Όπερα, Μουσική, Χορός
Θέατρο Απόλλων  14.07.2010 έως 25.07.2010
Ώρα έναρξης παραστάσεων: 9 μ.μ. στο Θέατρο Απόλλων & 6 μ.μ. στην Εκκλησία του Αγίου Νικολάου 

Για 6^η συνεχή χρονιά το Φεστιβάλ Αιγαίου υποδέχεται τους φίλους της τέχνης στο ιστορικό θέατρο «Απόλλων» της Σύρου και σε πείσμα των δύσκολων καιρών, παρουσιάζει, φέτος, ένα δυνατό πρόγραμμα, με διεθνή ακτινοβολία και τη συμμετοχή καταξιωμένων καλλιτεχνών από όλο τον κόσμο.
Το Φεστιβάλ ανοίγει αυλαία στις 14 Ιουλίου με μια εντυπωσιακή παραγωγή της όπερας Κάρμεν του Μπιζέ, η οποία πραγματοποιείται σε συνεργασία με την Εθνική Λυρική Σκηνή. Διάσημοι σολίστ και πολυάριθμοι συντελεστές από τις μεγαλύτερες λυρικές σκηνές του κόσμου συναντιούνται στη Σύρο και συμπράττουν για την πραγματοποίηση της απαιτητικής αυτής παραγωγής.
Στις 15 και 17 Ιουλίου, ο ζωντανός θρύλος του κλαρινέτου Στάνλι Ντράκερ -ο επί 60 συνεχή έτη πρώτος κλαρινετίστας της διάσημης αμερικανικής ορχήστρας New York Philharmonic- και η Ναόμι Ντράκερ, συμπράττουν ως σολίστ με την ορχήστρα  Pan-European Philharmonia στο κοντσερτίνο για κλαρινέτο του Weber και στο κοντσέρτο για δύο κλαρινέτα του Krommer, υπό τη διεύθυνση του Πήτερ Τιμπόρις. Στο δεύτερο μέρος  της συναυλίας ο προσκεκλημένος μαέστρος Φράνσις Μπαρντό θα διευθύνει το Ρέκβιεμ του , με τη συμμετοχή εννιά χορωδιακών συνόλων από την Ελλάδα και το εξωτερικό . Σολίστ στο Ρέκβιεμ του Fauré θα είναι η σοπράνο Ιλάνα Λαπαλάινεν και ο μπάσος βαρύτονος Ρέντα Ελ Βακίλ.
Στις 21 Ιουλίου, η κορυφαία ερμηνεύτρια, Μαρία Φαραντούρη, μας παρασύρει με τη φωνή της σ’ ένα μαγικό μουσικό ταξίδι ερμηνεύοντας μελοποιημένη ποίηση, έργα νεότερων Ελλήνων συνθετών, αλλά και ξένα τραγούδια από το παγκόσμιο ρεπερτόριο. Τη συνοδεύει στο πιάνο η Ιρίνα Βαλεντίνοβα.
Μετά την περσινή επιτυχία, ο χορογράφος Ρενάτο Τσαννέλα επιστρέφει στη Σύρο, υπογράφοντας ένα φαντασμαγορικό Γκαλά Χορού με τίτλο Μύθος και Πάθος στο οποίο συμμετέχουν τα μεγαλύτερα αστέρια του μπαλέτου από τα κορυφαία θέατρα της Ευρώπης, αλλά και Έλληνες σολίστ. Για τρεις παραστάσεις, στις 23, 24 και 25 Ιουλίου, οι πρώτοι χορευτές και σολίστ από το Μπαλέτο της Όπερας της Βιέννης, το Μπαλέτο του Βερολίνου, το Εθνικό Μπαλέτο της Αγγλίας και το Μπαλέτο της Εθνικής Λυρικής Σκηνής θα ερμηνεύσουν αποσπάσματα από έργα των  Roland Petit, Roland Savkovic, Marius Petipa, Kenneth McMillan και Renato Zanella σε μουσική Adam, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Brian Eno, Massenet, κ.α.
Επίσης, για πρώτη χρονιά, στο πλαίσιο του Φεστιβάλ Αιγαίου, οι διοργανωτές προχωρούν στη δημιουργία ενός νέου, σημαντικού θεσμού υπό τον τίτλο Greek Opera Studio. Πρόκειται για ένα θερινό εκπαιδευτικό πρόγραμμα φωνητικής που απευθύνεται σε επαγγελματίες, αλλά και σε προχωρημένους σπουδαστές όπερας από πανεπιστήμια και ακαδημίες του κόσμου. Στο πλαίσιο του Greek Opera Studio θα παραδίδονται ιδιαίτερα μαθήματα φωνητικής, μαθήματα καθοδήγησης στη σκηνική παρουσία και στην κινησιολογία, καθώς και προετοιμασία στην γλώσσα της εκάστοτε όπερας. Οι νεαροί καλλιτέχνες που θα λάβουν μέρος αυτή τη σαιζόν, θα καλύψουν σολιστικούς ρόλους της Κάρμεν υπό τη καθοδήγηση και τη διδασκαλία του μαέστρου και καλλιτεχνικού διευθυντή της “Virginia Opera”, Πήτερ Μαρκ, ενώ ταυτόχρονα θα έχουν τη δυνατότητα συμμετέχουν στη χορωδία που θα τραγουδήσει στην παραγωγή της Κάρμεν. Στις 20 Ιουλίου οι σπουδαστές του Greek Opera Studio θα παρουσιάσουν ένα Γκαλά Όπερας  με αποσπάσματα και άριες από την Κάρμεν. Το Greek Opera Studio, ιδρύτρια του οποίου είναι η σοπράνο Ιλάνα Λαπαλάινεν, θα παρέχει στους νέους καλλιτέχνες πολύτιμες γνώσεις που θα τους βοηθήσουν να καλλιεργήσουν τις μουσικές τους δεξιότητες και θα αποτελέσουν σημαντικές βάσεις για την μελλοντική επαγγελματική τους σταδιοδρομία.
Τέλος, το Φεστιβάλ, φέτος εγκαινιάζει σειρά απογευματινών συναυλιών, με ελεύθερη είσοδο, στον Ορθόδοξο Ναό του Αγίου Νικολάου, όπου χορωδιακά σύνολα θα παρουσιάζουν θρησκευτικά έργα φωνητικής μουσικής. 
Θέατρο Απόλλων
Ερμούπολη, Σύρος, Τηλ: +30-22810-85192-3
(ελculture.gr)

The Palais Garnier opera house, from when quasi-wife visited Paris.

Although a filmed performance is never the same as live, I thought I’d try to recreate the experience for her and borrowed the DVD of POB’s La Bayadère, with Isabelle Guérin as Nikiya, Laurent Hilaire as Solor and Elisabeth Platel as Gamzatti.  It was a play date of pretend as we had a fanciful Italian dinner (spaghetti and meatballs) and sat in the prime seats (she sat in a recliner…you won’t find one of those in any opera house box!).  Despite my role as impresario educatorio extraordinario, I actually hadn’t seen a full production of  La Bayadère myself, although I knew the basic plot and have of course seen my fair share of variations on le YouTube and I figured that would be enough to get us through without program notes.  I was kind of wrong because we both found ourselves a little confused, but a quick online search clarified what we needed to know (I am without a copy of Clement Crisp and Mary Clarke’s The Ballet Goer’s Guide because I practically had the copy from the Columbus Public Library on permanent loan, such that it never occurred to me that I don’t actually own the book).  I find that a number of ballet DVD’s will often scroll program notes for the viewers during the overtures played after intermission, and I was surprised to find that POB’s La Bayadère did not (and possibly edited out overtures altogether).  I was excited to emphasize the Frenchness of the experience by putting the DVD in French, assuming it would be those program notes that would appear in French, but really the language settings only change the DVD menus.  Lame.

At any rate, the production overall was really quite beautiful and although we decided some elements were kind of racist, we took it at face value—it’s not like La Bayadère was written yesterday with today’s knowledge of what’s politically correct and such.  I don’t think any audience member really expects a ballet to be perfectly cast ethnically so I don’t know that painting dancer’s skin (with the exception of the Gold Idol of course) is really necessary, but I think understanding of the intent eliminates the possibility of fostering racism.  Ballet audiences are smarty-pants…we know.  We know.  Regardless, the costumes were stunning and the dancing sublime.  POB is ridiculously clean and their dancers so well rounded, which of course is best shown in the famous corps de ballet scene in Act III, The Kingdom of the Shades, when the ghosties enter in linear fashion, where replication of near-identical arabesques between each dancer is key.  I figured she would like this scene for its symmetry and orderliness, after all, we’re talking about a girl who calls Storables (a store that sells containers and storage items for the home) a “store after her own heart.”  I told her that the Kingdom of the Shades is probably the most famous corps de ballet choreography, such that scholarly ballet people write papers and whatnot about just that scene.  If someone would like to confirm this for me, do let me know…I prefer to tell truths.  Speaking of smart audiences though, she even got the whole “shades-as-the-puffs-of-smoke-from-Solor’s-opium-hookah” symbolism all on her own!  I tell you, I’m training these little ducklings so well…although she did ask me if this was the only ballet where someone is on some serious drugs and my question to you is who asks that kind of question?!?

Quasi-wife appreciated the drama and beauty of Guérin as Nikiya and the height of Hilaire’s jumps (though she did not care for the character of Solor himself…I believe there were words exchanged pertaining to his passive-aggressive and sometimes negligence).  She also said that Hilaire looked very French (whatever that means) and I too enjoyed the performances of the lead dancers and Platel’s Gamzatti (quasi-wife didn’t like Platel’s bow though).  Platel is exceptional in the grand pas de deux…lithe, cunning and yet sickeningly elated that she has claimed Solor through dastardly means.  She does a unique fouetté en dedans during the coda, whipping into attitude instead of passé which I thought was an interesting touch instead of the usual Italian fouettés.  Hilaire was floatacious in his variation as mentioned earlier.  I found it interesting that he opted for cleanliness and style as opposed to big bravura steps, such as a single cabriole instead of a double, but he finds fifth in the air like no other (it’s unfair really).  However, I find this to be proof that cleanliness and taste always supercedes sloppy fireworks.

Solor and Nikiya variations and coda:

In the end, quasi-wife enjoyed La Bayadère even though I basically insisted the entire time that she would like Manon better.  ‘Twas enough culture for one eve though and Manon can wait since I own it, while the library beckons for it’s hookah ghosties.  If your library does not provide, you can always sate the beast with le YouTube.  If you have just over two hours to kill, follow this link to watch POB’s Bayadère in its entirety.

Meanwhile, you have now participated in our little pretend game as well.  The picture of Palais Garnier from above is actually a photo of the post card quasi-wife sent me from Paris.  Behold!  The power of imagination!

It trickses preciousss!!!

PS. I love to collect post cards people send me…wink wink!

First, I have to say that the studio was approximately eighty-five million degrees so I was sweating like crazy, but I’m glad to know PNB likes to crank up the heat…I’m pretty sure purgatory is a cold studio.  The allure of PNB’s toasty warmth was one of a few reasons that’s really making me want to get my dilapidated behind back to the barre—the sooner the better.  At any rate, the evening began with a galop from Petipa’s The Awakening of Flora, paired with a variation from Balanchine’s Theme and Variations.  That was the format of the evening; one classical, one Balanchine, with the classical variations having been reconstructed from Stepanov notation.  What I noticed immediately from the first set of variations was how well the dancers were able to switch between the classical and neoclassical aesthetic; there was a marked difference in the way they used their arms, with the overextended wrists Balanchine so famously favored in his style (or technique…I know this is a touchy subject for a lot of people).  While I knew about the difference in arms, what was impressive about it was their ability to switch so quickly between the two, suggesting a heightened awareness and control of line.

While a diverse set of excerpts were presented, the highlight for me was the pas de deux from Balanchine’s Apollo, danced by Carla Körbes as Terpsichore and Seth Orza in the title role.  Körbes is a vision; she has this wonderful sweetness, like a honey-colored aura to her dancing.  She hails from Porto Alegre, Brazil, which apparently means “Joyous Harbour” so with that as your hometown and a childhood spent in Brazilian sunshine, how could one not have a sunny disposition?  Anywho, I really enjoyed the softness with which she moved, which can be a difficult quality to bring to Balanchine choreography that sometimes asks for athletic maneuvers; not just anyone can kick back into an enormous, full split penchée and make it look like slicing butter, quickly pulling the leg back to casually step into the next move.

Orza was wonderful as Apollo as well, but shined later in the evening, receiving the biggest applause for his Raymonda variation, with Balanchine choreography (as opposed to Petipa, who also choreographed a Raymonda).  The variation features an arsenal of jumps in succession for a good minute or more, ending with a line of brisé volé travelling in a diagonal (you can see what brisé volé looks like here, at the very beginning).  In the words of a teacher I once had, brisé volé “is a beast.”  It takes an incredible amount of energy to bound from foot to foot, beating the legs in the air and pushing the legs forward (or backward).  I think in my prime I could have done like two…now, surely more like half of one and then wheezing for air.  That being said, it’s one of my favorite steps and there’s something about it that makes me itch to don the shoes and go to class.  Orza’s brisé volé were positively electrifying; the trick is to maintain control of the upper body as if the flurry of feet isn’t happening underneath.  He also had really interesting movement of the arms as he did them, almost presenting his hand with a circular flourish rather than the up-down motion other schools of ballet will teach.  I liked the added dimension though; it gives the step an eye-catching shape.

