director of the Bolshoi Theater A. Iksanov: "The problem of men in ballet has existed for years. Not only in our theater. Very few boys go to ballet - today it is becoming unprestigious. It is believed that a man should earn money, should do business, should be courageous. There is a danger that we we will lose an entire ballet generation. To solve this problem, we will have to renew the troupe not only at the expense of the Moscow Academy of Choreography. This year, by the way, not a single guy was hired. There simply weren’t any worthy graduates of the academy. We will have to look for artists in other theaters and in neighboring countries.

I found on one of the forums the memories of a blogger under the nickname Shock Worker: "...When I was doing ballroom dancing, I had a partner (an Azerbaijani boy) who moved amazingly, had a good ear and sense of style, and who was also engaged in martial arts and chess.

Somehow, returning from regular classes in the evening, we came across his classmates (beardless contenders for the proud title of a man with an overwhelming amount of unrealized hormones), who began to ridicule his passion for ballroom dancing and loudly declared him a petka (pyatukh), for which he received a brazen face and ran to complain to the relatives.

A parent-teacher meeting was called at which the fathers (adult men, some of whom had higher education and were engaged in teaching activities, so to speak, brought up future cultural citizens of the republic in their own and other people's boys and girls) declared my partner to be cultureless and an aggressor, and also expressed their authoritative opinion, which surprisingly coincided with the opinions of their own offspring on the subject of a tendency to homosexuality among all those who in one way or another is related to dance culture. The stigma was so flashy that my partner quit dancing and moved to another school, and, quite likely, will raise his sons in the same spirit of obscurantism and base concepts that suppressed his versatile nature. That's how they become either gay or fools."

Sergei Filin, artistic director of the ballet troupe of the theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko:"... In general, there are fewer and fewer men in our country. Men are disappearing as a species, and in ballet - all the more so, in the ballet world a man degenerates. What can be said about male dance, if in most choreographic schools and schools in the world there are 10 girls There are 2-3 boys, and by the time you have to enter the world of art, the theater and take some positions, out of three there is one, or even not a single young man.

If talented men come across today, they are like diamonds; such artists, of course, are in many theaters of the world - I will not say that in all.

What was different about Soviet ballet? There was a huge amount of talent. A fierce competition was held, and the selected children were brilliant even before they began to work with them. And when they graduated from college, they really became stars and got into the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky.

The circle of strong dancers has narrowed down a lot, and the real great artists today can be listed on the fingers. If earlier at the Bolshoi, the Mariinsky, the Paris Opera, Covent Garden there were quite a few dancers who had texture, were excellent in technique, had a bright personality, intelligence, but today this circle is narrowing. And if stars appear, they are in great demand, they are invited to all theaters, they are literally torn to pieces.

Even at the beginning of the 19th century, a negative view of male ballet was formed in Western society. And the strongest stereotype that sits in the brains of people around the world and it is not possible to get it from there is that the men in ballet are all gay as one. In addition, they run around the stage all day, pawing both men and women, and this is a real pleasure! This is not for you to work hard in the mine for 12 hours!

Meanwhile, this is a profession in which physical activity and creativity go hand in hand.

At the beginning of the 19th century, in fashion, romanticism and the focus of ballet shifted towards ballerinas, the dancer gradually disappeared into her shadow. The ballet turned to folklore, legends, myths and superstitions for inspiration. Nymphs and sylphs, innocent virgins, etc. appeared in it. The dancer was thus demoted to the role of the ballerina's carrier. It was only to highlight her beauty and talent. Women dominate ballet for the first time in history. The romantic content of the performance is centered on the ballerina, pushing the dancer into the background. The audience wanted to see the ethereal, airy grace of the ballerina.

And the training in technique was addressed more to the ballerinas. Fewer and fewer men were trained in ballet. By the middle of the 19th century, the number of men studying in professional ballet schools in Western Europe decreased sharply. This deficit forced the ballerinas to play male roles. This practice of taking on roles reserved for dancers of the opposite sex was called travestie dancing.

For several decades, the pas de deux ("dance for two") was danced by two ballerinas (one of them is a drag queen).

Romantic critic Jules Janin declared: ".. I know nothing more disgusting in the world than a dancer. Under no circumstances can I recognize the right of a man to dance in a public place."

