The Mariinsky Theatre, more on the Jewish community, and an announcement

The view from the первый ярус (first balcony)

Last Thursday, I went to see the world premiere of the ballet Anna Karenina at the Mariinsky (formerly Kirov) Theatre. This is the Mariinsky's 228th season. Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcrackcer premiered here in the 19th century. Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova danced here in the early 1900s. Nureyev, Makarova, and Baryshnikov all became famous here before defecting to the West in the 1960s and 1970s. Basically, this  is where ballet history happened. I was surprised by how small the theatre is, especially when compared to the Met in New York. Luckily that worked out in our favor. Even though we were sitting in the first balcony, we had great seats -- not too far from the stage, and not too close.

Vishneva taking a bow

Personally, the thing I love most about the best Russian dancers is that they're actors. Technique is used as part of the larger goal of portraying emotions. This is true of Diana Vishneva, who danced the part of Anna Karenina on Thursday. Her technique is flawless. But more importantly, she uses it to express something, not just perform gymnastics. In a 90 minute performance, she used only her dancing to express the confusion, frantic joy, and finally desperation that Tolstoy needed 800+ pages to write about. [Actually maybe only 400+ because only half the book is about Anna. But whatever.]


I spent the second days of Sukkos and the past couple of shabbos' at  Migdal Ohr, the Lithuanian synagogue. In contrast to the Choral Synagogue (Chabad), Migdal Ohr is entirely Russian. The younger rabbis are part of the generation that started discovering what it meant to be Jewish during perestroika and glasnost', got semicha in Israel, and returned to Russia to guide the next generation. Migdal Ohr was initially founded as a school. However the school closed a few years ago, and it seems like they haven't quite figured out what to do next. The number of people who come to Migdal Ohr is quite smaller, maybe forty people at the most. Even so, Migdal Ohr feels much more like a real community than the synagogue. All the meals are actually communal (they'll wait for you to make kiddush and motzi unlike at the synagogue, where you have to be responsible for yourself). It's impossible for you to get lost in the crowd and not be approached by anyone and leave feeling ignored. Even though it's so small, I feel like this is the actual Russian Jewish community in Saint Petersburg.

And now for my announcement. Drum roll please... I've decided that I don't want to go abroad to France in the spring. First of all, I think that being immersed in French for a semester would be more detrimental to my Russian than being immersed in Russian was for my French. Second of all, since the chagim I've felt a strong desire to be part of an actual community again, and not be such a complete outsider. I struggled with this decision for a few weeks. Even less then halfway through, I can tell that being in Russia has been and (will continue to be) an amazing experience. I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to come here. I kept wondering if I'd regret not going to France and miss having these same kinds of cultural experiences. But I feel that this is the right decision for now, and I hope that I'll have a chance to go there in the future.

In the meantime, there's still reading to be done, classes to go to, and homework to turn in. We're going on an excursion to the opera tonight, I've started tutoring someone in English once a week, and even discovered how to save 65 rubles on laundry (you fold it yourself). Now that I know this will be my only semester abroad, I know I definitely have to make the most of it.