It’s a fantastic night of dancing for balletomanes who want to get about as close and personal as one could get—you can even hear the heavy breathing of the dancers (which reminded me I need to breathe more when I dance.  It may sound silly, but I often forget to).  Highly recommended, even if you already know the differences between Balanchine and Petipa.  If that’s the case, then the solution is to bring an entourage of friends who may not know the different nuances in style.

The program, while a little heavy on the male variations (several of the Balanchine ballets, not too surprisingly,  drew on the former NYCB rep of current PNB director, Peter Boal) was well-paced and compelling.  Especially interesting was the reconstructed “Kingdom of the Shades” pas de deux from La Bayadère which featured a lift described in the notation that proved to be impossible to reconstruct in an aesthetically pleasing fashion; a compromise lift was substituted.  Also instructive was the consecutive presentation of three different variations performed to the same music, the first by Petipa for a ballerina in the original production of Raymonda (1898), another version for a female soloist from Balanchine’s 1946 production of the ballet for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (restaged by the stalwart Frederic Franklin, who is expected to be in attendance at the New York event), and the more familiar  male variation still performed in Balanchine’s Raymonda Variations (1961).  And it is always nice to get to see something from the too-infrequently-performed Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fée (in this case, the demanding male solo Balanchine created for Helgi Tomasson for the 1972 Stravinsky Festival season).

The Friday program at the Guggenheim is sold out, but there are still tickets available for Saturday (you could see NYBT on Friday instead and make a full weekend of it).

Maybe one of these days someone will post about American Ballet Theatre’s 70th anniversary festivities.

Marion Tait as Carabosse, photo Bill Cooper

This production has some wonderful moments, and I particularly liked the way Carabosse reappears in Act I as a shrouded old woman, apparently willing to be arrested after giving Aurora the spindle, yet suddenly throwing off her disguise and creating havoc. Her disappearance in mid-air is very effective thanks to excellent lighting by Mark Jonathan. In fact the lighting was part of the glory of this production, giving a contrast between good and evil, particularly when both are on stage at the same time in the form of the Lilac Fairy and Carabosse. Also in Act I there was some slightly unfriendly competition between two of the four princes, played by Tyrone Singleton and Robert Parker, and it’s little vignettes like this that help to make the production come alive.

Nao Sakuma as Aurora, photo Bill Cooper

Nao Sakuma danced well as Aurora, and was very hansomely partnered in the later acts by Iain Mackay. He did a fine job as her prince, stepping in for Chi Cao, who was unable to get back into the country due to the recent absence of air flights. It was the first time they had danced these roles together, and they did it perfectly. This is a company that obviously works well together, producing excellent soloists and a fine corps de ballet. In Act III, Mathias Dingman and Alexander Campbell were brilliantly matched in the pas-de-quatre, as were Carol-Anne Millar and Angela Paul, who showed magnificent sparkle. Joseph Caley and Momoko Hirata were excellent in the Bluebird pas-de-deux, and I loved Sonia Aguilar as the White Cat — she was utterly charming.

If you want to see Sleeping Beauty, this production is terrific, and musically it was better than the recent run by the Royal Ballet. Paul Murphy conducted and drew exciting sounds from the orchestra, making the journey to the enchanted wood in Act II sound . . . well, enchanting. The choreography too, at that point, is delightful, and now includes the Awakening pas-de-deux.

Performances continue until Saturday, 24^th April.

Elena Glurdjidze and Artists of English National Ballet in Giselle. Photo: Daria Klimentová / ENB ©

Mary Skeaping, a scholar of Romantic ballets, created for the English National Ballet a very particular production of Giselle. It attempts to stray as little as possible from its original conception in 19th century France. Missing pieces of the choreography have been restored, the second act featuring an additional scene where a group of gamekeepers is surrounded by the ghostly Wilis, as well as the complete fugue in which the Wilis circle Giselle and Albrecht, arms raised in threat.

Skeaping’s production also employs mime more frequently (she learned the original mime directly from Tamara Karsavina) and alters certain sequences to emphasise key aspects of the story. Thus, the peasant pas de deux, with one variation for each peasant and Giselle’s solo woven in, becomes a sort of divertissement for the nobility. Since the villagers are gathered to celebrate the vine harvest, the group dances center around the event, with a new pas de deux and additional solos for Giselle and Loys/Albrecht. For those familiar with Giselle, a first glimpse at Skeaping’s version might come as a mild shock; differences between hers and other more conventional productions popping out here and there. Whether these changes actually enhance the storytelling is a question I can only answer after additional viewings.

Any successful production of Giselle will also depend on a strong leading ballerina and, in this respect, Elena Glurdjidze hits the spot. She is a sweet Giselle with a beautiful expressive upper body, a powerful jump and the sound technique to deliver Spessivtseva‘s famous diagonal without a glitch. In the mad scene Glurdjidze’s Giselle is haunting and heart-wrenching, as a Wili she stays rooted in the Romantic style (think rounded arms, ethereal steps, tilted torsos). Arionel Vargas, her Albrecht, is a dancer of elegant lines but ultimately not entirely convincing as the repentant Count, never fully projecting transcendence through Giselle’s love.

Elena Glurdjidze as Giselle and Arionel Vargas as Albrecht in English National Ballet's Giselle. Photo: Daria Klimentová / ENB ©

In addition to Glurdjidze, the evening’s highlight was the corps de ballet. English National Ballet boasts a strong and disciplined set of dancers; few times have I seen such stunning Wili scenes, sweeping lines of Wilis in shades of white and green moved across the stage in menacing waves, creating images of dark beauty. They were led by Chantel Roulston, solid in technique but somewhat lacking in the icy, commanding manners of Myrtha, Queen of the Wilis.

The evening’s programme began with Men Y Men, a short “all male” ballet set to Rachmaninoff. Choreographed by ENB’s Artistic Director Wayne Eagling, the piece showcases the male contingent’s technical gifts, giving them extra stage time in an evening dominated by the women. Despite some interesting sections of choreography in canon (i.e. in succession, with the next dancer overlapping the movement of the previous dancer) and flashy solos to dazzle the audience, I thought the piece lacked substance and that the dark tights worn by the dancers against a dark setting led to a strange effect of torsos floating on air. It did not leave a lasting impression, unlike Giselle and its eternal supernatural powers.

Elena Glurdjidze as Giselle and Arionel Vargas as Albrecht in English National Ballet's Giselle. Photo: Daria Klimentová / ENB ©

A lot of ballet companies will mix and match as well, which can probably confuse a lot of people.  A Grand Pas de Deux is generally comprised of four parts, the grand adage, the male variation, the female variation and the coda.  Or if you prefer, the entrée, soup, salad, and dessert.  So I’ve devised a Swan Lake menu for your perusal:

This took way too long to make.

The Pas de Six – Andante con moto, Pas de Six – Moderato are never used (although Kenneth MacMillan reworked the Pas de Six music into a production of Swan Lake for the Royal Ballet, but probably not as a pas de deux ETA: This info came from Wikipedia…credibility?  Mmm…could be questionable.), while the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux: Allegro and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux: Coda are never used for Black Swan (to the best of my knowledge), despite being highly recommended by the chef.  Most choreographers go with the starred, “most popular dishes” as used originally by Petipa/Ivanov, while others have been a little more adventurous:

Bourmeister (La Scala)

1. Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux: Moderato – Andante
2. Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux – Allegro moderato
3. Pas de Six – Variation: Moderato
4. Pas de Six: Coda

Grigorovich (Bolshoi)

1. Tempo di Valse and Andante
2. Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux – Allegro moderato
3. Pas de Six – Variation: Moderato
4. Coda: Molto Allegro Vivace

Nureyev (Vienna State Opera)

1. Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux: Moderato – Andante
2. Allegro
3. Pas de Six – Variation: Moderato
4. Pas de Six: Coda

As you can see, anyone who doesn’t go with the standard picks whatever the heck they want apparently.  I’m sure they all had their legitimate reasons for their selections (and I don’t question them, mostly because I don’t really care), but unless you know ahead of time, it can be a kind of confusing to go see Swan Lake and expect one thing but then scratch your head when you realize the music is unfamiliar.

I only got interested in this whole mess because I myself got confused when I realized that there were two different codas that are commonly used, neither of them being the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux coda, and was thinking which coda appealed to me the most.  Predictably, the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux is still my favorite of the three, even if I ignore Balanchine’s choreography.  Musically, I think it’s the most exciting, although I was curious as to what a Swan Lake Pas de Deux would look like to it.  As I mentioned earlier I don’t think it has ever been used in a Black Swan pas de deux, and it made me wonder if the 32 fouettés was a part of the choreography as well.  It’s possible that the same place Balanchine put the fouettés in the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (although he didn’t choreograph 32) is the same place where 32 fouettés could have gone because it’s long enough, but what makes that seem unlikely to me is the fact that in the other codas, the fouettés come pretty early on, while the possible break in the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux which is thirty seconds longer than the other two, is towards the end.  Regardless, my questions ended up being irrelevant because 32 fouettés didn’t enter Swan Lake until the 1895 revival by Petipa/Ivanov, which is post-Sobeshchanskaya, who used the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux version in 1877 (the original Swan Lake, by Julius Reisinger was not a success).  Well, at least I learned something.

Turns out the most popularly known Black Swan coda is my least favorite, as I like the Pas de Six coda much better.  But, to each his/her own, so here are the three codas, so you can decide for yourself.  Although I did say the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux Coda was never used as a Black Swan coda, Nureyev did use it in Act I of his production of Swan Lake, so it has found a way back in (even though the Royal Ballet doesn’t perform this staging anymore.  I believe they’ve since gone to the Petipa/Ivanov).

Marianea Nuñez/Thiago Soares, standard Black Swan coda (beginning at 2:35)

Fonteyn/Nureyev, Pas de Six coda

Nureyev (Act I), Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux coda

To make matters better, I’ve also uploaded all three codas onto SendSpace, in mp3 format for your listening pleasure.

Standard Black Swan Coda

Pas de Six Coda

Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux  Coda

And because good things always come in threes, there is also free sheet music in PDF format available in a solo piano arrangement (full score is available as well, but that helps very few in the population) so now you can make a request to your accompanist to play your favorite coda for class.  The “popular” coda is on pp.61-64, Pas de Six coda on pp.178-180, and the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux coda on pp.248-252.

Swan Lake for Solo Piano (PDF file)

Bon appétit!

PS.  This entry was a pain in the ass to write.

In this post we look at Marius Petipa and the scale of his achievements. This Franco-Russian choreographer changed the face of ballet and created masterpieces – the first ballets that come to mind when one thinks classical dance – that continue to inspire generations of dancers, new choreographers and audiences.

Marius Petipa in a Nutshell

Marius Petipa. Photo: Mariinsky Theatre

Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was born on 11 March of 1822 in Marseille son of an actress, Victorine Grasseau, and a ballet dancer (and eventually ballet master) Jean Antoine Petipa. Petipa got drawn into the  ballet world early on, starting to train at age 7 in Brussels where his family had moved to. At the time, Petipa attended the Brussels Conservatory, where he studied music. He went to school at the Grand College.

Initially Petipa danced only to please his father who wanted to see him perform. However, he soon became enchanted with the art form and progressed so fast that he debuted at 9 in his father’s production of Pierre Gardel‘s La Dansomani. With the Belgian revolution forcing the family to move again, Jean Antoine secured a job as ballet master at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux. There, Petipa completed his training under the watchful eye of Auguste Vestris. By 1838, he had a job as Premier danseur in Nantes.

The following year Petipa and his father toured the United States performing for audiences who had never seen or known about ballet. While the tour was disastrous it had plenty of historical significance. Performing at the National Theatre in Broadway, Petipa was involved in the first ballet ever staged in New York City. From there Petipa travelled to Paris were he debuted at the Comédie-Française (or Théâtre-Français), partnering Carlotta Grisi and at the Théâtre de l’Académie Royale de Musique (Paris Opéra).

In 1841 he returned to Bordeaux as a Premier danseur with the company, studying under Vestris while debuting in lead roles in Giselle and La Fille Mal Gardée. It was in Bordeaux that he started choreographing full-length productions. In 1843 he moved to the King’s Theatre in Madrid where he learnt about traditional Spanish Dancing which would come in handy for making character dances later on. He was forced to leave Spain after being challenged to a duel by a cuckolded husband, the Marquis de Chateaubriand, an important member of the French Embassy. Back in Paris, he took a position as Premier danseur at the Imperial Theatre of St. Petersburg where he arrived in 1847. His father soon followed, becoming a teacher at the Imperial Ballet School until his death in 1855.

Upon his arrival in St Peterburg, Petipa was recruited to assist in the staging of Joseph Mazilier‘s Paquita (originally staged at the Paris Opéra). Helped by his father, he also staged Mazilier’s Le Diable Amoureux. Both productions were praised and Petipa’s skills brought much needed respite to a company then in crisis.

The Mariinsky Ballet in Petipa's Le Corsaire. Photo: Valentin Baranovsky / Mariinsky Theatre ©

Towards the end of 1850 Jules Perrot arrived as Premier Maître de Ballet (Principal ballet master) for the St. Petersburg Theatres. His main collaborator, composer Cesare Pugni, had also been appointed as Ballet Composer at the Imperial Theatres. Petipa danced the main roles in Perrot’s productions and served as his assistant, staging revivals such as Giselle (1850) and Le Corsaire (1858). In parallel Petipa started to choreograph dances for opera and to revise dances for Perrot’s productions.