With the opening of Sergei Diaghilev's Russian Seasons in Paris in 1909, Western society saw the grand return of the ballet dancer. A real discovery was the performances, the main character of which was a man, and the woman played a supporting role in them.

The audience again wanted to see male dancers, although prejudice in society still had not been eliminated. However, it is not outdated even now.

Rudolf Nureyev changed a lot in ballet, proving that a man can also be in the spotlight. And our great choreographer Yuri Grigorovich sometimes shared the accents equally in performances, and sometimes even brought men to the fore. But there were real male dances!

Very often, male ballet dancers are called ballerinas! But there is no such word for a man who dances in ballet. Ballet dancer - dancer. The word "ballet dancer" has a disparaging connotation, and a self-respecting artist may even be offended when he hears it addressed to him.

It is also often mistaken to assume that almost all ballet dancers are gay. For some reason, it is believed that only women and homosexuals can dance in pantyhose and lift their legs high. But the fact that ballet dancers are physically quite strong and hardy men somehow falls out of attention. The subjective opinion of some does not take into account the fact that many dancers have 2, 3 children and strong families. Or there is no family, but mistresses - a whole harem from the corps de ballet "Swan Lake" with Odette at the head. There are, of course, among the dancers those who admire the beauty not of a ballerina, but of a neighbor in a men's dressing room, but this is not a rule, but, like in any other society, rather an "episode".

Men don't dance in pantyhose. Bottom part men's suit called a tricot. The leotard tightly fits the dancer's legs and demonstrates to the public all the reliefs: why not show the beauty of trained and strong legs in all its glory?! Bodybuilders, for example, generally demonstrate to the judges the achievements of their bodies, smeared from head to toe with oil, in the same thong, but for some reason their masculinity is questioned less often.

In modern productions, men are less likely to take the stage in tights. Leotards are a tribute to the tradition of classical ballet. Previously, men went on stage in knee-length pantaloons, hiding what noble ladies were not supposed to look at in a lorgnette. The first to violate this ban was Vaslav Nijinsky. At the performance of Giselle in 1911, as Albert, he appeared on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in only tights and a short shirt, forgetting to put on trousers (there is a version that he did this on purpose). The Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna was present at the performance, and such a trick cost Nijinsky a place in the theater. Since then, Nijinsky has toured with S. Diaghilev's Russian Seasons. The forgotten pantaloons were nothing compared to the scandal at the premiere of his ballet The Afternoon of a Faun (1912), where Vaclav unequivocally and with a slight tremor in his body performed an imitation of copulation in front of an astonished audience.

Nijinsky's connection with influential men is known for certain, but this does not mean that everyone who has since danced in tights automatically becomes part of his "team". Nijinsky, by the way, after a same-sex affair, married a woman, Romola Pulski, and had two daughters from her. But Vaslav's sister, Bronislava Nijinska, on the contrary, after breaking up with her husband, began to prefer women, and in many ballets staged by her, this predilection can be traced. So, in the ballet Lani (1924) there is a duet of two women with a direct allusion to same-sex love. In those days, same-sex lovers did not declare themselves from the stage as openly as they do today. 20-30 years The 20th century in ballet was truly innovative.

Now men dance not only in tights, but also on pointe shoes and “in full dress” in accordance with the standard image of a ballerina: a tutu, false eyelashes, tiaras. There is the "St. Petersburg Men's Ballet of Valery Mikhailovsky", consisting exclusively of men dancing and women's parts too. It was founded in 1992. Even a very virtuoso ballerina can envy the pointe dance technique performed by these dancers. With all their outward imitation, Mikhailovsky's dancers do not try to become women. They do not shave off the hair from the torso, do not enclose the chest. They remain men in female form and do not seek to make a parody of the female dance. Reincarnating in a female image, the dancers want to demonstrate their virtuosity and versatility at a high professional level to connoisseurs of male dance. The predecessor of the Mikhailovsky ballet was the men's ballet Trocadero from Monte Carlo, which appeared in 1974. Trocadero, in contrast to the St. Petersburg ballet, parodies women's dance and ballet with its centuries-old traditions in its performances, also very professionally, technically and in pointe shoes.

