Ulyana Vyacheslavovna Lopatkina (Ульяна Вячеславовна Лопаткина), was born October 23, 1973. Although Russian, she was born in Ukraine
(USSR), where she lived the first ten years of her life. While her parents were
not at all thrilled about it, she was sent off at that age to Russia to the
Vaganova Academy. After 8 years of
training, Ulyana graduated from the Academy in 1991, and joined the Mariinsky, where in a remarkably
short period of time she was promoted to principal dancer (1995). In 1999 she
was awarded the State Prize of Russia, and in 2005 she was awarded the very
prestigious title Peoples’Artist of Russia. She is now married, and has one daughter,
Masha, born in 2002.
Today, after a
fair number of years of both triumph and heartache, Ulyana, having been
sidelined for years with a broken ankle, is back in force, and is considered by
many to be the greatest of the modern classical ballerinas, greatly gifted with
a near perfect, classically lithe and slender body, capable, through long
training, of great purity of posture.
She is also remarkably musical.
While it may be
perfectly legitimate to concede to others—most notably Diana Vishneva—a
superior attainment in the area of modern avant garde, very athletic dancing,
most balletomanes will stand by the classically inclined Lopatkina, whose
elegant, classical virtuosity seems unrivaled. Her repertoire tells her story: Giselle,
Le Corsaire, Bayadère Sleeping Beauty,
Swan Lake, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, The Legend of Love: A veritable
textbook of traditional ballet.
There is
perhaps no better or clearer introduction to Lopatkina’s virtuosity than her
stunning presentation of Mikhail Fokine’s eternally popular “Dying Swan,” originally composed for Anna Pavlova on Camille Saint
Saëns’ cello solo from The Carnival of
Animals:
Isn’t that
simply magnificent! The quintessence of
balletic classicism. If one were to look
up “classicism” in a good encyclopedia of ballet, there is a good chance they
would find a photo taken from that film! The very long and slender limbs,
coupled to the absolute control of the flow of their movement, is, I think it
quite fair to say, hypnotic. I can think
of no better word. And of course her
posture, from the port de bras to the
ram-rod straight elevated reach; from the arched back so beloved by the
Russians, the back-flex of the wrists on the very long arms; all are text-book
clean. The truly important thing, of
course, is how this astonishing collection of abilities and gifts is put to use in artistic
creation, which is quite extraordinary and very moving
Here is a good
chance to see the more aggressive and energetic Lopatkina, in the 3rd
act pas de deux from Swan Lake, with Danila Korsuntsev, featuring
Lopatkina performing 32 fouettes en tournant as smoothly as can be imagined:
A marvel of
elegance, precision and traditional style.
There is little more to say in a brief celebration such as this. Ulyana is 40 years old now, and let us hope for more years from this
extraordinary ballerina!