Petipa was now choreographing more frequently, making ballets for his ballerina wife Maria Sergeyevna Surovshchikova. A rivalry with Arthur Saint-Léon, the new Principal ballet master after Perrot’s retirement (1860) developed, the two competing for the most successful production. But while Saint-Léon’s The Little Humpbacked Horse was very well received he flopped with Le Poisson Doré (1866) and Le Lys (1869) which led to his contract not being renewed. Not long afterwards Saint-Léon died of a heart attack leaving an opening for Petipa to fill the position of Premier Maître de Ballet (March, 1871).

Before being appointed ballet master Petipa had already:

• Had a huge success with La Fille du Pharaon (The Pharaoh’s Daughter, 1862), at that time the most popular ballet in the repertoire with over 200 performances by 1903;
• Revived Le Corsaire;
• Presented Le Roi Candaule at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre;
• Staged Don Quixote at the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre.

1898 photo of Petipa's ballet "The Pharaoh's Daughter", Mathilde Kschessinska as Princess Aspicia and Olga Preobrajenska as Ramzé the slave. Photo: Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

When Don Quixote was lavishly restaged in St. Petersburg its composer Ludwig Minkus became official Ballet Composer of the Imperial Theatres, leading Petipa and Minkus into a fruitful collaboration, with La Bayadère (1877) becoming one of Petipa’s most celebrated works.

Minkus retired in 1886 and Director Ivan Vsevolozhsky did not seek a replacement official composer, allowing instead for more diversified ballet music. This paved the way for Tchaikovsky to collaborate with Petipa in The Sleeping Beauty (1889) and create one of the most successful classical ballets of all time. At that time Petipa was diagnosed with a skin disease which meant long periods away from work. For The Nutcracker (1892) Tchaikovsky worked with Petipa’s assistant Lev Ivanov who would frequently cover for Petipa together with Enrico Cecchetti.

The Mariinsky Ballet in Petipa's Le Reveil de Flore (The Awakening of Flora). Photo: Natasha Razina / Mariinsky Theatre ©

During his tenure as balletmaster Petipa also:

• supervised Ivanov and Cecchetti in the staging of Cinderella (1894) with italian virtuosa Pierina Legnani in the title role. Here she first performed the famous 32 fouettés en tournant later consecrated in Swan Lake;
• choreographed The Awakening of Flora (1894) with music by Riccardo Drigo;
• revived, together with Lev Ivanov, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (1895). Lev Ivanov worked on the second and fourth acts while Petipa was in charge of the rest. Together they turned this previously unsuccessful ballet into one of the all-time greatest;
• Continued working (coaching Anna Pavlova in her debut in Giselle) despite the deterioration of his health and persecution from new artistic director Vladimir Telyakovsky following an ill-received adaptation of Snow White (entitled Le Miroir Magique);
• Created a final ballet, L’Amour de la Rose et le Papillon, which was scrapped before its premiere by Telyakovsky due to the impending war with Japan.

Petipa retired to Gurzuf in southern Russia in 1907 at the suggestion of his doctors. He remained there until his death on July 14, 1910. A diary entry dated 1907 reads: “I can state I created a ballet company of which everyone said: St. Petersburg has the greatest ballet in all Europe.”

His Ballets

Petipa will be forever associated with lavish productions, character and classical dances, big ensemble and dramatic scenes in mime or in pas d’action (mime with dance). His dances combine the technical purity of the French school with the virtuosity of the Italian school. He was very involved in the creation of his ballets, researching subject matter extensively and working close with the composer and designer. He created choreography before going to the studio and teaching it to his dancers. He produced more than 46 original works and revised many more (e.g. Giselle), of which a large share is still being performed today.

The Mariinsky Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty. Photo: Natasha Razina / Mariinsky Theatre ©

Petipa’s ballets have survived more of less intact thanks to the availability of the  Stepanov Method of notation from 1891 onwards. The method combines the encoding of dance movements with musical notes, in two steps: first, the breaking down of a complex movement and second, the translation of the broken down/basic movement into a musical symbol. The project was taken over by Alexander Gorsky and eventually by Nicholas Sergeyev, a former Imperial dancer, who later brought Giselle to the Paris Opéra Ballet and The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Coppélia and The Nutcracker into The Royal Ballet. These notated versions became the standard choreographic text and have been adopted by nearly every major ballet company in the world.

A (non-exhaustive) list of his works

Original Works

• Le Carnaval de Venise (Pugni on a theme by Nicolò Paganini, 1858)
• The Pharaoh’s Daughter (Pugni, 1861)
• Don Quixote (Minkus, 1869)
• Les Aventures de Pélée (Minkus/Delibes, 1876)
• La Bayadère (Minkus, 1877)
• Roxana, la beauté de Monténégro (Minkus, 1878)
• Pygmalion ou La Statue de Chypre (Trubestkoi, 1883)
• La Fille Mal Gardée (with Lev Ivanov and Virginia Zucchi. Hertel / Hérold / Pugni, 1885)
• Les Pilules Magiques (Minkus, 1886)
• Le Talisman (Drigo, 1889)
• The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky, 1890)
• The Nutcracker (with Lev Ivanov – Tchaikovsky, 1892)
• Cendrillon (Staged by Ivanov and Cecchetti under Petipa’s supervision – Fitinhof-Schell, 1893)
• Swan Lake (with Lev Ivanov – Tchaikovsky revised by Drigo, 1895)
• Raymonda (Glazunov, 1898)
• Las Saisons (Glazunov, 1900)
• Le Millions d’Arlequin (Drigo, 1900)
• Le Miroir Magique (Koreschchenko, 1903)
• La Romance de la Rose et le Papillon (Drigo, never premiered)

Revivals/Restagings

• Paquita (after J. Mazilier with F. Malevergne – Deldevez / Liadov, 1847)
• Giselle (after J. Coralli and J. Perrot with Jules Perrot and Jean Petipa – Adam / Pugni, 1850)
• Le Corsaire (after J. Mazilier with J. Perrot – Adam / Pugni, 1858)
• Le Papillon (after M. Taglioni – Offenbach / Minkus 1874)
• Coppélia (after Saint-Léon – Delibes, 1884)
• La Esmeralda (after J. Perrot – Pugni 1886)
• La Sylphide (after F. Taglioni – Schnietzhoeffer/Drigo 1892)
• The Little Humpbacked Horse (after Saint-Léon – Pugni, 1895)

Videos

• Vikharev Reconstruction of Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty with Yevgenia Obraztsova as Aurora, Anton Korsakov as Prince Désiré and Anastasia Kolegova as The Lilac Fairy [link]
• Vikharev Reconstruction of Petipa’s La Bayadère with Daria Pavlenko as Nikiya, Igor Kolb as Solor and Elvira Tarasova as Gamzatti [link]
• Ratmansky and Burlaka‘s restaging of Le Corsaire for The Bolshoi, with Maria Alexandrova as Medora and Nikolai Tsiskaridze as Conrad [link]
• Dance of the Animated Frescoes from The Little Humpbacked Horse, performed by students of the Vaganova Academy. [link]
• Vikharev Reconstruction of The Awakening of Flora with Yevgenia Obraztsova as Flora, Xenia Ostreikovskaya as the Aurora, Vladimir Shklyarov as Zephyr, Maxim Chaschegorov as Apollo and Valeria Martynyuk as Cupid.  [link]
• Pas de deux from Le Talisman by students from the Vaganova Academy [link]
• Pas de deux from La Fille Mal Gardée by students from the Vaganova Academy [link]
• Burlaka’s Reconstruction of the Paquita Grand Pas Classique with Svetlana Zakharova and Andrei Uvarov [link]
• Mikhailovsky Theatre‘s staging of the Grand Pas Classique from La Esmeralda [link]
• Ulyana Lopatkina as Odile and Danila Korsuntsev as Siegfried in Act III of Mariinsky’s Swan Lake [link]

Sources and Further Information

1. Biography of Marius Petipa: His Life and Work. ArticleMyriad.com [link]
2. Ballet Met Notes for Marius Petipa, Choreographer [link]
3. Wikipedia entry for Marius Petipa [link]
4. The Diaries of Marius Petipa. Edited and Translated by Lynn Garofola. Studies in Dance History, Society of Dance History Scholars. (1992) ASIN: B0006P1DJ6 [link]
5. Russian Ballet Master: The Memoirs of Marius Petipa. Edited by Lillian Moore and Translated by Helen Whittaker. Dance Books LTD (2009) ISBN-10: 0903102005 [link]
6. The Cambridge Companion to Ballet by Marion Kant. Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (2007). ISBN-10: 0521539862 [link]

Sir Peter Wright’s staging sticks to the original Hoffmann story where Drosselmeyer’s nephew Hans-Peter has been cursed and turned into a Nutcracker doll by the revengeful Mouse King. The spell can only be broken if he defeats the royal rodent while also capturing a young girl’s heart. Drosselmeyer sees in the Stahlbaum’s daughter Clara the potential to be just that girl. Given the heartwarming plot this Nutcracker could easily slip up into kid-friendly Disney territory but, thanks to the dark German Romantic undertones, it also scores with grown ups.

Clara and Drosselmeyer in The Royal Ballet's Nutcracker. Photo: Dee Conway / ROH ©

Act I takes place at the Stahlbaum home where guests and family are gathered for a Christmas party. Drosselmeyer (a spot-on Will Tuckett) arrives with his deep turquoise cape, gadgets and plenty of magic tricks including giant dancing dolls and the gift of a Nutcracker doll for Clara. Blink and you will miss lovely details such as Gary Avis‘s very funny rheumatic Captain trying to prove “he’s still got it” in the elders dance and the Marzipan cake which will become the sugar-coated stage for the Act II divertissements. The only letdown here is Drosselmeyer’s mending of the Nutcracker doll after it is broken by Clara’s brother as he seems to repair it manually instead of magically as one would expect.

In her debut as Clara, Leanne Cope captures all the freshness of a teenager and her wonder at the supernatural events which unfold before her eyes. Her dancing too was charming despite a couple of early mishaps, presumably due to a slippery floor at the Stahlbaum home. Paul Kay showed beautiful lines and crisp dancing as Hans-Peter, with plenty of energy in the battle with the Mouse King.

In Act II the Stahlbaum home and the Land of Snow give way to the Land of Sweets (Comfiturembourg). Here the often disconnected sequence of divertissements is cleverly linked to the story with the full participation of Clara and Hans-Peter and a mime scene where they explain their battle with the Mouse King to their hosts Prince Coqueluche and The Sugar Plum Fairy (Steven McRae and Roberta Marquez).

Steven McRae as The Prince in The Nutcracker. Photo: Johan Persson / ROH ©

Steven has been filled with praise on opening night and deservedly so. Not only does he ace his variation, he also shows regal poise and gentlemanlike manners, taking a step back to let his ballerina shine. Roberta Marquez only keeps getting better (the McRae effect?). Her Sugar Plum Fairy is lovely and even if the tricky gargouillades do not yet fully come through she compensates with phrasing, accentuating gestures such as her delight at meeting her partner, full of rapport with McRae in the pas de deux. Here, both Roberta and Steven give us more than is arguably needed from a short role that calls for no more than solid technique and a beautiful display of line, where all the emotional punch is already contained in Tchaikovsky’s score. Elsewhere, Yuhui Choe was the most beautiful Rose Fairy and her escorts, led by Brian Maloney and Johannes Stepanek were flawless, the Russian dance with Ludovic Ondiviela and Kevin Emerton another highlight.

The closing sequence has Clara back in the real world wondering whether it was all just a dream. Soon a chance meeting with Hans-Peter on the street where she lives suggests quite the contrary. And while the final reunion between Drosselmeyer and Hans-Peter might bring a tear to one’s eye, once the curtain is down over wintry Nuremberg the audience is all smiles. Let Herr Drosselmeyer keep fulfilling his purpose for many years to come.

King Rat in Birmingham Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker. Photo: Bill Cooper / BRB ©

With its year in, year out clockwork precision, The Nutcracker is a balletic dish to be sampled sparingly. Too many Spanish chocolates, Sugar Plums and Candy Canes and up go your cholesterol levels. Too few and you might be the only one missing out on the best of the season’s treats. For that reason you’d better choose productions wisely. Preferably – and your arteries will thank you for this – you’d try something that delivers the goods while leaving aside the “OTT” sickly sweeties, such as Sir Peter Wright’s staging for The Birmingham Royal Ballet.

If we’ve all seen The Nut so many times why do we keep returning in the first place? Throughout the years the ballet has left its personal imprint on us, just like an old friend. We might think of the days when we would put on our prettiest dresses, like so many little girls still do, and look up to brave Clara. Her courage to turn her nightmare into dreams, defeating the mouse king (or, in this version, King Rat) to save her Nutcracker prince with bonus reward of a journey to a magical sugary land has given us much to consider about girl power.

Jenna Roberts as The Snow Fairy in The Birmingham Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker. Photo: Roy Smiljanic / BRB ©

With a firm focus on our Clara and her coming-of-age tale, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s  production had the children around us enthralled, gasping, applauding and rooting for our heroine and her Nutcracker prince. In this staging Clara is a ballet student and her mother an elegant former ballerina whose exquisite red dress is a dead giveaway for designer John Macfarlane’s source of inspiration: très chic Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander. Before her godfather Drosselmeyer shows up with the Nutcracker, Clara’s first Christmas gift is a ballerina doll which will later become the Sugar Plum Fairy and dance the Grand pas de deux with the Nutcracker Prince. In this way the Sugar Plum is a sort of dreamlike projection of what the grown-up Clara might one day become.

