She is probably the most extraordinary dancer of the modern era. Nobody like her combines technique, energy and emotion on stage; not with her passion, her charisma and that rare way she has of forgetting the limits of the body. Natalia Osipova, the Muscovite who has been shining for a decade at the Royal Ballet – the explosive partner of Sergei Polunin (before the Ukrainian tattooed Putin on his chest) and Ivan Vasíliev in his younger years at the Bolshoi – is an artist genuine that at 37 years old assertively projects her future.
“A month ago I danced Don Quixote and I feel that I have a lot of energy and great technique, I can last a decade in classical and go further with contemporary and dramatic roles. Look, if not, at Alessandra Ferri: she is still dancing [at 60], she is a phenomenon,” she points out in an online conversation.
An eventual retirement from the stage will not catch her off guard. Together with her husband, the American choreographer and contemporary dancer Jason Kittelberger, she has undertaken the Bloom Dance Project, and with this company she arrives from January 10 to 12 at the Teatre Coliseum in Barcelona, the only place in Spain (and one of the few in the world ) in which, three years after dancing at the IBStage gala at the Liceu, the star presents a party of solos and pas de deux in which she can be seen dancing from El Corsario de Petipa to a piece by the Israeli Shahar Biniamini, one of your favorites. The gala is titled Force of nature.
You really are a force of nature... How are you doing in that phase of your career in which you combine classic and contemporary? He does it even in the same piece, and that must hurt.
Do not talk to me. Jason and I laughed while we worked together on a new piece because he had the nerve to say that, seeing me, it didn't seem that difficult what he asked me to jump and then spin around on the floor, sit down... I got angry, huh? His body was covered in bruises. Of course it is difficult, because you use different muscles: in classical you look for the center for pirouettes, etc., but in contemporary you need, for example, to use the quadriceps for extensions, which is not the case in classical... They are other muscles , different training.
Well, she looks very happy.
And I am. We have been in New York, at the Mosaic festival in Miami... Next we will do a large ballet production, but we have a lot of fundraising work ahead of us. Hopefully we can invite great choreographers who create for me. Someday I will stop dancing and I am creating a company that has a beautiful repertoire and of which I can become director.
Artist and entrepreneur. What criteria do you follow when inviting artists to this gala?
I am guided by my own tastes. I have invited the former Mariinsky prima ballerina Daria Pavlenko, who has a powerful energy, because I am already a little tired of ballets that seek delicate beauty, you know? I prefer strong women. And then there's Reece Clarke, my dance partner at the Royal Ballet for the last 4 or 5 years, with whom I'm dancing Manon next month to be broadcast in cinemas. She is totally elegant and she has a beautiful face. I have also invited the youngest principal of the Dutch National Ballet, the Georgian Giorgi Potskhishvili [with whom the Corsair duet will dance]. I saw him on video and in five seconds I understood that he was amazing: he reminded me of Ivan Vasíliev from Don Quixote or The Flames of Paris from when we were young. And I have invited Jason to dance, he is very talented and he teaches me a lot. It seems to us classical dancers that contemporary dancers are great, but it is an illusion: they involve hard work. And it's not easy when you have been educated in the Russian ballet school, always in your center and everything regulated. I learned late and I am envious of the new generation: they are taught both styles.
But the Royal Ballet audience wants to see her dance classically...
Of course, when you say my name people think of jumps, technique, madness... What I did when I was young was very good and they always want to see you like that. But fans who have followed my changes appreciate dramatic roles without those jumps: Tatiana (Onegin), Manon, Juliette, A month in the country by Ashton... When the public complains I smile. But I'm on another page in my career. And happy to be able to do both bravura and dramatic and contemporary style. Dancers need to have passion. If you lose it, you lose the reason for dancing, it becomes gymnastics. You must be interested, keep your heart open. I'm not passionate about spending 30 years limited to four roles, Don Quixote, The Lake and a couple more. There are those who enjoy it, I need to learn something new. I'm not afraid of doing it wrong: it means I can improve. It is more profitable for me to enjoy my life dancing than to insist on continuing to be the star of the wonderful 30 fouettés.
And I want to share that happiness with the public. It is likely that people will leave the theater thinking that I have not danced this or that, but if I have managed to get 3 or 4 people to leave having changed their minds, I consider it good. In Miami we went with only contemporary repertoire and people loved it. There I showed my soul, my passion, my heart, and people felt it. And dancers from companies like Martha Graham or the NYC Ballet came to New York, and they came and told me that they thought it was amazing. I considered it an indication that I am on the right path.
What roles do you think you will miss once you retire?
I always think that I will miss Giselle. Because every year that I dance it again I feel like it's about me. Every year you feel it differently, both in terms of love and forgiveness, etc. It's very interesting to see how that role changes as you change. Every time I change it from top to bottom, the way of jumping, the acting... And it is important who your partner is. I won't miss Don Quixote, no, I've already given my best in that ballet, but I will miss the dramatic roles...
What meaning does classical ballet have for you as an artist?
For dancers it is an absolute. For me, dancing it well is something very difficult. I'm not talking about technical difficulty but about style, because each title has its own. And having to be everything in its place - your arms, your legs, your balance... - sometimes it's hard to put your soul and your feelings into an art form that forces you to stay so steady. You have to look perfect and at the same time convey the story: that's the hardest thing. High-level artists, the Nureyevs, Makarova, Plisetskaya, Baryshnikov... are people who leave their signature on each role. And that is what is really difficult to achieve. When I see someone so great I start to cry, it is true art.
Has being Russian in the West brought you problems after the war broke out in Ukraine? Have you had to make any statement to avoid cancellation?