In standard troupes, in some ballets of the classical repertoire, men also appear in female images. For example, the Stepmother in Cinderella or the Fairy Carabosse in Sleeping Beauty. These parts are characteristic and require sparkling acting skills from the performer. Most often they go to the tallest and most courageous dancers. So down with the stereotypes and throw out the word "ballerun" from the lexicon. Dancer - that sounds proud!

Correspondent at the Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of Belarus Naviny . by I learned firsthand what ballet dancers wear under tights and why it is believed that there are many gays among them.Read about the pregnancy of ballerinas and one day off a week in our 10 facts.

To figure out which rumors about the Belarusian ballet are true, and which ones are pure fiction, to the correspondent Naviny. by assisted theater artist Gennady Kulinkovich with assistant ballerinas.

1. Are ballet dancers fragile and fluffy?

Hearing: In one performance, the ballet dancer lifts and carries about 2 tons of weight.

Is it true: Physical activity is really big. On stage - it depends on the production, of course - a ballet dancer, a man lifts a ballerina many times. In modern productions, all you do is raise and set, raise and set, raise, circle, set. If you count the number of lifts, then yes, two tons is a real number.

In addition, ballet dancers rehearse and practice a lot. This is also a load. We have rehearsals every day, except for the weekend, which is once a week. Plus performances.

2. Ballet dancers get sick more often

Hearing: Due to heavy loads and constant diets, ballet dancers get sick more often than others.

Is it true: The ballet rehearsal halls of the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus are equipped with bactericidal lamps, like in a hospital. In winter, when the flu starts and other viruses appear, an individual worker turns on these lamps for half an hour to disinfect the room. It is very important that diseases do not spread: we all work in close contact, we train and rehearse for many hours. If someone brought the disease, then it is neutralized.

3. Occupational illnesses in ballet

Hearing: Legs - the most sore spot on the dancer's body.

Is it true: This is partly true. Occupational diseases of dancers are diseases of the joints. The ballet dancers have bones at thumbs legs, joints become inflamed, naturally, they hurt. Women also have this disease, but it is caused by uncomfortable, tight shoes that deform the foot. For ballet masters - constant loads on the fingers and forefoot: many movements in ballet are performed on toes.

The second common class of health problems is organ prolapse from constant jumping. Everything is individual, but often the kidneys, heart, etc. internal organs, which subsequently put pressure on the bladder.

4. Young pensioners

Hearing: Some people think that ballerinas retire too early.

Is it true. Ballet dancers legally retire after 23 years of work experience. Maternity leave does not count towards seniority. As a result, ballet dancers become young pensioners. However, many of them do not actually go on a well-deserved rest: depending on the state of health, retired dancers work as tutors, teachers, directors, stage workers, costume designers, etc.

Interlocutor Naviny. by Gennady Kulinkovich is two years away from retirement. In the future, the dancer also plans to teach.

5. Abnormal operation

Hearing: Ballet theater artists have two days off a week, like ordinary citizens

Is it true. Ballet dancers work 6 days a week. The only day off is on Monday. On summer time, due to the fact that the audience is migrating to summer cottages and to the sea, the day off at the Bolshoi Theater is moved to Saturday. The female part of the troupe is happy about this: finally, there is an opportunity to spend time with the family. Men grumble: when the day off is on Monday, you can at least relax and not do household chores.

The working day for ballet masters is also abnormal in the understanding of an ordinary person: from 10:00 to 15:00, then a three-hour break, after a break, work resumes at 18:00 in connection with evening performances. The official working day of the ballet workers ends at 21:00.

A long break is necessary so that after morning training and rehearsals the body has time to rest and recover before evening work.

For young dancers, this is convenient: you can study during the break. Gennady Kullinkovich, for example, received a higher choreographic education in this way. But now he sees little pluses in this schedule.

“With such a schedule, it is very difficult to arrange a personal life. Look at me: 38 years old, and no family, no children. All life in the theater- says Gennady.

6. Are ballet and children incompatible?

Hearing: Due to the requirements for appearance, ballerinas have to give up motherhood.

Is it true: It is really more difficult for ballet dancers to start a family and children at the height of their careers than for representatives of other professions: the work schedule also affects, and the fact that postpartum recovery of form takes time and effort. So girls use two strategies: either start a family and children right after school / university, or postpone it until they retire.