On Saturday matinée the role of Clara was danced by soloist Momoko Hirata, with young whiz kid Joseph Caley as her Nutcracker Prince. Both Momoko and Joseph have the advantage of looking very young which, on top of their dramatic skills, help make their characterisations all the more convincing. Momoko’s soft arms and graceful steps shape a young girl with her ballerina  dreams who blushes when close to her young suitor.  From his first dance with Clara Joseph displays his clean technique and princely lines foreshadowing his later appearance as Cavalier to the Sugar Plum Fairy – the very charming Ambra Vallo. He is a most attentive partner with a smile that could melt many a young maiden’s heart. Mothers beware.

Anniek Soobroy with Artists of Birmingham Royal Ballet in The Nutcracker. Photo: Bill Cooper / BRB ©

Elsewhere in the ballet both of Tchaikovsky’s gorgeous waltzes, for Snowflakes and Flowers, showcase the company’s great energy and style, making this Nutcracker come alive in a way that the Spanish, Arabian and Chinese divertissements cannot quite match up to. Besides the lovely duo of Caley and Vallo, these are my own favorite moments, but I suspect that for kids the deal clincher might be entirely different: between the giant Christmas tree, the mice that scurry from a glowing fireplace to thunderous applause and Clara’s flight on the back of a snow goose, the youngsters are spoiled with three Christmas miracles wrapped in one beautiful Victorian package.

The Nutcracker is in repertoire at the Birmingham Hippodrome from November 27 to December 13. For booking details visit The Birmingham Hippodrome’s website.

‘The Nutcracker’ has been around for many years but I am shocked when I see just how many people don’t know the story of the ballet. For those of you that don’t know, here is a brief synopsis…

‘The Nutcracker And The King of Mice’ was written by a German
author named Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann in 1816.
Alexandre Dumas, a French writer, later completed a revised
version of the story. In 1891, ballet dancer and choreographer,
Marius Petipa came up with the brilliant idea of turning the story
into a ballet. ‘The Nutcracker’ ballet that we see today is based
on Dumas’ revision of Hoffmann’s original version. And from the
start of the ballet, we begin to hear the beautiful sounds of
classical music being played by the orchestra.

‘The Nutcracker’ story opens with a Christmas party. At the
party, a girl is given the gift of a nutcracker, which her jealous
brother breaks. It is then repaired and left under the Christmas
tree. Later in the evening, the girl goes downstairs to get her
nutcracker; and falls asleep under the tree with it. At midnight,
the girl is transformed into the same size as her nutcracker
(which, along with all the other toys under the tree, comes to
life). A mouse king and his army of mice fight the nutcracker and
his army of soldiers. After the mouse king is defeated, the
nutcracker turns into a prince. He takes her to the Land of Snow
and the Land of Sweets and the audiences gets to gaze
upon many wonderful dance scenes. In the end, the girl awakens
from her dream.

The link between classical music and this ballet is that the music was written by Tchaikovsky. There is an even deeper significance to Tchaikovsky and ‘The Nutcracker’…..

Franz Hilverding (1710-1768):

Er wird als Wegbereiter der Handlungsballette bezeichnet.Zwischen 1740 und 1760 brachte er dann die ersten Handlungsballette (Tragödien von Voltaire und JR.Racine) in Wien zur Aufführung.
Nach und nach widmete er sich leichteren Themen.

Gaspero Angiolini (9.2. 1731-5.2.1803):

Er arbeitet unter Hilverding in Wien und wurde dessen Nachvolger.Er erweiterte das Konzept der Handlungsballette Hilverdings.

Jean Georges Noverre (29.4.17.27-19.10.1810):

Seine Ballette hatten eine hauptsächliche dramatsiche Handlung,die durch Beweung vermittelt und von Musik,Bühnenbild und Kostümen adequat unterstützt wurde.
Außerdem verfasste er eine Schrift ( Lettres sur la danse,et sur les balletts) wie zu den wichtigsten theoretischen Schriften über den Bühnentanz wurde.

Jules Perrot (18.8.1810-24.8.1892)

Athmosphärische und malerische Handlungsballette im Sinne des romantischen Stils.

August Bournonville ( 21.9.1805-30.11.1879):

Er schuf ebenfalls Ballette im romantischen Stil,allerdings realistischer und volkstümlicher.Er verband die Danse d’ecloe elegant mit dem Charactertanz.Sein Tanzstil ist temperamentvoll geprägt;viele kleine (battierte) Sprünge und Kombinationen,schnelle Drehungen und flinke Beinbewegungen.Außerdem gab er Männern und Frauen mehr gleichberechtigung als in den gängigen romantischen Balleten mit dem typischen “Akt Blanc”

Jean Coralli (15.1.1779-1.5.1854)

Er gehört zu den “Erfindern” des romantischen Balletts.Er kreisrte seinen Choreografien für die berühmtesten Ballerinen seiner Zeit.Einige Seiner Werke gehören zu den wichtigsten seiner Epoche.
Marius Petipa ( 11.3.1818-14.7.1910):

Wichtigster Choreograf im 19.Jahrhundert. Von den romantsichen Ballette erarbeitete er einige Neufassungen und arbeitet für seine Choreografien eng mit Tschaikowsky zusammen.
Er verband französischen Tanzstiel mit dem italienischen und brachte einen märchenhaften,pantomimischen,opulenten,virtuosen Stil hervor.(Zarenklassik)
Höhepunkt seiner Werke war das fünf Teilige Pas de Deux( Entree,Adagio der Tänzerin und des Tänzers,Variationen der Tänzerin und des Tänzers,gemeinsames Finale) bei dem die Ballerina ihre ganze technische brillanz zeigen konnte.

Serge Diaghilew :

Diaghilews können lag darin,die avantgardistische Kunstströmung seiner Zeit für den Tanz fruchtbar zu machen.
Zudem lag seine Intention darin,russische Kunst,Musik und Oper im Westen vorzustellen,was ihm auch erfolgreich gelang.Eine Renaissance des Balletts setze so im Westen ein.
Er hatte ein gutes gespür für die Zusammenarbeit mit anderen Künstlerin. Unter ihm arbeitete: PabloPicasso,henri Matisse,Jean Cocteau,Darius Mihaus,Claude Debussy,Maurice Ravel,Erik Satie und die Solisten des Mariinski Theaters:Fokin,Nijinsky,Massine,Nijinska und Balanchine.

Im Verlauf seiner Arbeit nahm die Choreografiedie Dominanz über Libretto und Musik,dadruch wurde der Choreograf der eigentliche Autor des Balletts.
Mit seinem Tod 1929 endete die Zeit des Ballett Russes.

Michail Fokin (5.5.1880-22.8.1942)

Seine Ballette wurden wegweisend für den Stil des 20. Jahruhderts. Er wertete das Bühnenbild,das Corps de Ballett auf.Ebenso lehnte er die Unterordung des Tanzes unter die Musik ab.Der Tänzerische Ausdruck sollte nicht auf Schrittkombinationen,Händen und Füßen beruhen,er sollte den ganzen Körper des Tänzers umfassen und darüber hinaus als Gruppe.Der Tanz und die Mimik sollten Ausdruck einer dramatischen Situation sein.

George Balanchine (22.1.1904-30.4.1983)

Balanchine ist der letzte Choreograf des Ballett Russes und der wichtigste Choreograf des 20.Jahrhunderst.Sein neoklassischer Stil gab dem Ballett einen neuen Impuls.Er legte das Fundament des amerikansichen Balletts.(Leiter des New York City Balletts)
Er erfand und erweiterte Schritte der Danse d’ecole neu und zeigte sie auf einer nicht gesehenen Weise.
Er arbeitet eng mit Strawinsky zusammen.
Sein Stil ist es,die Choreografie eng mit der Musik zu verbinden.Die Musik bedeutet hier nicht die Melodie,sondern das Einteilen von Zeit.So kann sie hier auch weggelassen oder durch Geräusche oder Sprache ersetzt werden.
Balanchine verzischtet auch auf opulentes Bühnenwerk,bei ihm steht der reine Tanz im Vordergrund.Die Tänzer tragen meist nur ein Trikot oder Tuniken.

Weitere wichtige Exponenten des Neoklassismus sind: Frederic Ashton (17.9.1904),Bronislawa Nijinska (8.1.1891-22-2-1972) und Jerome Robbins (11.10.1918-29.7.1998).Durch Elemente des Jazz und modernen Tanzes förderten auch sie die gleichstellung des Mannes im Tanz und hoben das Klischee und die Männerolle auf die durch die früheren Klassichen Ballette wie “Schwanensee” oder “Dornröschen” entstanden sind.

Serge Lifar führte Balanchines Stil in Paris weiter.

Roland Petit (13.1.1924)

Seine Ballette,die oft revueartig sind,repräsentieren den französischen charme und chic.


Lèonide Massine ( 9.8.1896-15.3.1979)

Seine Ballette zeichnen sich durch ihren Himor und Vitalität aus.Zudem trieb er die entwikelung sinfonischer Ballette und die Entwickelung abstrakter Ballette voran.

Waslaw Nijinski ( 12.3.1889-8.4.1950)

Seine Ballette brachen mit Traditionen und gaben dem Ballett des 20.Jahrhundert wichtige Impulse.

Er reformierte die Stellung des Mannes im Tanz und schob das Klischee des Tänzers als “3 Bein der Ballerina” zur Seite und gab dem “Mann” eine gleichbedeutene Position wie der der Ballerina zurück.


Isodora Duncan:

sie verwendete keine Pantomime,ihre getanzten Rollen sollten natürlicher und Ausdruckstärker sein.
Aus ihrer Arbeit entwickelte sich durch Rudolf von Laban (Choreutik,Eukinetik),Mary Wigman ,Dore Hoyer und Kurt Jooss der Ausdrucktanz.
In den USA ging hier der Modern Dance hervor,dessen wichtigste vertreteri n n Martha Graham ist. Sie gab dem Modern Dance einen Kodex,der mit dem des klassischen Balletts vergleichbar ist und lehrte diesen in einer eigenen Schule.

José Limòn (12.1.1908) und Merce Cunningham (16.4.1919) und andere Grahamschüler entwickelten neue experimentielle Ballett Stile die dem Ballett neue Impulse gaben.

Kenneth McMillan(11.12.1929-29.10.1992):

Mc Millan ist einer der bedeutensten Choreografen des 20.Jahruhunderts. Er schuf erzählende,psychologische Stoffe,mit denen er oft Aufsehen erregte. In den 1960er Jahren versuchte er die Kunstform der Handlungsballette neu zu beleben .

John Cranko (15.8.1927-26.6.1973):

Er wurde 1961 Stuttgarter Ballettdirektor und machte aus der Companie eine,die mit Paris,London,New York,Moskau und St.Petersburg mithalten konnte.
Sein Schwerpunkt waren Handlunsballette,die er auf neuartiger Weise und Erzähltechnick rüberbrachte(Rückblende,Traumsequenzen…)
Bewegungstypisch sind Ausdruckstarke Bewegungen der Danse d’école.
Außerdem ermutigte er viele seiner Tänzer selbst zu choreografieren.

Maurice Béjart (1.1.1927-22.11.2007):

Ein Millionenpublikum zu beigeistern schaffte Maurice Béjart.Er schuf effektvolle großdimesionierteGroßproduktionen an zum Teil ungewöhlichen Aufführungsorten.Seine Choreografien beinhalten philosophische Themen die oftmals einen touch Erotik enthalten.
Er verbindet den klassichen Tanzstil mit fernöstlichen Elementen.

Robert van Dantzig,Jiri Kylian (21.3.1947),Hans van Manen (11.7.1932),sind niederländische Choreografen die das Ballett im Sinne von Fokin weiter bearbeiten.

John Neumeier (24.2.1942):

Seine Bewegungssprache basiert auf der klassischen Technick,die durch Elemente des modernen Tanzes durchbrochen wird:improvisiert wirkt.
Seine Arbeiten adaptiert er Werke aus dem klassischen Repertoir;verwendet Vorlagen aus der Weltliteratur oder schafft Stücke zu kirchlicher oder sinfonischer Musik.
Erstmals wagte er sich an,zuvor als “untanzbar” geltender Musik.
Er arbeitet mit Collagen,ineinander gelegten Bildern und Traumsequenzen.

Weltweit ältester Ballettdirektor.

Susanne Linke (19.6.1944),Pina Bausch (27.7.1940-30.6.2009),Johann Kresnik u.a. schufen mit ihrem Stil des Tanztheaters eine besondere Form.

Pina Bausch wurde für ihre Arbeit mit vielen Preisen geehrt.
Ihre werke setzen sich aus Tanz,Sprechtheater,Kunst alllgemein und rezitativen in Bühnen und Gesellschaftsbrechenden Theatermontagen zusammen. Stilbildend waren Themen der Kindheit,Erinnerung und Geschlechterverhältnisse.
Oftmals verwendet sie auch Östliche Musik oder Tanzbewegungen.

William Forsythe (30.12.1949)

Das neoklassische Ballett fing in den fünfziger und sechziger Jahren an zu stagnieren.Forsythe fing an,diese Stagnation zu unterbrechen,er erweiterte den klassischen Stil indem er die alleinige Zuordnung des Körpers zum Publikum hin aufhob.Er ließ die Tänzer nicht mehr mit einzig dem Brustbein zum Publikum gerichtet tanzen,sondern alle Richtungen und Körperteile spielten nun eine Rolle,d.h. sie konnten auch zum Seitenportal gerichtet oder zur Rückseite gerichtet tanzen.
Zudem verwendet er ebenfalls ein spärliches Bühnenbild um den Tänzer und Tanz in den Mittelpunkt zu bringen.
das wesentliche seiner Ballette sind Brüche mit Normen.Er verwendet ein spezielles Lichtdesign( Z.B Teilausleuchtungen,Bühnenarbeitslicht),Objekte,elektronische Musik,gesprochene Texte,Improvisation. ]]> http://theballetbag.com/2009/09/14/the-sleeping-beauty/ Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:02:29 +0000 Linda http://theballetbag.com/2009/09/14/the-sleeping-beauty/ Is this ballet for you?

