Natalia Osipova is a world-renowned Russian ballet dancer. “Traditionally in ballet,” she says, “you are expressing love for a man and there are very few exceptions. As Natalia Osipova glances at Sergei Polunin, sitting protectively beside her, the ballerina’s pale, guarded face brightens with sudden laughter – … Not since Natalia Makarova’s thousand-and-one ways of dancing “Swan Lake” 40 years ago have we seen a role given so many interpretations by … But Russian-born superstar ballerina Natalia Osipova, a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet since 2013, is now getting ready to return to the stage after a seven-month hiatus. Filin was the victim of an acid attack orchestrated by a disgruntled dancer, and New York City Ballet has been rocked by accusations of harassment and abuse. But Russian-born superstar ballerina Natalia Osipova, a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet since 2013, is now getting ready to return to the stage after a seven-month hiatus. She’s content now at the Royal Ballet, a company with a healthier culture than most she has experienced. Osipova’s awards include the Grand Prize at the Prix de Luxembourg International Ballet Competition in 2003, the Bronze Medal in the Senior Division at the Moscow International Ballet Competition (2005), Russian Ballet Magazine’s Soul of Dance Award in the Rising Star category (2007), Britain’s Critics Circle National Dance Award – Best Female Dancer (2007), the Golden Mask (2008) for her performance in Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, Leonide Massine’s Positano Dance Award and the Benois de la Danse Award as Best Female Dancer, both in 2008 and the Golden Mask for her duet with Vyachaslav Lopatin in La Sylphide (2009). Sign up here stay up to date with ABT news and offers! Natalia Osipova in rehearsal with David Hallberg, at New York City Ballet dance studios, preparing an Alexei Ratmansky work for Pure Dance. Of course, two people, two bodies connecting, is something dance can express well. verymaryanna: “ sofiazchoice: “ Sofiaz Choice: Natalia Osipova ” i still don’t understand natalia’s pointe shoes ” Saved by ZsaZsa Bellagio. But Osipova is as interested in showing the realities of relationships as well as the fairytale ideals. ‘There are times when you want to be helpless’ … the Royal Ballet star, now the subject of a film called Force of Nature Natalia. “I felt quite vulnerable. She is known for being the principal dancer of the Royal Ballet London and for her performances in Giselle, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Onegin, Mayerling, Anastasia, La Bayadère, La Sylphide, Esmerelda, and Solo for Two. Privacy Policy Terms of Use Website Feedback. Osipova was promoted to principal dancer of the Bolshoi in May 2010. She will be part of the company's celebration performance, The Royal Ballet: Back on Stage, featuring more than 70 dancers of the company plus the orchestra. “It was electrifying. She was named one of the 25 to Watch by Dance Magazine in 2007 and became a leading soloist in 2009. Just Dance Dance Like No One Is Watching Shall We Dance Ballerina Dancing Ballet Dancers Ballerinas Bolshoi Ballet Ballet Costumes Dance … Biography In 2004, Moscow-born Natalia Osipova, completed her training at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, where she studied with Director Marina Leonova, and joined the Bolshoi Ballet. It was “a black mark in Russia’s history”, says Natalia Osipova, principal dancer at the Royal Ballet. She gives a searing account of the role… it will be an essential purchase for the Osipova’s... — Dancing Times, November 2017 More… None of these fully capture her singular bravura or striking originality but they get the point across. Sometimes we speak just about physiology, sexuality …” She pauses and laughs. My teachers would be telling me off, but I had such an inner certainty that it was impossible to knock it out of me.” Where does that confidence come from? Some of her fans might not be ready to accompany the Russian ballerina on her odyssey into experimental dance, but Osipova is an artist who trusts her instincts: from her 2001 decision to walk out of one of the world’s most prestigious ballet companies, the Bolshoi, in favour of a second-tier institution, the Mikhailovsky Theatre, to launching a parallel career in contemporary dance while still one of the top classical ballerinas. She quickly picked up the art of ballet as she was surrounded by the form of dance due to her Russian heritage. Bleak tale … Osipova in The Mother at Gorky Moscow Art theatre. She’s been called many things: a powerhouse, a superstar, a sensation, a phenomenon. “She was talking about the show,” says Osipova, who had just finished performing The Mother, a contemporary dance drama. We meet at her flat in Little Venice, London – smart modern decor and the feel of someone who’s not home much – where we are joined by an interpreter and two over-excited dogs. Jason really gets it and gives me everything I need. Force of Nature Natalia is out now and will be broadcast on Sky Arts on 18 June. Oct 22, 2018 - Explore Tsubasa's board "Natalia Osipova", followed by 434 people on Pinterest. Giselle is the quintessential Romantic ballet. 199. “The woman said, ‘She could have danced another classical ballet. Natalia was born in Moscow in 1986. At the age of 18, she joined the Bolshoi Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet. The Royal Ballet’s Natalia Osipova on lockdown life and becoming Anastasia Ahead of Anastasia’s premiere this Friday, Tatler talks exclusively to Natalia Osipova about becoming Anna Anderson for the Kenneth Macmillan production and how life in … Aged eight she joined the Mikhail Lavrosky Ballet School. The controversial dancer had this to say about male dancers: “Females now trying to take on the man role because you don’t f––– them and because you are an embarrassment.” He also wrote: “Let’s slap fat people.”, Osipova has gone on record saying Polunin is a good guy who should be judged only on his dancing. Why does she think he is so frequently self-destructive? “The second act is so close to me, as if I have it somewhere in my DNA.”, Osipova is not the ghostly spirit of a wronged woman, as Giselle becomes in act two, but her entire physicality alters as she embodies the role – a more vivid, chilling and unhuman Giselle than any I’ve seen. In my career, I can only think of Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia.” (Premiered in 1967, Anastasia is about a woman who claimed to be the daughter of tsar Nicholas II.) It is a horror-tinged vehicle for a star ballet dancer – in this case Natalia Osipova – who is not afraid to get their hands dirty in dance-theatre. Why am I not understood?”