Despite the unfavorable circumstances, there are ballerinas in the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus who have two, and some even three children.

“We, just like doctors and teachers, combine work and pregnancy. We plan, go on maternity leave, recover and work further. This is the business of each individual artist, but during pregnancy - the sooner you leave the dance activity, the better for you and the unborn child. This is associated with risks: here you need to bend, jump, you can fall and get hurt, ”- told website Bolshoi ballerinas.

“We are the best mothers, wives, and we also know how to dance and tiptoe around the kitchen,”- ballerinas joke in response to a question about the specifics of family life.

7. If he dances in ballet, then he is gay

Hearing: There are many gays among ballet dancers.

Is it true: This is a common stereotype, says ballet dancer Gennady Kullinkovich. We no longer respond to it. So they say about all the men who dance. It is born from a misunderstanding on the part of the viewer: how can men remain indifferent and calm surrounded by so much beauty and nudity. After all, the audience often gets backstage, and the men are shocked: everyone changes clothes here, the intimate parts of the bodies are at arm's length ... And we are already used to this and react as something normal. So the viewer thinks that men in ballet are gay.

8. What does the dancer have under the tights

Hearing: Dancers don't wear underpants.

Photo pixabay.com

Is it true: They talk more about the underwear of male artists than about the underwear of ballerinas: the viewer under the snow-white tights, to his surprise, does not see the expected outlines of underpants.

Gennady Kulinkovich said that the dancers have their own secrets. Manufacturers of dancewear meet the expectations of artists and produce seamless models of special underwear that is invisible under the costume - bandages. Special clothing for dancers is sold by a store located near the Bolshoi.

9. Meat in pointe shoes

Hearing: Ballerinas put meat in pointe shoes to reduce foot injury.

Is it true: Do not put meat. There are more modern ways to protect the legs. Ballet firms produce special half shoes that cover only the fingers. They are silicone. Someone does not enclose anything - it is already convenient for him. Silicone liners for pointe shoes are not produced in Belarus, they are made in the USA, China, and Russia.

Photo pixabay.com

For a year, a ballerina wears 5-10 pairs of pointe shoes, depending on the load. Some artists have their own pads - volumetric copies of feet made by masters, according to which pointe shoes are made to order.

10. Dancing pays well

Hearing: Artists earn a lot.

Is it true: Everything is relative. Salaries of ballet dancers depend on the position in the troupe: leading stage master, soloist or corps de ballet dancer. Also affects the number of scenes worked out in productions. For each exit, points are awarded, which are kept by a special theater worker. The value of points for each dance is its own, standard for all artists, it depends on the complexity and duration of the performance. The amount of points received affects the award. So, the salary of a corps de ballet dancer is around 120 rubles, and the premium accrued for performances can exceed it several times.

Photo by Sergey Balai

Just like a book is made up of words, a house is made of bricks, any ballet is made up of movements. Strict, once and for all established positions of arms and legs, postures, jumps, rotations, connecting movements are the basis of classical dance. Combining these movements, building them in a certain order, the choreographer creates a choreographic drawing of the ballet.
The beauty and strength of movements depend on whether they accurately express the nature of the music, and on what meaning the director - the choreographer and the performer - the ballet dancer put in them. And it turns out that the same movement can look different, it can be good and evil, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly, and sometimes it depends on the inclination of the head, sometimes on the position of the arms and body, on the strength and expressiveness of the jump, from smoothness and swiftness of rotation.
That is why ballet performances are so different from each other.

ALYASGON, ARABESQUE, ATTITUDE, ECARTE. Basic poses, "whales" on which classical ballet rests. In all these poses, the performer stands on one leg, and the other is raised high: to the side (alasgon), back (arabesque), back with a bent knee (attitude), diagonally forward or backward (ekarte).

ADAGIO. A dance of two or more ballet characters in which they reveal their inner state.

ASSEMBLY. A jump during which one leg opens to the side, forward or backward, and by the end of the jump is pulled to the other leg.

CHOREOGRAPHER. A person who composes, or, as they say, directs a ballet. Sometimes the choreographer, or ballerina, is called the performers of the male parts in the ballet. It is not right. A man in ballet is called a dancer.