Go If: You love classical ballet complete with fairy tale theme, tiaras, tutus, lavish décors and variations for almost every single dancer featuring every single ballet step. The Sleeping Beauty is also ideal for: classical music fans who want to live Tchaikovsky’s vision of the story, young budding ballerinas and danseurs looking for inspiration and first timers, who will be able to easily follow the story.

Skip If: You cannot bear choreographic “filler”, endless variations and character dances (particularly in the prologue and act 3), long mime sequences (as in the Royal Ballet’s version), happy ever after fairy-tales or overly long ballets – think 3 hours including intervals.

Dream Cast

Aurora: There is currently no better Aurora in our books than Alina Cojocaru.

Prince Désiré/Florimund: Beauty is more centered on the ballerina so the Prince’s role is secondary. However, the male solos are a perfect showcase for  danseur nobles such as Mariinsky’s Igor Kolb, ABT’s Marcelo Gomes, NYCB’s Robbie Fairchild and Roberto Bolle. At the Royal Ballet we think rising star Sergei Polunin (who is tackling the role for the first time this season) and Rupert Pennefather are very princely.

Lilac Fairy: Ulyana Lopatkina, Veronika Part and Marianela Nuñez.

Alina Cojocaru as Aurora in Mariinsky's 1890 Sleeping Beauty. Photo: Natasha Razina ©. Source: Ballet-dance.com

Background

In 1888 Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg, had the idea of adapting Charles Perrault‘s tale of The Sleeping Beauty into a ballet and invited Tchaikovsky to compose the music. It was a bold move at a time when fairy-tale based ballets were in low public demand and largely viewed as theatrical gimmicks. Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (as choreographed by Wenzel Reisinger/Joseph Hansen) had been coldly received and Petipa‘s ballets were not faring well. However visionary Vsevolozhsky, a diplomat who had also served as librettist and costume designer, seeing the potential for Petipa and the talents of the Imperial Theatre,  jumped at the chance to develop a lavish production of this well loved story in the style of those staged in the court of Louis XIV.

Tchaikovsky didn’t hesitate in undertaking the commission. Immediately taking instructions from Petipa as to the particular requirements (e.g. bar lengths, type of music, character leitmotifs, etc.), he worked fast and it is thought that he completed the overture, prologue and outlines of acts I and II in less than three weeks. Tchaikovsky finished the ballet score at the end of May 1889, having spent a total of 40 days on it. In a letter to one of his benefactors he wrote: “The subject is so poetic, so inspirational to composition, that I am captivated by it”.

Rehearsals began in August of that same year. The premiere, originally scheduled to take place that December, kept being pushed forward until the ballet was finally staged on 15th of January 1890. By then the Tsar, who had been invited to the dress rehearsal, had already given it his verdict, laconically telling a puzzled Tchaikovsky that the music was “very nice”.

Vision Scene in Mariinsky's The Sleeping Beauty. Source: Mariinsky.ru Copyright belongs to its respective owners.

Mixed reviews for the splendid January 15th premiere showed that the audiences had been captivated mostly by the beauty of the music, even if it was constantly referred to as “symphonic”. The libretto was seen as simplistic and juvenile, designs too luxurious (the ballet consumed a quarter of the theatre’s annual budget). Later however, the ballet would captivate the hearts and imagination of a younger generation of enthusiasts. Referred to as the “Neva Pickwickians”, personalities such as George Balanchine, Alexandre Benois, Léon Bakst, Sergei Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky and Anna Pavlova, were greatly impressed by the artistic qualities of the production, giving it a boost which helped The Sleeping Beauty become the most performed ballet in the Mariinsky’s history.

This historical 1890 production was revived in 1999, thanks to its reconstruction by Sergey Vikharev who worked with the original notations by Petipa’s assistant Nicholas Sergeyev, as well as other productions which borrowed from it (Perm Ballet’s 1922 production by Fyodor Lopukhov, the Bolshoi‘s by Grigorovich, the Mussorgsky Theatre of Opera and Ballet’s and the Royal Ballet‘s by Sergeyev himself), where necessary filling in the gaps with the Kirov’s 1952 version – the Soviet Beauty – as staged by another Sergeyev: Konstantin Sergeyev.

The Sleeping Beauty was performed outside Russia for the first time in 1896 in Milan. While In St. Petersburg, with the revolution under way, the production went into decline, it flourished in the West thanks to Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes. Their 1921 staging in London of The Sleeping Princess, in a new full-length version (they also had a 45-min shortened version, Aurora’s Wedding) with designs by Léon Bakst, new orchestrations by Stravinsky and revised choreography by Nijinska had a record 105 consecutive performances and was considered a success even though it had dire economic consequences for the company.

Beauty and the Royal Ballet

The Sleeping Beauty has a special place in the Royal Ballet’s repertoire. It was originally staged for it in 1939 by Nicholas Sergeyev who had fled the Russian revolution with the original Mariinsky notations in his suitcase, with nineteen year old Margot Fonteyn in the role of Aurora. This was also the “statement ballet” chosen by Ninette de Valois to commemorate the end of WWII, as well as her budding ballet company’s new home at the Royal Opera House. Oliver Messel was brought in for the designs and Margot Fonteyn and Robert Helpmann danced the leads Aurora and Prince Florimund/Carabosse. The ballet had its premiere on February 20, of 1946 and became a symbol of the company triumphing against adversity not only at home but on tour in the US, with Fonteyn’s Aurora acclaimed by New York audiences.

Margot Fonteyn as Aurora. Source: Dance Works Online via My Hero.com. Copyright belongs to its respective owners.

The 1946 production was revived by the Royal Ballet in 2006, to celebrate its 75th anniversary and remains in repertoire as their current production. It is also available on DVD.

The Story

Petipa and Vsevolozhsky based their ballet’s libretto on the original fairy tale by Charles Perrault later popularised by the Brothers Grimm. Since the libretto’s priority is to blend the story with the dancing, there are modifications from the source text and, evidently, slight changes from one company’s version to the next.

Prologue: The Christening

The curtains open to reveal the Master of Ceremonies Cattalabutte busy with the final preparations ordered by King Florestan XXIV to celebrate the christening of  his daughter Aurora. He goes through the guest list to make sure he has not forgotten to invite anyone, not least all the fairy godmothers: the Lilac Fairy and

Candide, Coulante-Fleur-de-Farine, Miettes-qui-Tombent, Canari-qui-Chante, Violente or;

Tender Fairy, Carefree Fairy, Generous Fairy, Playful Fairy, Brave Fairy or;

as in the Royal Ballet’s version

Fairy of the Crystal Fountain, Fairy of the Enchanted Garden, Fairy of the Woodland Glade, Fairy of the Song Bird, Fairy of the Golden Vine

who soon arrive to bestow on the Princess gifts and virtues of, respectively, purity, beauty, generosity, musicality and vitality, each dancing a solo representing her trademark virtue. Before the Lilac Fairy has the chance to present her gift (wisdom) she is interrupted by the arrival of Carabosse, the wicked Fairy, furious with the King and Queen for not having been invited. The King calls on Cattalabutte to investigate and his Master of Ceremonies admits Carabosse had been omitted from the guest list. She grabs Cattalabutte and rips off his wig. Ignoring the fairy godmothers’s pleas and ridiculing them, she proceeds to place a curse on the princess, who will grow up to be very beautiful but ultimately prick her finger on a spindle and die on her sixteen birthday. As the court panics the Lilac Fairy, who was yet to give her gift, promises that if Carabosse’s curse ever materializes, then Aurora will not die, but fall into deep sleep for 100 years, awakening once she is found by a Prince from a faraway land who shall give her true love’s kiss.

The Royal Ballet's Genesia Rosato as Carabosse Source: Opusarte. Copyright belongs to its respective owners.

Act I: The Spell

It is the eve of Princess Aurora‘s sixteenth birthday and the whole kingdom is celebrating. While villagers dance with flower garlands a small group of women is seen knitting, a forbidden activity which carries a death penalty since the King has banned all sewing objects from his kingdom. Cattalabutte reports them to the King, who decrees that the women should be hanged, but the Queen intervenes and pleads for mercy. Since it is his daughter’s birthday he reconsiders and the festivities resume.

Four princes arrive from far away lands (they are referred to as the French, Spanish, Indian and Russian princes) to meet the princess and offer her gifts of exquisite roses. Aurora’s friends enter and just after that Cattalabutte annouces the Princess’s arrival. As the music becomes as fast as heatbeats, Aurora bursts onto stage dancing quick jumpy steps which convey her youthful innocence. The King and Queen greet her asking her to dance with the princes as she is now old enough to marry. She receives them charmingly and dances what is called the Rose Adagio, one of the most testing pieces for a classical ballerina as she is required to do multiple balances on pointe center stage whilst being courted by each prince, making each of them completely taken with her beauty.

After this technical tour de force, Aurora returns to dance a solo for the princes, which she does in a part coquettish, part bashful way, like a typical teenager. Just then an old lady appears and presents her with a spindle, which she grabs  with curiosity since she had never seen one. She dances with it, while her mother and father watch with a mixture of apprehension and terror as Aurora pricks her finger and collapses. The old lady reveals herself as Carabosse, laughing triumphantly and vanishing before the Princes can fight her. The Lilac Fairy then appears to remind everyone that the Princess will not die. She puts the entire kingdom to sleep, to awaken only once Aurora‘s curse is broken.

Aurora falling under Carabosse's spell in The Royal Ballet's Sleeping Beauty. Photo:V&A Images © Source: V&A Collections

Act II: The Vision

One hundred years have passed and Prince Désiré/Florimund is hunting with friends. They try to entertain him with games and dances but he does not seem interested. As his party departs in pursuit of a stag, he lingers behind alone in the forest. The Lilac Fairy appears and shows him a vision of Princess Aurora, and as he dances with this vision he falls in love. He pleads to be brought to the Princess, and the Lilac Fairy takes him to a castle hidden beneath layers of ivy. At the gates they encounter evil Carabosse who tries to prevent the Prince from entering, but the Lilac Fairy repels her and the Prince finally awakens Aurora with a kiss. Désire/Florimund declares his love for her and Aurora agrees to marry him.

Marianela Nuñez as the Lilac Fairy. Source: OpusArte. Copyright belongs to its respective owners.

Act III: The Wedding

Festivities are held to celebrate the nuptials of Princess Aurora and Prince Désiré/Florimund. Various fairy tale characters join the festivities including Puss in Boots and the White Cat, the Bluebird and Princess Florine, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf among others, the highlight here being the Bluebird Pas de Deux, in which the male soloist has to perform a fiendish diagonal of Brisés volés mirroring a bird in flight. The beautiful grand wedding Pas de Deux ensues, the choreography showing us a more mature Aurora – more poised and confident than the 16 year old from Act I – and her elegant, danseur noble, prince. They are joined by their guests in a mazurka and the ballet ends with the The Lilac Fairy blessing the newly wedded couple.

The Music

Tchaikovksy’s score lasts 3 hours so it is usually cut for the ballet. There are two main leitmotifs, one for Carabosse (the angry sounding first part of the overture) and other for the Lilac Fairy (the calming second part) and both often develop from one another. This review of ABT’s Sleeping Beauty by NY Times dance critic Alastair Macaulay contains some great insights into the musical themes set by Tchaikovsky.

An essential Sleeping Beauty playlist for your ipod should include the below tracks, which are listed as in the original 1890 version. Since track names in the various commercial CD releases might vary (ie. “Grand pas de action: Grand adage à la rose, No 8.” might become “Track 9. Act 1: The Spell. No. 8. Pas d’action”), we have also added the originally corresponding numbers, thus:

Prologue: Overture/Intro (No. 1)
Prologue: Variation La Fée des Lilas–voluptueuse (From the Pas de Six) (No. 3, Variation VI)
Act I Grande Valse Villageoise (The Garland Waltz, No. 6)
Act I Pas d’action: Grand adage à la rose (Rose Adagio No.8)
Act I Scène et Finale (No. 9)
Act II Scène de la chasse royale (No. 10)
Act II Panorama (No. 17)
Act II Scène du Chateau de sommeil (N0. 19)
Act II Scène et Finale. Le réveil d’Aurore (No. 20)
Act III Marche (No. 21)
Act III Polonaise Dansée (No. 22)
Act III Pas de caractère Le Chat Botté et la Chatte Blanche (No. 24)
Act III Pas de deux de l’Oiseau Bleu et la Princesse Florine (No. 25)
Act III Variation de la Princesse Florine (No. 25)
Act III Variation de l’Oiseau Bleu (No. 25)
Act III Pas De Deux. Aurore et Désiré (No. 28)
Act III Coda Générale (No. 30)
Act III Apothéose (No. 30)

Mini-Biography

Original Choreography: Marius Petipa
Music: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Original Design: Henrich Levogt (Prologue), Ivan Andreyev (Act 1), Mikhail Bocharov (Acts 1 & 2), Matvey Shishkov (Act 3) with costumes by Ivan Vsevolozhky
Original Cast: Carlotta Brianza as Aurora, Pavel Gerdt as Prince Désiré, Marie Petipa as the Lilac Fairy, Enrico Cecchetti as the Bluebird and Varvara Nikitina as Princess Florine.
Premiere: St. Petersburg, Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, 15 Jan 1890.