. “It all depends on who is leading, and what they encourage and what they cut off,” says Osipova. In 2010, she became a principal dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet, but resigned in 2011, citing "artistic freedom" as her reason for leaving. Some of her fans might not be ready to accompany the Russian ballerina on her odyssey into experimental dance, but Osipova is an artist who trusts her … Casting and programming subject to change. It's the centerpiece of an evening called Natalia Osipova's Pure Dance with David Hallberg, a Sadler's Wells co-production with New York City Center. Copyright 2020 Ballet Theatre Foundation, Inc. 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She started dancing when she was five, and three years later, she was accepted to the Mikhail Lavrosky Ballet School. “Osipova is one of the world’s most distinctive ballerinas, with explosive technique and fierce dramatic intelligence.” – The Independent (UK) In Pure Dance, international ballet star Natalia Osipova offers a handpicked program of classical and contemporary works, featuring several US premieres. It’s a really good time for me now.”. As the explosively powerful dancer makes the leap into film, she talks about feeling bloodied and bruised by her latest work – and how loving her dogs helps her perform, Last modified on Mon 10 Jun 2019 18.18 BST, Natalia Osipova was standing in a queue at Moscow airport recently, waiting for her flight back to London, when she overheard a woman mention her name. She will be part of the company's celebration performance, The Royal Ballet: Back on Stage, featuring more than 70 dancers of the company plus the orchestra. They discuss the story, the characters and why it is such a romantic classic. Why am I not understood?”. Natalia Osipova ‘Pure Dance’ Review. “She was talking about the show,” says Osipova, who had just finished performing The Mother, a contemporary dance drama. She began professional training by age 9 and immediately picked up a talent for the classically styled dance. “It’s my fifth season now and I’ve had not a single conflict. Catch Osipova, 33, at her most abandoned and you may well sympathise. This website has been made possible by Karen Phillips and Infor. Osipova was born on May 18, 1986 in Moscow, Russia. Natalia Osipova performs Michel Fokine's The Dying Swan as part of The Royal Ballet: Live – Within the Golden Hour. “But in other companies, you can sense it, when people are envious, or don’t want you to be there, or they’re talking behind your back. “So different,” she says. Accompanying a four-star review in 2018, The Guardian reviewer, Lyndsey Winship, calls Natlia Osipova’s Pure Dance “a dizzying odyssey from past to present.” The individual solos and duets were created at different times, and while she gained fame as a ballerina, a majority of the pieces are more modern in nature. Osipova was born in Moscow and began dancing at the age of five. “He’s clearly gifted, and I really wish that he nurtures it rather than undermines it.”, Osipova seems able to harness all the drama and drive for her dancing and thinks she has another five years of performing at her peak. I can’t work like that.”, Does something about the nature of ballet companies engender a dysfunctional atmosphere? “No one but him can answer your question,” she says. “The first time I came I was surprised there was no intrigue or conflict, and people were nice to each other,” she says. In 2005, she danced the role of Kitri in Alexei Fadeyechev's production of Don Quixote to critical acclaim and was promoted to soloist in 2006. “It’s funny you make that comparison,” she laughs, “because when we got them, they were just puppies, two months old. Producer Peter Wright, Royal Ballet Principals Natalia Osipova, and Carlos Acosta in rehearsals for Giselle. “If I’m in an intense project, I become more needy,” she says. Now a principal with the Royal Ballet, and boasting a nonstop freelance schedule on the side, Osipova is a powerful dancer of explosive jumps and dramatic intensity. “From my deep connection to the part – and my peaceful certainty that this is how it should be.”, When Osipova began her career at the Bolshoi, the director was Alexei Ratmansky, “who gave quite a lot of freedom”. In 2004, Moscow-born Natalia Osipova, completed her training at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, where she studied with Director Marina Leonova, and joined the Bolshoi Ballet. Osipova and Hallberg gave all of this, and more, in these mouth-watering excerpts of one of the great works by an English choreographer that is rarely, if ever, seen on this side of the Atlantic. But Russian-born superstar ballerina Natalia Osipova, a principal dancer with The Royal Ballet since 2013, is now getting ready to return to the stage after a seven-month hiatus. From 1995 to 2004 she trained at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography and on graduating entered the corps of the Bolshoi Ballet, where she was promoted to principal in 2010. In February she made her debut with La Scala Ballet as Kitri in Nureyev’s Don Quixote. She will be part of the company's celebration performance, The Royal Ballet: Back on Stage, featuring more than 70 dancers of the company plus the orchestra. On Dance Natalia Osipova: Full Circle March 29, 2019 by Lauren Wingenroth Anyone who has seen Natalia Osipova perform knows that her dancing stands alone. 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