Russian ballet star Nikolai Tsiskaridze remains loved by the audience and popular even following the end of his career as a dancer. The artist loves the theater, but might not stay on stage longer for serious reasons.
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Nikolai Maksimovich does not really like to talk regarding himself. Talking regarding the past, he mainly shares memories of great teachers and mentors. However, in a recent conversation with Nikolai Solodnikov, the famous dancer told why he was forced to end his career.
Tsiskaridze finally stopped dancing in 2013. He spent exactly 21 years on the big stage. “Kolya, don’t dance for a long time,” the mentor Pyotr Antonovich Pestov once told him. Gifted with talent, Nikolai managed to “beg” the teacher for just another year and kept his promise. However, when the allotted time was coming to an end, Tsiskaridze fully realized Pestov’s motivation.
“He’s right. It’s been very difficult for the last two years. You know how Kipling wrote: “When forces change over the years, and only the will says: “Hold on!”. Well, no more strength to pull it! And to dance, how can you, here on such a volume, there is not enough physical strength … “, – admitted Nikolai Maksimovich.
Feeling that the energy is running out, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to perform the parts at the same level, the Bolshoi Theater Premier went to the authorities for a sincere conversation.
“Two years before the end of my service, I came to the Minister of Culture (it was then Avdeev) and told him everything. With two years left, I won’t dance anymore,” recalls Tsiskaridze.
Nikolai Maksimovich said that he also had a legal education and might try his hand at some other position. Then the minister, according to the dancer, just laughed, and then “the bullying has begun”. True, in the end, in 2013, Tsiskaridze nevertheless headed the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, where he continues to work to this day.