For the Royal Ballet’s current production (the 2006 revival of 1946 production by Ninette de Valois)

Production Credits: Monica Mason and Christopher Newton after Ninette de Valois and Nicholas Sergeyev with designs by Oliver Messel and Peter Farmer

Choreography: Marius Petipa, with additional choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton (Act II, Aurora’s Variation and Prince’s Variation and Act III: Florestan and his sisters after Petipa), Anthony Dowell (Prologue: Carabosse and Rats and Act III Polonaise and Mazurka assisted by Christopher Carr) and Christopher Wheeldon (Act I: Garland Dance).

Sources and Further Information

1. Wikipedia Entry for Sleeping Beauty [link]
2. BalletMet Sleeping Beauty Notes by Gerald Charles [link]
3. NYCB Sleeping Beauty Notes [link]
4. Performance Notes and Programme for The Royal Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty (2008) including The Sleeping Beauty by Clement Crisp, A Cinderella Story for a Sleeping Princess by Tim Scholl and The Good, the Bad and the Symphonic by John Warrack.
5. For Ballet Lovers Only feature on the Reconstructed Beauty by Doug Fullington [link]
6. The Sleeping Beauty (The Royal Ballet) DVD. Recorded Performance from 2006, featuring Alina Cojocaru as Aurora and Federico Bonelli as Prince Florimund. BBC/Opus Arte, 2008 [link]
7. The Magic of Sleeping Beauty. Royal Opera House Podcast, presented by Deborah Bull. 2007 [link]
8. Wake up Princess, the Movies are Calling. Dance review by Alastair Macaulay for the NY Times [link]
9. CD: Tchaikovsky: The Sleeping Beauty London Symphony Orchestra directed by André Previn, 2004. EMI Classics. [link]

“One of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever-shifting desires.  A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought”, by Einstein.

After working many years with master teachers such as Nikolai Morozov, Ludmila Morkovina, Ramazan Bapov and Richard Glasstone in two prominent teaching methods, as well as performing professionally for more than thirty years and teaching classical ballet for thirteen years in Europe, Asia, America and Canada; I have concluded that the Cecchetti and Vaganova arm positions can be improved upon.  In this article I present ten complete classical arm positions, introduce the concept of allongé dessus (elongation over, palm looking up) and allongé dessous (elongation under, palm looking down) in addition to allongé simple (elongation out and away.)

Catbas Arm Positions:

1st position                          2nd position                  3rd position                     4th position

(Low 2nd elongated)                                                (High 2nd elongated)

5th position                     6th position                     7th position                        8th position

9th position                      10th position

Three elongations with 7th position:

Allongé dessus                          Allongé simple                        Allongé dessous

(Elongation over)                    (Elongation out-away)           (Elongation under)

 Enrico Cecchetti (1850-1928) was an Italian principal dancer who made his Russian début at the Mariinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg in 1887.  Cecchetti taught at the Imperial School in St. Petersburg from 1887-1902, and then the Warsaw State School in Poland from 1902-1905.  In 1925 he became the ballet master at La Scala and devoted the rest of his life to perfecting his teaching method.  At that time he was regarded as the absolute expert ballet teacher.  The Cecchetti Method describes nine different arm movements with only five defined positions.  It has two low arm positions (first position and fifth en bas), two fourth positions (medium and high) and three fifth positions (low, medium and high).  There is demie seconde (a position in between first and second) and a complicated third position but no demie cinquième en haut (a position in between second and fifth.)  The allongé is restricted to the elongation of the entire body with palms facing forward (allongé simple), avoiding forearm movements.  Many believe that the Cecchetti arm positions flow and blend more smoothly than any other technique, however the need for a movement from the elbows emerges when we raise the arms up, as the palms would otherwise face either forward (from 2nd position) or backwards (from 5th en avant).

Cecchetti Arm Positions:

1st position                       2nd  position                     3rd position

4th en avant                    4th en haut                    Spanish fourth

5th en haut                      5th en avant                    5th en bas

(High) up                         (Medium) front               (Low) down

 Agrippina Vaganova (1879-1951) was the great Russian teacher who developed the system that bears her name.  In her early years as a student, her own struggle with classical ballet technique inspired her to create and perfect a successful syllabus which enabled her to teach pupils who would eventually become ballet legends.  In 1934, she published her textbook Fundamentals of the Classic Dance which is recognized as the basic method of all Russian choreographic schools and is used worldwide.  She was also the director of the Vaganova Ballet Academy, the official school of the Kirov Ballet (Mariinsky Theatre.)  The Vaganova system contains three arm positions and a preparatory (low first position elongated out-away), corresponding to Cecchetti’s fifth position en bas (in French style, bras au repos meaning arms at ease.)  In my opinion the term preparatory can be misleading, as if a proper low arm position was deliberately excluded.  The port de bras is fluid since the elongation with the forearms is allowed, yet it ends abruptly at sixth, without any low arm positions except for the preparatory (the extensive use of the classical tutu at the time may be the justification for it since a classical tutu will prevent the ballerina from having them.)  A fifth position is also scarcely mentioned corresponding to the first position en haut (arms are in a horizontal oval shape instead of vertical oval when they are raised above the head, thus shorter than the third position.)

Vaganova Arm Positions:

Preparatory                      1st position                    2nd position                      3rd position

(Low 1st elongated)                                                                                              (5th elongated)

Petite pose                       Grande pose                   5th position

Both Vaganova and Cecchetti styles have the second arm position sideways to match the second leg position (a clear homage to Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man”.)

“No human inquiry can be called science unless it pursues its path through mathematical exposition and demonstration”, Leonardo Da Vinci.

In this much improved new concept, when teaching small children, having low, medium and high arm positions in an order (as first, second and third positions), eases the demonstration of keeping the shoulders down (scapulae aligned) with an elongated spine (including the back of the neck).  In martial arts, the three fundamental arm positions:  Low chi, medium chi and high chi are also all in front of the body, taking priority over the side arm positions.

A common criticism may be that ten arm positions are too many for a pupil to learn.  But the completion of a cycle during the port de bras provides continuity in a teaching philosophy.  One should try to see the profound simplicity that exists on the far side of its complexity.  The progression should be based naturally on a student’s talent and his instructor’s good sense.

I believe each arm position can be performed with all 7 positions of the feet; therefore it is possible to stay symmetrical and proportional without matching them numerically to each other.  I also intentionally excluded the crossed arms (low, medium and high) that were commonly used by Balanchine, and the character arms (arms slightly behind the body) that are performed in every one of Petipa’s choreography, since the execution of positions in both cases would need a horizontal movement from the shoulders (épaulement).  In this teaching method holding the shoulders in one place is the key to work the muscles always the same way:  Correctly (vertically against gravity).

The practice of my system also addresses the following issues:

• The Cecchetti Method “first position” becomes:  À la première position allongée dessus (Cem Catbas’ first position elongated over).

• Demie seconde or so-called “tutu arm position” (awkward when teaching male students) becomes:  À la seconde position allongée dessous (Cem Catbas’ second position elongated under).

• The undefined arm position that is given during grand jeté devant becomes:  À la seconde position allongée dessus (Cem Catbas’ second position elongated over).

• First arabesque becomes:  À la sixième position allongée dessous epaulée avec la tête en haut et en avant (Cem Catbas’ sixth position elongated under with shoulders moved horizontally, head up and forward).

Low 1st arabesque                         1st arabesque                          High 1st arabesque

The correct use of arms from a position into port de bras.

4th position                                   4th elongated over                   4th allongée with épaulement

When teaching older students and professional dancers, utilizing ten arm positions with three different elongations (forearms activated), opens up a whole new world of possibilities.  Attaining various allongés with each arm position can help make every port de bras more meaningful, offering a classical ballet artist the freedom to go sensibly beyond technique.  My intention was to develop a logical teaching system that covers the harmonious circular arrangement of both arms, and contributes to the evolution of classical ballet training.

Romantic tutu                                 Platter tutu

 

“The moment thou performed thine art with the true knowledge of thy mind would undoubtedly be the dayspring wherein one transcended everything ever known to mankind”, Cem Catbas.

Je Crois Entendre Encore, Les pêcheurs de Perles.

Igor Kolb. Source: Mariinsky.ru Copyright Mariinsky Theatre ©.

If you follow us on Twitter or Facebook or if you have been reading our posts here you will know that, ballet-wise, the past two weeks have been “all about the Mariinsky in London”, their stylish dancing and the impressive array of performers they have fielded to wow us in the classics Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo & Juliet and in sexy Balanchine.

We were particularly impressed with the very charismatic Igor Kolb, a 32 year old principal dancer, now in his 13th season with the Mariinsky. Igor’s artistry is remarkable, he’s blessed with an expressive handsome face, strong dramatic skills, effortless and fluid dancing and a beautiful line. His naturalistic Romeo left us at the edge of our seats and dying to know where all this dramatic juice comes from. We were delighted when he agreed to spare a few minutes between rehearsals to talk to us:

How do you cope with the mix of different roles on tour?

IK: It’s very interesting for me to dance a mix of roles on tour because they are all different roles from different eras. If I were to do Swan Lake every day it would be in some respects easier but psychologically, just impossible. Having said that, as a dancer you always want to make something more interesting out of the same role, even when you’ve danced it for a long time.

How long have you been with the Mariinsky and when did you become a principal dancer?

IK: This is my 13th season with the company. I started dancing principal roles very early, Prince Désiré from “The Sleeping Beauty”, the central adagio in Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony, and the poet in Chopiniana [Les Sylphides] so in a way the appointment to principal a few years later was a mere formality as I was already dancing all these big roles from the start.

You began your career dancing in the classics but how have you matured into a more dramatic dancer – the critic Jeffery Taylor said last week your Romeo was “heart-piercing” – lately?

IK: I really like the theatre, I go when I can in St. Petersburg, old plays new productions, I go see them all. I also like cinema and literature too [Igor is currently reading Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov]. Maybe it’s because I am a bit older now but I refused to dance Romeo initially. I had Zeffirelli’s Romeo in my mind’s eye and in this film there is a pretty girl and a pretty boy [Leonard Whiting]. I used to look at myself in the mirror and did not feel I was like that at all, the movie is like a beautiful fairy tale and I was definitely not like the boy in that film!

But then there was the [Baz Luhrmann] more recent version with Leonardo DiCaprio and I did not like him in the role. I started to compare both versions and that’s when I began to think maybe I could tackle the role. I understood that I just had to be myself, that I should behave as if I would behave in that situation. I am not as naïve as the boy in the first film, naivety is such a difficult thing to show on stage. For me it’s the tragic side that comes more naturally and I want people to believe in me. If you go onstage and you are not convincing then people can feel it, and as a dancer you can feel when the audience does not believe you, it shows in their reaction, in the atmosphere. Here I felt people were looking forward to seeing me as Romeo, as the London audience knows me already.

What are your favorite roles & your dream roles?

IK: I like everything that I do in the Mariinsky repertoire, I am very lucky because I haven’t had to dance things I don’t enjoy! Of course there have been roles that I have tried and did not like as much but then the Company is ok if I don’t want to revisit those.

Outside the Mariinsky repertoire there are very many dream roles, of course. I would like very much to work with Mats Ek’s wife, Ana Laguna. She came to see me perform as Romeo and I was so glad as I greatly admire the Ek piece she has danced with Baryshnikov. Other than Ana and Mats Ek, I would love to work with Jiří Kylián.

How about MacMillan roles?

IK: Yes, very much. Manon for instance is one of two ballets I only danced once in my life  [the other being Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony which the Mariinsky is set to perform again next season]. I debuted as Des Grieux at the Bolshoi theatre just as the Mariinsky’s performance rights for this ballet were expiring so that was a double tragedy for me, onstage and backstage, as I knew I could not do it again!

Igor Kolb in Swan Lake. Photo: Gene Schiavone ©. Source: geneschiavone.com

Do you think there is a right balance at the moment between old and modern repertoire at the Mariinsky?

IK: I think the old repertoire, ie. Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, are like the calling cards of the Mariinsky theatre, they are the face of the theatre and that tradition should not change even though there might be other versions in other companies. It’s our tradition, like tea in London. When you look at Balanchine for instance, all companies around the world are expected to dance his works in exactly the same way as the NYCB. I think it’s fine if done in small chunks but if overly done it feels like everyone out there is eating the same dish over and over again.

How important is it to have new works created for the company?

IK: We’d like someone in demand like Christopher Wheeldon for example to come over to create new work for the company, original pieces of work tailor-made for us. I think that in England it’s very good that the Royal Ballet uses the smaller theatre, the Linbury studio to get new work tried and tested. There’s also a similar project at the Wiener-Staatsoper, you see lots of different choreographers, see what you want to do, try different things out. Over in St. Petersburg we don’t have anything like that or like choreographic workshops.

When Marc Haegeman interviewed you a few years ago you mentioned having auditioned for the Mariinsky 6 times within 6 months, what is about this particular company that made you perseve?

IK: I studied ballet in Minsk and was not planning to go anywhere then as I liked the city and because it’s my country [Belarus]. Then I was invited to take part in the Vaganova Prix in St. Petersburg [where Igor took third prize], after which I understood that if I wanted to do something serious in ballet I ought to leave Minsk. As a result of the competition I was also asked to consider joining the Royal Ballet so everything could have turned out very differently! But I wanted to be close to home and to me the Mariinsky seemed like the top.

