Category Archives: Videos
The Crew
Guest Contributors
August 26, 2009
We are five 10 year-old boys. We have known each other since preschool. Our parents call us “the Crew.” Boys and Ballet is our blog. You can read more about us here.
One of our favorite channels on YouTube is ilyaballet.
Ilya is better known as Ilya Kuznetsov. He attended the Bolshoi Ballet Academy from 1984-1992. After graduating, he was a soloist for the Bolshoi Theatre (’92-’94) and the Moscow Classical Ballet (’94-’95). In 1996 he was a finalist in the Nuriev Ballet Competition and the International Ballet Competition. Mr. Kuznetsov was a principal soloist for the Imperial Russian Ballet (’95-’98) and the San Diego Ballet (’98-’02). He has been a classical ballet teacher at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy since 2002.
Mr. Kuznetsov has uploaded videos of student from Vaganova and a large number of shorts of current and former Russian dancers and teachers.
The Vaganova Ballet Academy videos are well worth watching. The boys demonstrate each level of the Vaganova syllabus through grade five (Grade 4 is currently unavailable. Perhaps Mr. Kuznetsov will upload it later).
Playlist (8 videos): Vaganova Ballet Academy Boys’ 1st grade Academy of Russian Ballet Exams (10-11 year olds)
Playlist (5 Videos):Vaganova Ballet Academy Boys’ 2nd grade Academy of Russian Ballet Exams (11-12 year olds)
Playlist (8 videos): Vaganova Ballet Academy Boys’ 3rd grade Academy of Russian Ballet exams (12-13 year olds)
Playlist (17 videos): Vaganova Ballet Academy Boys’ 5th grade (14-15 year olds)
Young dancers of the Vaganova Ballet Academy dancing the Polonaise and Mazurka from the ballet Paquita
Additional videos may be found here
CBBC Documentary about Oliver Taylor who won the Fonteyn Nureyev Young Dancer of the Year award in 2006. He later went on to play Billy in Billy Elliot the Musical, London; he has since left the role.
Additional videos may be found here.
If a dancer can be feather light and fierce at the same time, it’s Daniil Simkin. If he can have astounding technique but at the same time appear innocently boyish, it’s Daniil Simkin. (From Transitions, Dance Magazine, December 2008)
Daniil Simkin was born 1987 in Russia to a ballet family. The family left Russia for the west in 1990 and after several international engagements settled in Wiesbaden, Germany. where Daniil first stepped on the stage.
From the time when he was 6 he often danced onstage along side his father, Dmitrij Simkin. His father is a graduate of the Moscow Choreographic School (Bolshoi Academy) and is a well known dancer in Europe.
At the age of 10, Daniil began his training under the direction of his mother, Olga ALEKSANDROVA. At the age of 12, he began participating in ballet competitions and famous ballet galas around the world.
Daniil’s awards include the Senior Gold Medal at the USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson 2006, Grand Prix International Ballet Competition Helsinki 2005 and First Prize and Gold Medal at the 21st International Ballet Competition in Varna 2004, among others.
He has performed a charming version of Ben Van Cauwenbergh’s Les Bourgeois (his father also dances it), with attitude one moment and twisting into a spectacular leap where he is nearly horizontal to the floor the next. (From Transitions, Dance Magazine, December 2008)
He joined the ballet company of the Vienna State Opera in 2006 as a demi-soloist and since then has danced many roles and parts of the classical, neoclassical and contemporary repertoire of the company. In 2007 he danced his first principal, classical role with the Lithuanian National Opera as a guest namely Basilio in Don Quixotte.
Last February [2008] at the Stars of the 21st Century evening in NYC, he dazzled in both Les Bourgeois and Don Quixote. Nadia Veselova-Tencer, who co-organizes Stars of the 21st Century, recently said, “In a year, Simkin will be better than Baryshnikov.” (From Transitions, Dance Magazine, December 2008)
Daniil joined American Ballet Theatre as a Soloist in October 2008. His repertoire with the Company includes Company B, the Flames of Paris pas de deux, the peasant pas de deux in Giselle and the pas de trois in Swan Lake.
(Copied from ABT, daniilsimkin.com and Dance Magazine)
This video was filmed in 2001, so Daniil was 13. The clip is well done and quite funny.
Perm State Choreographic School, Perm, Russia 2006.
(The Perm State Ballet School and The Perm State Choreographic School are the same school)
