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.Joy Annabelle Womack
Joy Annabelle Womack, o semplicemente Joy Womack, è una ballerina statunitense. E' stata la prima americana a diplomarsi all'Accademia del Bolshoi e la prima donna statunitense a firmare un contratto con l'omonima compagnia.
Nata in California, ha cominciato a frequentare l'Accademia del Bolshoi nel 2009, quando alcuni insegnanti la notarono allo stage estivo dell'anno prima. Allora Joy aveva quindici anni.
Durante il suo primo anno all'Accademia, Joy faceva parte di una gruppo di allievi selezionati per esibirsi per un galà speciale al Teatro Bolshoi, insieme alle stelle della compagnia stessa. Si è esibita nonostante una frattura. E' stata operata subito dopo che un parrocchiano di una chiesa inglese a Mosca aveva offerto dei soldi per pagare l'intervento, nonostante i suoi genitori volessero farla tornare negli Stati Uniti per l'operazione.
Recentemente si è unita al Kremlin Ballet (Balletto del Cremlino, Mosca) dopo aver lasciato il Bolshoi in seguito alla scandalosa richiesta di un'ingente somma di denaro da parte del direttore della compagnia, che in cambio le avrebbe assegnato poi dei ruoli da solista nei balletti da mettere in scena.
Nel 2013 è stato girato un documentario su Joy e suo marito Nikita Ivanov-Goncharov (membro del Kremlin Ballet e suo ex compagno d'accademia), intitolato Searching For Perfection (il sito è disponibile anche in italiano)
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.CITAZIONEdopo aver lasciato il Bolshoi in seguito alla scandalosa richiesta di un'ingente somma di denaro da parte del direttore della compagnia, che in cambio le avrebbe assegnato poi dei ruoli da solista nei balletti da mettere in scena.
Che schifo... davvero è così poco serio il direttore del Bolshoi, dove dovrebbero esibirsi i MIGLIORI ballerini del mondo, e non quelli mediocri disposti a pagare per farlo?
Cos'è successo in seguito a questa vicenda?. -
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Purtroppo, temo che questo genere di ricatti non sia stato fatto solo a Joy... lei però è stata l'unica a rivelarlo (in un'intervista ad un giornale russo) e a lasciare la compagnia immediatamente.
Dopo poco Joy è entrata a far parte del Kremlin Ballet (dove già lavorava suo marito) mentre il Bolshoi non ha fatto altro che mettere in dubbio quello che lei ha dichiarato (più che altro cercando di dire in tutti i modi che lei non era una brava ballerina... ridicoli!) riporto l'articolo qui:CITAZIONEIl Balletto del Bolshoi ha disapprovato l'intervista della ballerina statunitense, Joy Womack, che ha lasciato il Teatro Bolshoi per entrare a far parte del Balletto del Cremlino.
Sul suo profilo Facebook, la ballerina del Bolshoi Anna Rybetskaya ha affermato che le capacità della Womack lasciavano molto a desiderare. L'insegnante di danza di Joy al Teatro Bolshoi, Marina Kondratyeva, ha dichiarato che la ballerina aveva dei problemi riguardanti il suo allenamento.
"Il repertorio è vasto, e c'è bisogno di grandi sforzi per danzarlo bene" ha aggiunto la Kondratyeva.
Anche il famoso critico della danza Grigory Zaslavsky è sicuro che quello che Joy Womack ha detto non sia vero. "Non ho mai sentito parlare di lei mentre il suo connazionale, David Hallberg, è molto famoso oggigiorno. Sappiamo molto bene che gli americani non perdono mai l'occasione di sostenere la verità. Penso che se quello che la ballerina statunitense ha detto fosse vero, David Hallberg avrebbe diffuso la voce in tutto il mondo", ha detto Zaslavsky, commentando la situazione alla radio 'Vesti FM'.
Una fonte dal Teatro Bolshoi che il giornale 'Moskovsky Komsomolets' definisce "un autorevole lavoratore", sostiene che Joy Womack ce l'ha fatta ad entrare nella compagnia del Bolshoi solo grazie alla sua insistenza, perché dopo che il suo periodo di prova all'Accademia Coreografica di Mosca (cioè l'Accademia del Bolshoi) era finito nel 2012, il Teatro non aveva mostrato alcun interesse per lei. "E' un'americana media. Una ballerina del corpo di ballo con qualche potenziale" ha detto la fonte.