Speaking of the Royal Ballet, you danced Swan Lake with Tamara Rojo last year, how did you find dancing with her?

IK: It wasn’t difficult for us to dance together. Right from the first rehearsal we understood each other immediately, so it was in a sense, very easy for us and we danced together again last April in Tokyo, we did Roland Petit’s Proust (“Proust ou Les Intermittences du Coeur”) as part of the “Roland Petit Gala”. There might also be future opportunities to dance with Tamara again.

Tell us about Tokyo!

IK: I adore Tokyo, it’s my favourite city, along with London and St. Petersburg. I had a gala there ealier this year, Igor Kolb & Friends, where I danced Christian Spuck’s spoof “Le Grand Pas de Deux”, [Ukranian choreographer] Radu Poklitaru’s “Two on a Swing” a one act ballet he created for me and longtime Mariinsky principal Yulia Makhalina, as well as some more Roland Petit.

And the Japanese fans?

IK: I am so grateful to them, they spoil me when I am in Japan, they keep sending huge boxes of food, coffee, tea, sugar, everything, to the hotel, but lovely messages too. I always make a point of writing back to thank them, it’s pleasant that people take the time and it’s nice to feel that people appreciate me as a dancer, that they appreciate what I am doing as an artist. In Japan and England fans are really polite, very gentle. There was this lady over here, a long time ballet regular from Oxford, who knitted two matching vests with the initials IK, one for me, and the other for [soloist] Ilya Kuznetsov.

It’s a sharp contrast to St. Petersburg, the most difficult place to dance, the coldest public. It’s not just my opinion but people who work in the theatre generally feel that the public has changed, become more jaded. The tickets are now very expensive and it does not seem to draw the real enthusiasts anymore, they have been driven away, the theatre may be full but it’s now a very different crowd.

What’s in your Ballet Bag?

IK: When I came into the Mariinsky 13 years ago I did not even have a bag, only a towel, I was so badly off! But now I do have one and I carry around some knee tape, towels, a stock of fresh t-shirts and some foot rollers, plus any goodies that people give me!

With a big Спасибо/Spasibo to Igor from two appreciative and admiring Bag Ladies & kudos to Alice Lagnado for her impressive simultaneous translation skills!

Igor Kolb in a Nutshell:

He was born in Pinsk, Belarus (then Belorussia) in 1977 and started dancing at age 13. He attended the Belorussia State Ballet School in Minsk where he trained with Alexander Kolidenko & Vera Shveisova, and graduated as part of the 1996 class. During his final years at school, he was already dancing for the company in Minsk and under the tutelage of Kolidenko, he participated in the 1995 Vaganova Prix, where he won the third prize.

The prize brought him some deserved attention and motivated him to audition for the Mariinsky. It took him several attempts to obtain a contract, which he finally did just as he was graduating.

Arriving in St. Peterburg, Igor worked with Yuri Fateyev (though his current coach is Gennadi Selyutski) who helped him adapt his skills to the company’s style. Soon he was seen in principal roles, making his debut as Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty in June 1997, as Swan Lake’s Siegfried in 2000 and as Solor in Vikharev‘s reconstruction of Petipa’s La Bayadère in 2002. In 2003 he was promoted to Principal Dancer.

Igor is known for his impeccable classical style and admits feeling closer to the company’s classical repertory (Albrecht in Giselle, Prince Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty, Siegfried in Swan Lake, etc.). He was filmed in Fokine‘s Spectre de la Rose, which is available as part of the DVD The Kirov Celebrates Nijinsky (Arthaus-Musik 2004).

He does not have a regular partner at the Mariinsky, having danced throughout his career with Diana Vishneva, Svetlana Zakharova, Sofia Gumerova, Daria Pavlenko, Zhanna Ayupova. Some of his more recent partners include Alina Somova, Ekaterina Kondaurova, Yevgenia Obraztsova and Irina Golub.

Videos

• Igor dances Solor’s Variation in La Bayadère (Vikharev’s Reconstruction) [link]
• As the “poet” in Chopiniana, partnering Svetlana Zakharova [link]
• Igor Kolb and Diana Vishneva in the Paquita Grand Pas. Links to parts [1] and [2]
• As Romeo in Lavrovsky’s version of Romeo & Juliet. With Yevgenia Obraztsova. Links to parts [1] and [2].
• Igor Kolb and Ulyana Lopatkina, perform in Christian Spuck’s “Le Grand Pas de Deux” [link]
• Igor Kolb and Zhanna Ayupova in Fokine‘s Le Spectre de la Rose [link]
• As Siegfried in Swan Lake, partnering Royal Ballet Principal Tamara Rojo [link]
• As Albrecht, in Giselle, partnering Alina Somova. Links to parts [1] and [2].

Extract of Reviews and Praise:

Of his Solor in Vikharev’s reconstructed La Bayadère (Covent Garden, 2003)

They were, however, having to follow the superb act of Kolb. His huge jump and flaring line are pure Kirov, but it’s his unusual modesty that clinches his power. Kolb’s technical feats look all the more amazing because he never tries to juice up the audience before he whirls into action or hog the applause when he has finished. Judith Mackrell at The Guardian [link]

Kolb is an immensely appealing Solor, a honey of a warrior who declares his undying love for Nikiya yet falls under the spell of Gamzatti, the Rajah’s beautiful, scheming daughter. So appealing, in fact, that you almost forgive him. His dancing, meanwhile, is splendidly realised, strong and flexible. Debra Craine at The Times [link]

Of his Prince in Ratmansky’s Cinderella (Kennedy Center, 2005)

Kolb’s dancing is strong, clear, pure to the point where it might provide textbook illustration, and yet informed with grace.  He does a dutiful job of creating a character, but you can tell that his real raison d’être is to display the abstract beauty of classical dancing, step by step. Tobi Tobias at ArtsJournal [link]

Of his role in Ballet Imperial (Covent Garden 2005)

Ballet Imperial, which closed their Balanchine triple bill, looks back to Imperial Russia, its grand sweeping contours matching the massive chords of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2. It demands huge and virtuoso dancing, which of course the Kirov delivers, led by Igor Kolb, who has perfect lines, amplitude, power – perfect everything. Nadine Meisner at The Independent [link]

Of his role in Steptext (Forsythe Programme, Sadler’s Wells 2008)

Steptext, a quartet, sets out Forsythe’s stall. Here is the essence of his drastic style: the provocative blend of nonchalance and intense commitment in the moves; the impatience with the strict rules of classical technique; the annoying eccentricity in presentation (switching lights on and off, playing games with Bach). Igor Kolb brought muscular grace to his dancing, while Ekaterina Kondaurova brought assertive glamour to hers. Debra Craine at The Times [link]

Of his Romeo (Romeo & Juliet, Covent Garden, 2009)

…the evening’s saviour is Igor Kolb’s Romeo. His performance is passionate and breathlessly enthusiastic; Kolb just dances the steps as Prokofiev’s music tells him to and pierces all our hearts. Jeffery Taylor at The Daily Express [link]

Sources and Further Information

1. Biography written by Marc Haegeman, Igor Kolb’s Official Website [link]
2. An Interview with Igor Kolb, by Marc Haegeman. First published in Dance International, Fall 2003 and reproduced at For Ballet Lovers Only. December 2002 [link]
3. Wikipedia Entry for Igor Kolb [link]
4. Interview with Igor Kolb by Cassandra, at Critical Dance. August 2003 [link]
5. Danila Korsuntsev and Igor Kolb. Kirov Stars. Interview by Kevin Ng. Ballet.co Magazine, December 2000. [link]

Ekaterina Osmolkina as Aurora, in Mariinsky's The Sleeping Beauty. Photo: Cal Performances © Source: Voice of Dance.

The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet that can easily fall into overly sweet & cute territory and Sergeyev’s version seems not ashamed of going into full twee mode, with the garland waltz a parade of cherub-like children, too many fairy tale characters (most of them do not get a solo) crowding the festivities in the final act and with less layers of symbolism to compensate. The lack of sensitive handling of the tale is for me its biggest letdown. Take for instance the fairies in the prologue. What I adore about the Royal Ballet’s version is that choreographic allusions from each of these fairy variations are discreetly built into 16 year old Aurora’s solos showing us that she is the sum of all gifts bestowed on her: purity, grace, generosity, musicality, etc. Here Aurora’s bond with the fairies goes unnoticed.

The critic Clive Barnes had noted after seeing it in 1961 that “the Kirov take a less dramatic view of the ballet than we in England”. There is less delicacy, no doubt due to the historical context in which it was conceived, and this shows in the toned down mime which omits the Lilac Fairy’s reassurances that should Aurora prick her finger she will merely fall asleep, not die. Or in the beginning of the vision scene where the Lilac Fairy does not have to convince Prince Desiré that she has a cure for his blues, it’s almost as if he knows she is a woman on a mission and he’s onboard immediately. Aurora’s development from playful adolescence to mature woman at her wedding is never fully revealed to the audience either.

The spindle – or the lack thereof - is another issue I take with the Konstantin Sergeyev text. It is the object of Carabosse’s curse to Aurora: she will prick her finger on a spindle and die. To avoid this, the King banishes all prickly objects from his kingdom. Fast forward 16 years and we see Aurora triumphing as the center of all attentions in her birthday party until she sees this shiny, pointy object that she has never seen before; think of all psychological connotations that are fitting here, the allure of danger, teenage rebellion. She has got to have that spindle, grabs it enthusiastically to the dismay of her parents, pricks self, brings about the curse. In Sergeyev’s version all this wonderful symbology is lost to us because Carabosse hides the spindle in a flower bouquet which she offers to the princess, just like Gamzatti does to Nikiya in La Bayadère. Aurora never even registers the presence of a spindle. And how insensitive this is.

Lilac Fairy in Mariinsky's The Sleeping Beauty. Source: Mariinsky Theatre.

But I don’t wish to imply that the production is entirely devoid of virtues. Ekaterina Kondaurova is a warm Lilac fairy and her dancing is magic in itself, so secure and at the same time so fluid, the choreography giving her more to do than elsewhere. I find the Panorama scene  ideal (despite its early conclusion due to the Lilac Fairy’s boat malfunctioning!). It’s here that we can marvel at the Mariinsky’s solid corps and where Evgenia Obraztsova looks like a true vision which Igor Kolb’s prince Désiré treats as the most precious thing he has ever laid eyes on. There are a lot more opportunities for Prince Désiré to display his bravura and drive, as he vividly responds to the vision of Aurora and battles with Carabosse (superbly played by Islom Baimuradov) and minions. This prince will do whatever it takes to find the princess of his dreams, Kolb’s every step and gesture indicating this urge.

Sergeyev also treats us to a wonderful version of the wedding pas de deux:  this particular choreography of Aurora’s variation, beginning with the hops on pointe and arms that sing, is the moment I long for the most all evening and here, thanks to Obraztsova, it is full of musicality and grace. Obraztsova & Kolb are elegant, noble and entirely convincing. If there’s little symbolism at least there’s plenty of classicism for us to take home.

The Theatre

Russia’s first theatrical events took place following a decree in 1742 by Tsarina Elizabeth, a patron of the arts who loved Italian opera and theatre. Initially, performances in St. Petersburg were given in the wooden stage of the Karl Knipper Theatre and in the Hermitage Theatre (for the aristocrats), but in 1783,  a bigger and better theatre, Antonio Rinaldi‘s Imperial Bolshoi (big) Kamenny (stone) Theatre, purpose built for the emerging ballet (see “The Ballet Company” below) and opera companies opened its doors with Il Mondo de la Luna, an opera by Paisiello.

The Bolshoi Kamenny theatre was renovated in 1836 by Alberto Cavos, who also conceived a neo-Byzantine building in Theatre Square (1849) first occupied by an Equestrian circus and later by Opera stagings. This other theatre burnt down in 1859 and re-opened one year later as the Mariinsky, a full-fledged opera house with more than 1500 seats and the biggest stage in the world, named after  its royal patroness Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Ballet productions alternated between the Mariinsky and the Bolshoi Kammeny (where La Bayadère and The Pharaoh’s Daughter premiered)  until 1886 when the Mariinsky underwent new works, finally acquiring its trademark blue façade and becoming the permanent home for both the opera and ballet companies.

The re-inauguration festivities were dedicated to Tsar Alexander II, and included the premiere of the first all-Mariinsky ballet, Marius Petipa‘s Les Pilules Magiques. In the years that followed, many other masterpieces would originate here: from the Petipa canon (The Sleeping Beauty in 1890, The Nutcracker in 1892, Raymonda in 1898 and Swan Lake in 1895), to a number of classic works by Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Mussorgsky.

The Mariinsky Theatre. Source: Books to the Ceiling. Copyright belongs to its respective owners.

During the Soviet years, the Mariinsky Theatre changed its name to Kirov Theatre, to honor General Sergei Kirov, the well-known early communist leader and Lenningrad’s party chief, but the theatre went back to its former Imperial name in 1992.

You can take a virtual tour around the theatre here (Quicktime required).

The Ballet Company

The ballet company timeline goes back to 1738, before the Bolshoi Kammeny and the Mariinsky theatres existed. It was the year Tsarina Anna Ioannovna inaugurated  the Choreographic School of St. Petersburg, training dancers at the Winter Palace to form the first Russian ballet company. These dancers, initially children of the Palace’s servants, were the first generation of the Imperial Russian Ballet, the school which eventually became the Imperial Ballet School, and later the Vaganova Academy. The school and the company attracted some of the most influential teachers (Franz Hilverding, Gasparo Angiolini, Giovanni Canziani, Charles Didelot) and famous stars from abroad ( Pierina Legnani – whiz ballerina who first performed 32 fouettées, Carlotta Brianza – the original princess Aurora – and Enrico Cecchetti), performing between 1783-1885 in the Bolshoi Kammeny and from 1860 onwards in the Mariinsky Theatre.