I had already been with the Royal Ballet for a decade and lived in London. No, I have not felt accused by anyone, neither in the company, nor among my colleagues, nor among the public. In the opera there have been episodes like that, like with Anna Netrebko and other people have come out to make statements, which I find really shocking. But this has not been the case for me, nor for Vadim Muntagirov, who is also part of the Royal Ballet.
And what do you think about the cancellation of the Mariinsky Ballet's performances?
They came to London every summer, yes... For the public and the artists it is difficult to say, because people insist that art is not politics, but others come and say that politics is art too. In the end it is difficult to say which positioning is correct. Everything you say could mean that you will be accused of something, these are difficult times to speak, you cannot be honest. I am an artist and it seems painful to me not to be able to see the Mariisnki artists dance, but there are also those who say that now is not the time. Maybe it's not the time.
What did you think of Olga Smirnova leaving Boshoi to join Dutch National in Amsterdam?
It is her life and, if she feels that it is the right thing to do, I can only applaud her.
He likes Israeli dance. She has a couple of pieces by Jewish choreographers in the program that he brings to Barcelona.
Yes, I am a big fan of Batsheva and Ohad Naharin, and I have already done two jobs with Israelis: one with Roy Assaf, a genius whose work I have danced in Six Years Later at Sadler's Wells with Jason, and the other with Shahar Binyamini, a rising star who has already begun to create for large companies. I love his style. He is a former Batsheva dancer who you have to hurry up with now that he is young, because in a few years he will become so popular that he will no longer have time to create for anyone.
And it also includes several pieces by Jason.
Indeed. And as we mentioned before, she has created a new solo on pointe for the music of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty. It is called Her dream and it would be my idea of doing something in a classic style, with the difficulty of jumps and pirouettes on pointe, but with completely contemporary movements, such as falls, movements, turns... It's what I always wanted to do. I love her.
Her spectacular jumps have been unusual for a dancer. Tell her how she has inspired the art of male dancers. How does she remember her not always calm period with Vasíliev or Polunin?
It was a fantastic time. To tell you the truth, it's nice to remember all that: we were so young with Ivan... we did such incredible things. You can only say thank you. With Sergei we did less but it was interesting: Giselle or Cranko. I only remember the beautiful things and there are many videos that make me smile from the heart: I love how good we were in Giselle with Sergei. Or if I see Ivan jumping, I hallucinate.
Do you keep in contact with them?
No. Sometimes I see them on the networks, but no.
And what can you tell us about David Hallberg or Reece Clarke, with whom you will dance Alexey Ratmansky's Sad Waltz in Barcelona with music by Sibelius.
With David Hallberg we made a very charismatic appearance at the American Ballet dancing Romeo, Giselle... I loved him on stage like no other. It gave me a lot, it made me feel like a Juliette or a Giselle, totally in love. And now I love dancing with Jason: if you have a good partner and there is charisma, the audience will see the passion, the real energy between artists. As for Reece, I am nine years older than her and I remember that she saw him as very young and that in life she would have thought that she would dance with him. Because he was very tall, very cold, he never talked to anyone, he was very shy. Very beautiful, but too young. But one day Vadim Muntagirov couldn't dance Onegin and they asked me to replace him. What are you saying! I thought.
I am hot-blooded and high-energy and he is just the opposite. But we started rehearsing and I saw his eyes, his beautiful face, his wonderful way of acting as a partner... and I understood that I could give him a lot, give him all my energy and passion, talk to him about how I felt on stage. And little by little we did a great job on Onegin. Then in the Lake, etc. and now I can say that I couldn't have anyone better: beautiful, open, great actor... When he had to make his debut in Don Quixote months ago, people said that he wouldn't fit in, that he was more the prince model. But he was fantastic. He is so elegant… at this point in my career I have a great partner.
Like Margot Fonteyn with Nuréyev 60 years ago?
Well, they were more than 20 years apart. You don't see that much of an age difference between Reece and me on stage. I try not to appear spoiled, haha. For me it is a very interesting period because Reece has started to mature and we have a great connection.
He says that they have a Manon in film in perspective. Are the dancers very aware on stage when the performance is being broadcast live?
Ugh, there are all those nerves. You start to think, oh my God, with all those people watching! But then you see Giselle recorded and you appreciate that it is a treasure to have that document. You can't be nervous, you have to enjoy it, otherwise you lose your naturalness. And if you make your partner nervous, it's worse...
Would you say that ballet is the art least threatened by the emergence of Artificial Intelligence?
I believe that no art is threatened. We need art. Sometimes I go to the opera and when I listen to the music I start to shake... True art changes you, it cleanses your soul, you cry, you feel... If it is art, you can say that the best of God is there. You feel something energetic that changes you. Art is the best thing on the planet, we must save it and support talents, because we live in a crazy world. I feel lucky to be part of art: I don't work to sell, just to create something that makes people feel something special.
Will the Barcelona public see it again at the Liceu IBStage Galas?
I love Barcelona, every time I arrive I am very excited with the prospect of going to see things and enjoy it but I never get to see it. I have been 2 or 3 times, and the last time, after this gala, I remember being exhausted at 9 in the morning the next day, admiring the beautiful Sagrada Família. Let's see if I can ever enjoy myself, go to the beach, to a restaurant, to a museum...
Will your family go to the Coliseum?
Now it is difficult for my parents to enter Spain, due to visa issues. I also have a British passport and there is no problem traveling through Europe but they... My mother came to London every month: she now comes once or twice a year. And I haven't traveled to Russia for three years now. I want to go soon, I miss my parents, my teachers... I miss Moscow.
