Maria Chugai in Conversation with her Friends

Photo Rob Becker ©  2020 Maria Chugai: All rights reserved

Maria Chugai won a lot of hearts on 21 April 2020 with an unforgettable online class for the members of Powerhouse Ballet. On the 10 May 2020, we have an opportunity to get to know her better for she will be our next guest at the Stage Door.

Just as an online class is the next best thing to a class in a studio, Stage Door is the next best thing to the theatre.  Some people are surprised when I say that because ballet on film is still available on YouTube and television and some of those films are recordings of real performances. But watching ballet on film is a little like encountering a stuffed animal in a museum.  Ballet, like all theatre, is an interaction of artist and audience.  Unless the artist can sense the crowd of living, breathing humans beings a few feet away it's just like class or another rehearsal.

With Stage Door, you get this interaction because you are connected over Zoom.   When we interviewed Gavin McCaig and Kevin Poeung last Sunday the conversation flowed like water.  They could see us on screen and we could them and it was magic.

Maria has a lot to tell us.  First, she has danced in two of the world's top ballet companies with famous choreographers.  She first came to my notice in a performance of Giselle in the former mining town of Heerlen almost at the edge of the Netherlands.  She danced Myrtha, queen of the wilis, and I described it in my review as one of the most chilling but also one of the most elegant I have ever seen.   I see a lot of ballet every year and I watch a lot of shows including a fair number of performances of Giselle, but I really can't think of a better interpretation of that role than Maria Chugai in my 62 years of ballet going.

When I interviewed her for the feature article she attributed much of her success to her training.  She is a graduate of the school that trained Pavolva, Preobrajenska, Nijinsky, Karsavina, Ulanova, Nureyev, Makarova, Baryshnikov and Vishneva.  A year before her graduation she was chosen for the lead role in The Nutcracker which was a singular honour.  Her preparation for that role is featured in a TV documentary on her school entitled The Best Ballet School in the World. This is the school that Karsavina described in Theatre Street. Maria can tell us all about life in Theatre Street now.

To meet Maria you have to click this link.  That will take you to the registration page where you should click the green button marked "Register".  Easy, peasy, lemon, squeezy.  A senile monkey nursing a hangover couldn't get it wrong.  In case you are calling from the Netherlands or Russia, I have posted telephone numbers in your countries as well as the UK on the invitation.   There is no charge for this service but we should appreciate a donation to a dance charity or good cause of Maria's choice. I shall try to find a donate button for Facebook.