VARIATION. Solo dance, dance monologue.


Glide path. Sliding lateral movement. Usually it connects one movement with another, serves as a preparation, a run for a jump.

JET. Jump from one foot to the other. Large jets are performed as a jump over an imaginary obstacle in all the main ballet poses - arabesque, attitude, alasgon.

CABRIOLE. A jump during which one leg knocks out the other. The legs are strongly extended. This jump is performed in all directions: forward, sideways, backward.

LIBRETTO. Literary script of the ballet, its content.

PA-DE-DE. The main dance scene in a ballet or in one of the ballet acts. The pas de deux reveals the relationship of the characters, shows the dance skills of the performers. The pas de deux consists of an adagio, a dancer's variation, and a ballerina's variation and coda, short, technically complex dance pieces by a dancer and a ballerina.

BUTT. Ballerina costume consisting of many short starched tulle skirts. These puffy and light skirts make the tutu airy and weightless.

PIROUETTE. Rotation around its axis on the toes or toes of one foot. Pirouettes are small, when during rotation one leg is tightly pressed to the other in front or behind. Large pirouettes are performed in all major poses.

SUPPORT. A necessary element of classical dance. During the dance, the dancer helps the ballerina, supports, lifts her.

Pointe shoes. One of the main elements of female dance in classical ballet is the dance on the tips of outstretched fingers. To do this, you need ballet shoes with a hard toe.

FIFTH POSITION. The basic position of the legs of classical dance. Legs turned one hundred and eighty degrees. The heel of the right foot is firmly pressed against the toe of the left, and the heel of the left foot is firmly pressed against the toe of the right. From this position, the dance most often begins, and this position most often ends.

RONDE DE JAMBES. In French it means “circle with the foot”. In fact, half of the circle is described by the foot on the floor and in the air, during the jump and squat.

SOTE. A jump during which the legs are strongly extended in the first, second or fifth positions.

TOURS. Rotation around its axis during the jump. Tours are made with one and two turns. Tour with two turns is an element of male dance.

LESSON. Ballet dancers never stop learning. Every day they come to the ballet class for a lesson. It lasts at least an hour. The lesson is divided into two halves: the smaller one is the exercise (exercise) at the barre and the larger one is the exercise in the middle of the hall. During the lesson, all the movements that a ballet dancer needs in a dance are improved and practiced.

SHAGEMAN DE PIE. A jump during which the legs are in the fifth position and change places.

FUETE. Rotation of the ballerina around its axis on the toes of one foot. After each turn, she opens the other to the side. Fuete is usually performed at a very fast pace sixteen or thirty-two times in a row.

Without a doubt, ballet main view art, representing our country at the international level. And at the same time, the world of ballet, which lives according to its own laws, is hidden from the eyes of strangers. Thanks to this, many legends associated with him appear.

Our editors have collected the most common stereotypes and asked Igor Tsvirko, the premiere of the Hungarian Opera House and former leading soloist of the Bolshoi Theater, to comment on them. About bloody legs, shards of glass in pointe shoes and clackers - in the material of the Moscow 24 portal.

"A woman who does ballet is a ballerina, and a man is a ballet dancer"

Of course not. The word "balleroon" does not exist at all. A man doing ballet is either a ballet dancer, or a dancer, or (as I like best) an actor. But my son came up with a new name - "ballerinas". He says, since mom is a ballerina, dad must be ballerinas. This word amuses me, and then, as I was told, in Spanish "ballerina" means just a ballet dancer.

"Ballet dancers and ballerinas are forced to diet for life, eating water and salad"

This is fundamentally wrong, and if you ask ballerinas, they basically eat everything - they have meat, chocolate, and cakes in their diet. The Bolshoi Theater has its own bakery and pie shop, where they make delicious pies with cherries, apples and cinnamon - many also love them very much. After the premieres, we can afford both champagne and a glass of wine, so there are no restrictions, because physical activity compensates for everything. In general, everyone follows his own internal state myself.

"A real man will not go to ballet, only homosexuals work there"

This is actually very stereotypical thinking. In our profession, there are indeed a lot of people of non-traditional orientation, but to a greater extent this is probably typical for Western teams. In Russian teams, this is not welcome. I would say that the dancers in our troupes are men who do an art called ballet. I don't know what others think, but I'm proud to be traditional in this art form.