Ha anche detto che una promozione per una 'mazzetta' di 10.000 $ è impossibile al Bolshoi. Questa fonte è sicura che, visto che Joy Womack è americana, sia stato fatto un tentativo per truffarla.
Dalla parte sua, il Direttore Generale del Bolshoi Vladimir Urin ha detto che la ballerina statunitense dovrebbe difendere la sua posizione in termini giuridici.
"Se tutte queste cose dovessero essere provate, tutti coloro che erano coinvolti saranno punibili dalla legge. In caso di bisogno l'amministrazione del Bolshoi è disponibile ad offrire aiuto agli investigatori." ha aggiunto.
Fonte (in inglese)
N.B.: Il direttore del corpo di ballo del Bolshoi e il direttore generale sono due persone diverse. (Il direttore generale sembra essere l'unico ad essersi dimostrato un po' disponibile)
Credo stiano ancora indagando visto che la notizia risale a meno di un anno fa, e anche perché da quest'articolo in poi non ho mai più sentito nulla sulla faccenda, né sono stati scritti altri articoli.
Intanto Joy è diventata prima ballerina del Balletto del Cremlino... ridicoli i tentativi di quelli del Bolshoi di dire che non era una brava ballerina e che l'avevano accettata nella compagnia solo perché insisteva -.-' Per non parlare del critico che dice di non averla mai sentita nominare!!. -
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Joy è stata intervistata da Pointe Magazine, rivista sulla danza online mensile. L'intervista è sulla rivista di questo mese!
An American in Moscow
The Kremlin Ballet’s Joy Womack on training—and dancing—in Russia
By Wendy Perron
A striking dancer with ultra-classical elegance, Joy Womack, who turns 21 in April, is the first American woman to graduate from the domestic program of the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow in over 60 years. She was immediately placed in the school’s Russian classes, as opposed to its foreign program, which is unusual for an international student, and stayed for three years. After graduating in 2012, she joined the corps of the Bolshoi Ballet, but after a year and a half was invited into the smaller Kremlin Ballet as a principal. There, she was given the opportunity to dance Aurora and Giselle. Wendy Perron, editor at large of Dance Magazine, caught up with her by phone.
What attracted you to the Bolshoi training?
It was the acting, the sheer rawness, the power, and the focus on being yourself, portraying in dance how your soul looks on the inside.
Technically what’s been the hardest thing for you?
I really struggled because I didn’t have the Bolshoi foundation when I went there at 15. The first through fifth classes in the Russian school are where you learn to turn out correctly. It’s not something you learn overnight. Every day I think about rotating the entire leg, about circular motion going upward. You have to pull up out of the vertebrae in your lower back and send rotational movement through your hips.
How long did it take you to learn Russian?
I understood class and corrections within the third or fourth month, but those first six months were very difficult.
When you were at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, was it your dream to dance with the Bolshoi?
The first time I danced on that stage something happened to me. I just wanted to dance there. It was a desire that obsessed me in the worst way. I got the opportunity to do it and I’m so grateful for that.
What do you miss most about the U.S.?
Everybody dances there because they love it. It’s an incredible thing to come to class and everyone is smiling, laughing, cracking jokes and not afraid to be themselves. Sometimes it makes me sad when I come back home and take class with my old studios in California. You have to pay so much more to become a professional dancer in the States that when you do get there, everybody’s very happy to have made it.
What are the advantages to dancing with a smaller company like Kremlin Ballet?
Compared to an American company it’s relatively large, at 110 people. I have a teacher, Zhanna Bogoroditskaya, who is very devoted to me. There’s an opportunity to do outside things because the schedule isn’t always heavy. Right now I’m developing an energy bar for dancers [soon available at theprimabar.com] and also working with amazing video artists. At the Bolshoi, you’re there from morning till evening, so you have less free time to do things like that.
Zhanna was coached by the great Ekaterina Maximova. Do you get a sense of history?
Yes, especially when she talks about fingers. “Fingers should never end, fingers should go on for ever and ever. If your fingers are ending, then what you’re saying is ending.” It’s almost like Maximova is speaking through her.
Do you have a regular partner?
Mikhail Martinyuk. We dance a lot together. He’s been a huge mentor for me. Especially when Zhanna isn’t here, he takes class right by me and gives me corrections. In April we will probably do Swan Lake together.
What advice would you give a young American dancer who wants to train at the Bolshoi?
Don’t look to the big names, look at what works for you. For example if you didn’t get into the Russian classes, maybe your teacher in the foreign classes is better because she cares about you. It’s more about personal relationships.
Fonte
Foto dall'articolo
Sembra proprio che si trovi bene al Kremlin Ballet! Sono contenta per lei, dopo lo scandalo del Bolshoi (che si è poi concluso con... niente) se lo meritava!! Adesso è anche prima ballerina del KB
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Kitri da "Don Quixote"!
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Versione inglese di un articolo da Spiegel (rivista tedesca)
L'articolo contiene la storia sia di Joy che di Sergei Polunin, ma ho deciso di "dividerla" nei loro rispettivi topic.
Joy parla dello scandalo del Bolshoi e anche di come abbia sofferto di anoressia e bulimia, e di come continui a soffrirne... mi dispiace sempre venire a sapere quante ne ha passate questa ragazza nel mondo della danza!
East-West Story: The Parallel Lives of Two World-Class Dancers: Joy Womack
When she appears, the other dancers strike a quiet pose. She takes off, jumps and does a split mid-air in a swirl of white tulle. Her movements seem effortless, as if she requires no momentum at all -- not even a chance to catch her breath. She imperiously raises an arm, liberating the others from their paralysis. They fall into line behind her and follow her steps, for she is Myrtha, their leader, the Queen of the Ghost Girls in the ballet "Giselle."
En pointe, with her head held high, the queen receives a round of applause. Then she glides away.
Backstage, she lets herself fall on a yoga mat, panting and sweating. After a short pause, she's back to being Joy Womack, a 21-year-old from Santa Monica, California. In her company, the Kremlin Ballet Theater, she is one of the select few who dances solo. She is the first American to perform here, behind the walls of the Kremlin.
The stage is located in the former Kremlin Palace of Congresses, an imposing monument to Soviet architecture with more than 800 rooms, located just 150 meters (492 feet) away from Vladimir Putin's office. In Soviet times, the enormous theater hall was also used to entertain Communist Party elites with ballet. Even today, the hammer and sickle can be found adorning the walls. The performances have been public since 1990.
Womack crouches on her mat. She's a petite, wiry woman with brown curls pinned up high and dramatic makeup. She presses her lips together and stares at the floor. Her leg is hurting -- and the timing couldn't be worse.
No one can know. She would keep dancing even if she had a broken foot. It wouldn't be the first time. She was practicing all morning, right up until the show. And she hardly ate anything all day. What keeps her going is a mixture of adrenaline, caffeine and willpower.
Other dancers are scurrying around backstage, whispering and giggling. It's not as bad as it was at the beginning, back when Womack didn't understand any Russian. But she's still a stranger, even now.
She gets up and hurries back to the stage. She doesn't look at anyone and no one says anything to her. She straightens her shoulders and runs into the spotlight.
Dreams of Ballet Stardom
She lives for these moments. Womack is in Moscow because she wants to be one of the world's best dancers. She moved a lot closer to achieving her dream when, six years ago, she left the United States for the first time and traveled to Russia on her own. Today she is a prima ballerina in the ballet capital of the world. But she's still a bit shy of reaching her goal. Being here is a fight for survival. She is, as CNN reported in April, "the American dancing in the Kremlin for $8 a day."
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A Dancer Has to Be a Masochist
What does a person have to do to be able to move his or her body like that?
Joy Womack says every outstanding dancer has to be a masochist, otherwise they stand no chance. It's the day after her performance. She woke up at 6 a.m. and rehearsed until the afternoon. "I like pain," she says. "I'm very good at overexerting myself."
The self-torture began when she was eight. As a girl, she had already devoted half her life to ballet classes. For Christmas one year, she got a book about the school of London's Royal Ballet. Anyone interested in becoming a professional dancer must begin training daily at the latest by age 10, the book said. Joy marked the sentence with a highlighter.
At the same time, she discovered something else -- the Bolshoi. It was performing in Los Angeles, so Joy's mother took her to a performance of "Swan Lake." She had never before witnessed so much perfection, so much feeling. Afterward, she would go on to express her aspiration of becoming a soloist at the Bolshoi. Her mother laughed: Joy, that won't do, the Bolshoi is in Russia!
The Womacks lived in a Christian community in Santa Monica, insulated from the rest of the world. Joy's parents have secular occupations -- her mother is an oncologist, her father an entrepreneur -- but she and her eight siblings were raised pious and sheltered. She was homeschooled for several years and forbidden from watching movies or television. They often read the Bible together. And Joy danced every day.