"Ballet dancers retire at 40, while ballerinas choose not to have children because it could ruin their careers."

As for the fact that ballerinas prefer not to give birth, it happens differently for everyone in life. Someone finds his prince early, the person with whom he wants to spend the rest of the time that we have allotted on this planet. Therefore, there are ballerinas who give birth at 18, and there are those who give birth at 36 or even 47, so there are no rules here. A striking example is Diana Vishneva. She first made an amazing career, and not so long ago gave birth to her son Rudolf. In any case, no career and no ballet can compare with the feeling when you have a baby.

As for the pension, if the body allows, you can still stretch up to 40. Artists such as Svetlana Zakharova, Roberto Bolle, Ulyana Lopatkina are people of unique abilities and gifts, so it may be a little easier for them to keep themselves in proper ballet shape in order to continue dancing at the turn of this age. Often the term of a ballet dancer is 18 years for a corps de ballet and 15 years for a soloist. After 15 years of service, you can get a pension certificate, but at the same time you continue to work as long as the theater and the director need you.

"The world of ballet is so closed that ballerinas and ballet dancers prefer to create families exclusively in their environment"

This, rather, is not due to the fact that people are closed, but to the fact that we do not have enough free time to visit some places. Our work is intense and takes up all the time, and when you have only one day off a week, you prefer to lie at home.

Sometimes a person from the outside, who lives an ordinary life, does not understand why we sacrifice our time, emotions, does not understand our faith in what we are doing, so sometimes people from ballet face certain difficulties. Therefore, if it happens that people find like-minded people in our field, often this is a very strong and strong marriage.

"Ballet dancers do not have days off and holidays. In order not to lose shape, they must practice every day"

We have days off, in troupes it is one day. At the Bolshoi - Monday, at the Stanislavsky Theater - Tuesday. In western-style troupes - either one or two days off. Paid vacation - 56 days, but often tours are organized during this period, so there is additional work.

Even when we have a vacation, people can lie around for a week, but then they start to warm up, so often artists do something on vacation - they pull the twine, pump the press, someone runs in the morning ... In any case, they do physical loads, because when you have been working for 11 months, you can no longer take and lay an eggplant on a lounger - otherwise it will be difficult with the beginning of the season.

"The world of ballet is cruel. To eliminate competitors and rivals, the most cruel methods are used, up to broken glass poured into pointe shoes"

The world of ballet is really cruel, but it also has its pleasant moments. Of course, not everyone can cope with that, rather even psychological than physical, load. But in order to get to the point that people poured glass or ruined costumes ... I heard about this, but I didn’t come across it myself, it’s hard for me to say from my own experience. I am a kind person, and I never thought of doing something bad for the artists. On the contrary, if only to support, because everyone who prepares a performance or dances perfectly understands that a person prepares, tunes in and puts his soul into his work.

Rather, such things can be seen in the movies to enhance the dramatic effect and sense of competition. But in general, it can be compared with sports: if an athlete prepares for the Olympics for four years, and then participates in it, for the artist, "preparation for the Olympics" ends with graduation, and it itself lasts until you leave the ballet .

"However, in ballet, broken glass is not necessary, because everyone who practices this art knocks their legs into blood"

Men don't, but ballerinas do, because they dance in pointe shoes. By the way, this is another common misconception: everyone thinks that men dance in pointe shoes, but this is not so. We dance in pointe shoes only if the role requires it, as in Alexei Ratmansky's ballet The Bright Stream. Ballerinas really wipe their fingers into the blood: this happens, because due to constant intense friction, corns appear, which then burst - in general, everything, as it happens with ordinary people. It just happens more often with ballerinas.

"In every musical theater there are people who are personally known to all artists: it is they who especially zealously shout "bravo" after each performance and receive free tickets for this. Artists respect and fear them, since not only their success, but also and complete failure

Such people do exist, they are called "clackers". These are people who are much louder than ordinary visitors, clapping and shouting "bravo". Often they go too far and do it too deliberately, so that it begins to annoy not only the audience, but also the artists themselves. But I would not say that the artists are afraid of them: I believe that in any case, what you danced to will be slapped on you.

Liza Minaeva