When she was 13, her parents let her move to Washington, DC to attend the Kirov Academy of Ballet, a Russian dance school. But she wasn't prepared for her Russian teachers. "Joy, I'm going to shoot you! You look like Jesus on the cross!" The first Russian word she learned was "bestolkovy." Stupid.
"They broke me physically and psychologically," Womack says. "It was the perfect preparation for The Bolshoi."
The Bolshoi has its own ballet academy that held a master class in New York during the summer of 2009. Joy, 15 at the time, was allowed to take part. Afterward, the director asked to see her. "You should continue your education with us in Moscow," she said. Joy, struck by dizziness, thought: If I make it, I'll be a star.
He Goes West, She Goes East
To her surprise, Joy was one of the better dancers in Moscow. The sadists in Washington had hammered the Russian technique into her. She also brought something else with her from America: "Courage and the conviction that getting ahead meant working hard," she says. Joy nevertheless still had two struggles: the language and her weight.
At the time, she weighed about the same a she does now -- around 104 pounds (47 kilos) -- and she's 5 feet 6 inches tall. By normal measures, she would be underweight for her size, but her new teacher demanded that she weigh a maximum of 99 pounds and, ideally, 95. "I never had a relaxed relationship with my figure," she says, "but things just got worse from there."
The beaming young woman sits in an outlet of the restaurant chain Le Pain Quotidien not far from the Bolshoi as she tells her story, enjoying a bowl of vegetable soup. She eats and concentrates as she continues talking. "Many people will be angry when I say this, but I was anorexic and bulimic for years. It's a widespread problem among female dancers."
A ballerina is a weightless, ethereal being -- none of it can wobble when it springs into the air. So goes the thinking at the Bolshoi, the Royal Ballet, everywhere. Womack says it's been her experience that no one ever asks what a person has to do to squeeze into these norms. "But when all you ever hear from your childhood on is that you're fat, how are you supposed to develop a healthy self-image?"
Journalists with The New York Times paid her a visit to report about the 15-year-old American who had succeeded in landing a slot at the world-famous Russian ballet academy. They even filmed Joy as she practiced for a performance. The training is brutal and her right foot started hurting, but she pulled herself together. On the day of the performance, her foot had to be anaesthetized. Joy danced and beamed and then, during the intermission, she cried. She would later learn that she had broken her foot, a fatigue fracture.
Both Sergei and Joy finished their training as the best dancers in their graduating classes. They also got hired on as professionals -- Sergei at the Royal Ballet and Joy by the Bolshoi.
And that's where both of their dreams abruptly ended.
A Ballerina Calls It a Day
The New York Times ran a story on Nov. 14, 2013 with the headline, "US Dancer Quits the Bolshoi, Complaining of Bribery."
The news broke at a time when the proud theater had already been shaken by a scandal that saw ballet director Sergei Filin nearly blinded in an acid attack. It was followed by other stories of machinations, corruption and dirty business dealings inside the Bolshoi. The only thing still missing was the American's loud departure. According to her version of events, she had waited in vain for roles for a year. Then she was advised to be "smarter" and to use her feminine charms and to find a rich "sponsor" who would pay the $10,000 that would be necessary for her to perform.
In a country where ballet enjoys roughly the same status as football in Brazil, the Russian press pounced on her -- the general tenor being: Why is this perfect stranger coming here and trying to besmirch a national shrine? "I was absolutely desperate," says Womack. "I didn't know where to turn. But then Petrov rescued me."
Andrei Petrov is the director of the Kremlin Ballet Theater. He had already taken notice of Womack earlier and he now offered her a contract as a prima ballerina, a rare honor. She had found protection inside the walls of the Kremlin. "No one could attack me any longer there," she says, as tears swell up in her eyes.
But even at the Kremlin Ballet Theater, Womack had to struggle -- for major roles, for a salary she could live on and with her eating disorders. She visits a therapist once a week. And, working together with a nutritionist, she has also developed a power bar for dancers that provides them with energy but isn't fattening.
A few months ago, when she had the feeling she was sinking into a dark spot, Womack began filming her everyday life and posting it on YouTube. She says she wants to show everything, even the bad, in order to help protect others.
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Altro video da "Don Quixote" del Kremlin Ballet
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Joy ha vinto la MEDAGLIA D'ARGENTO a Varna!!! Congratulazioni! 
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Video del pas de deux a Varna
Video
Altre foto dalla competizione
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