During the 1830′s Maria Taglioni performed with the company and impressed audiences with her virtuosity and artistry, her presence having left a profound impact. Later in 1859, Arthur Saint-Leon was hired as the Imperial Ballet’s maître de ballet. Saint-Leon created various pieces, of which unfortunately only Coppélia and Pas de Six (reconstructed for the Paris Opera Ballet) remain more or less complete, and inscribed the first ballet notation method, documenting the movements of the upper body. He was succeeded by the legendary Marius Petipa who created more than 60 ballets and introduced novel academic views.

Corps de ballet in La Bayadère. Photo: The Mariinsky Theatre © Source: Exploredance.com

The Soviet Era

At the time of the Russian revolution, under the modernist/neoclassical influence of Fokine (resident choreographer since 1910), the Mariinsky repertoire had evolved beyond the 19th century Petipa classics. Many of its stars joined Sergei Diaghilev in his European tours, collaborating with new influential artists and musicians. The 1917 revolution not only stalled this burst of creativity (Fokine and Diaghilev having left for the West), it also brought difficult times for the company, perceived by the government as unwanted symbols of the tsarist regime and depleted of many dancers (who had emigrated).

Thanks to Anatoly Lunacharsky, then minister of culture, the 1920′s saw a gradual acceptance of ballet as an art for the people. Ballet school and company, now re-established as the Leningrad State Choreographic School and the Soviet Ballet respectively, were to observe the principle that dance was a collective expression of the spirit and new ballets based on Russian literature or the struggles of the working class were created. At that time, former dancer turned teacher Agrippina Vaganova “fought tooth and nail” to preserve Marius Petipa’s and the Imperial Ballet’s legacy. During her directorship Vaganova managed to preserve some of the traditions inherited from the former Imperial Ballet while also developing new ideas into a new form of training, the renamed “Vaganova method”, which now has become synonym with the style of the Company.

The Mariinsky Ballet performs Swan Lake. Photo: Natasha Razina ©. Source: The Independent.

The Soviet Ballet became the Kirov Ballet in 1934. During the Soviet years, many notable dancers emerged, including Lydia Lopokova, Galina Ulanova, Ninel Kurgapkina, Yuri Soloviev, Galina Mezentseva, Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov. It was also during this time that Petipa’s choreographic texts were replaced with Konstantin Sergeyev‘s new versions: classics such as Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and Le Corsaire underwent cuts, such as those made to mime passages, and in the case of Swan Lake (1950), a happy ending was adopted.

During the 70′s, with defections aplenty (Nureyev, Makarova, Baryshnikov) and the Company’s morale at a low, director Oleg Vinogradov (1977) sought to retain and appease his crop of dancers by expanding the repertoire. Bournonville‘s La Sylphide and Napoli were brought in and staged by Elsa Marianne von Rosen, founder of the Scandinavian Ballet. Maurice Béjart and Roland Petit were invited to create new works. The Tudor Foundation allowed Lilac Garden and Leaves Are Fading to be performed, while Jerome Robbins staged In the Night. The current repertoire also includes ballets by George Balanchine (given his direct links to the Mariinsky), Kenneth MacMillan and William Forsythe and the debated yet acclaimed Sergei Vikharev reconstructions of Petipa’s original masterpieces which now coexist with Sergeyev’s Soviet versions.

The Style

The Mariinsky dancers have always distinguished themselves in their beautiful port de bras and upper body épaulement, both features of the Vaganova training method. The overall feel is of aristocratic elegance (think Petipa’s princesses), with fluid arms and expression (even if acting is not the main priority),  perfect coordination between head, shoulders, neck and torso. Attention to the smallest detail such as positions of the fingers in the hands – that meticulous – give us a sense of movement with musicality. The corps are always praised by their unity and purity of style. Their principal dancers prioritize lyricism and nobility over bravura, qualities that set the Mariinsky apart from its peers.

Ulyana Lopatkina & artists from the Mariinsky Ballet in Le Corsaire. Photo:The Mariinsky Theatre ©. Source: Exploredance.com

Their work day

Under the supervision of newly appointed artistic director Yuri Fateyev, dancers are given three-day schedules listing their activities. They attend class first thing in the morning. There are four classes, two for men and two for women with teachers switching between both. Members of the corps de ballet attend a specific class whilst soloists can attend either and then it’s rehearsals for the rest of the day. The Mariinsky continuously rehearses all the ballets in their repertoire, since the company usually stages two performances of one production in a row and then switch onto another ballet. There may be five different ballets staged in a week, sometimes with half of the company at home and the other half performing on tour (thanks to their roster of over 200 dancers). Corps members often carry on rehearsing until the last minute and end their day around 10 pm (as they appear in all ballets),  while for the soloists it’s a mixture between rehearsal-only and performance-only days.

Videos

Legends

• Galina Ulanova in the Waltz from Les Sylphides (Chopiniana) [link]
• Irina Kolpakova performs Aurora’s variation from The Sleeping Beauty [link]
• Alla Sizova performs Medora’s variation from Le Corsaire [link]
• Yuri Soloviev in an amazing solo from Le Corsaire [link]

The current generation

• Ulyana Lopatkina* and Igor Zelensky in Swan Lake [link]
• Yevgenia Obraztsova* and Vladimir Shklyarov* in Leonid Lavrovsky’s Romeo and Juliet [link]
• Diana Vishneva and Andrian Fadeyev in The Sleeping Beauty [link]
• Diana Vishneva and Igor Kolb* in Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon [link]
• Viktoria Tereshkina* and Leonid Sarafanov* in The Sleeping Beauty [link]
• Maria Alexandrova (as Boshoi guest) and Ulyana Lopatkina* in La Bayadère [link]
• Olesya Novikova, Ekaterina Kondaurova* and Anton Korsakov in Giselle [link]
• Mariinsky Stars dancing Symphony in C [link]

* Indicates dancers who are due to perform in 2009 London tour

Sources and Further Information

1. Mariinsky Theatre Main Webpage [link]
2. Step-by-step guide to dance: Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet by Sanjoy Roy. The Guardian, September 2008 [link].
3. Mariinsky Theatre Wikipedia Entry [link]
4. Mariinsky/Kirov Ballet Wikipedia Entry [link]
5. Superstars of Dance: The Mariinsky Ballet by Zoe Anderson. The Independent, August 2009 [link]
6. The Mariinsky Theatre by Nick del Vecchio at Living at the Opera [link]
7. Interview with Ekaterina Osmolkina by Margaret Willis. Dancing Times Magazine, August 2009.
8. Kennedy Center information about the Mariinsky Ballet. [link]
9. Light Steps from Leningrad by Martha Duffy. Time Magazine, May 1982. [link]

God knows why the tickets were so high – not a single set came with the dancers (leaving poor Petrushka fighting to escape from an invisible prison), the orchestra was provided by the Royal Ballet, and based on the pathetic handling of curtain calls (Bow on the stage! No, come in front of the curtain!) and props (I’ve never seen the “Apollo’s Lute” variation of Les Sylphides before) it was clear they hadn’t bothered with a dress rehearsal to work out the kinks beforehand. That left us with the Diaghilev tribute element – thankfully limited to one short burst of film that was maybe 5 minutes long and sloppily narrated – and the dancing, which consisted of gorgeous ones and twos of people doing “K-Tel’s Power Duets and Solos Snippets a la Ballet Russes,” fully costumed, no holds barred and no silly plot to tire them out or get in the way of the dancing. In short, there was lots of great dancing, which was what I came for, but the snippets were so short I found them a bit difficult to digest. On the other hand, wow, dancers just doing the memorable highlights while they’re all fresh, ZOWIE! It was a format I was comletely unused to (since for me a night of shorts usually means no more than 4 ballets, not 15), but once I’d mentally adjusted to it as a taster of ballets I didn’t know performed by people who were going to rock my socks off, I was good.

As for the program, mystery as it was, here it is reproduced to the best of my typing abilities (after the first, assume by Mikhail Fokine unless I say otherwise, * for dancers not in RB, bold for new shows for me):

Scheherazade (by Fokine, danced by Uliana Lopatkina*, Igor Zelensky*), Daphnis and Chloe (by Ashton, danced by Natasha Oughtred, Federico Bonelli), Petrushka (danced by Dmitri Gruzdyev), La Chatte (by Ashton, danced by Alexandra Ansanelli), Giselle (danced by Mathilde Froustey*, Mathias Heyman* – not originally in program), Tamar (by Smoriginas, danced by Irma Nioradze*, Ilya Kuznetsov – ditto), Le Spectre de la Rose (danced by Yevgenia Obraztsova*, Dmitri Gudanov*), interval, Apollo (by Balanchine, danced by Maria Kowroski*, Igor Zelenski*), Les Sylphides (danced by Tamara Rojo, David Makhateli), Le Tricorne (by Myassin, danced by Dmitri Gudanov*), The Firebird (danced by Irma Nioradze*, Ilya Kuznetsov*), Les Biches (by Nijinska, danced by Mara Galeazzi, Bennet Gartside), Swan Lake (by Petipa, danced by Marianela Nunez, Thiago Soares), Le Carnaval (danced by Yevgenia Obraztsova*, Andrei Batalov*) and The Dying Swan (danced by Uliana Lopatkina*) Oddly not included was “The Rite of Spring,” a damned shame as I’d like to see how it was originally done.

Of the various short performances, my very favorite was Andrea Ansanelli (retiring? No!) in “La Chatte,” a sweet little bonbon of a dance that was just perfect from start to finish. Wearing a cute (but not face obliterating) mask with white ears and a feathered dress, Ansanelli groomed, preened, stretched, flirted, did impossible things with her legs, clawed the furniture, and pirouetted off after a mouse. I thought it was just lovely – perhaps not the most technically challenging of the night but very memorable.

My second favorite (and winner of the “shows I’d like to see in full” award, though perhaps this is all there is to it) was “Le Spectre de la Rose,” a piece originally choreographed for Nijinski. The costume, a pink half-body leotard with flowers on the shoulders, head, and here and there was both androgynous and very male and just distractingly sexy. I could only imagine Edwardian matrons swooning in their chair at this piece. Who would have thought that this would be the spirit hiding within a rose? (Fortunately I’ll get to see it again when English National Ballet do their own Diaghilev performance at Sadler’s Wells – I can’t wait!)

The third best moment was … well, gosh, not the Russians, and not even Fokine! No, it was hometown company members Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares rocking out with Odile’s duet with Prince Siegfried, in which she confirms her hold over him and her utter triumph over her rival (with a thrusting down of her arms at the very end – it just seems to say, “You’re cursed forever!” in my books). It is a very Russian moment, the bit of the ballet with the thirty-two fouettés en tournant (I didn’t count) that basically provides the unimaginative with a chance to evaluate ballerinas in the same way sopranos would be measured against the Queen of the Night’s high F – not a moment that really determines artistry but something measurable and, for many, memorable. I would imagine in the pure Russian style that this would be a dancer’s whole performance, making this tiny bit so memorable, with but Nunez we had the entire character of Odile there, the entire story accompanying her in a cloud. She was so sharp, so smooth, so seductive … so vicious, and Soares was just so the drugged-out-on-promises-of-sex aristocrat I always see Siegfried as in this scene (I always wind up hating him for being so ignorant and easily led astray) – BRRR there was clearly no need to import talent to this stage. Of course, I had the advantage of knowing this story just a little bit too well. AHEM.

Among the rest, I enjoyed Schehezade (once again, full of sex, perhaps this was how Diaghilev sold ballet to the masses?), with its costumes looking fresh out of a James Bond movie and athletic moves for Igor Zelensky (including a leap with a spin and a back kick – I wonder if it has a name?); Le Tricorne, a sort of Spanish flamenco/bullfighter thing that had Dmitri Gudanov practically leaping from a kneeling position into a high kick, very strong and impressive; and the pretty, pretty Le Carnaval, which had a Neapolitan couple (as I saw it) playing catch with each others hearts, Yevgenia Obraztsova and Andrei Batalov completely inhabiting their characters. My husband loved Ulyana Lopatkina’s Dying Swan, but she had so much elbow on display I couldn’t focus on her dancing (in short, she was so very thin I found it distracting); and Dmitri Gruzdyev was a strong Petrushka, giving me a chance to see the dance I may have ignored before but suffering from a lack of context.

None of the others were horrible, though I found Tamar boring and couldn’t help but laugh at Apollo (it’s the lute, it just looks ridiculous). It was a very good evening and my appetite is whetted for more. Too bad dance always looks so awful on the screen – I’d really like to see these works done in full!

(This show was a one time only performance that took place on Sunday, June 7th, 2009.)

* are people who aren’t in the Royal Ballet – I think. They are listed in the original cast list.

Now, it’s Leonid Lavrovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, and Petipa’s Sleeping Beauty, so it should be substantially different from the Royal Ballet productions people would be more likely to be familiar with. (Note that the Swan Lake is choreographed by Konstantin Sergeyev off of Petipa and Ivanov, so again a different version.) But I’m just really disappointed at the lack of really different productions, like when the Bolshoi brought Spartacus and The Pharaoh’s Daughter to the Royal Opera House five years back. They weren’t just different versions of the same old stuff (Look! A cheese sandwich with relish on it!) but just entirely different worlds of ballet to what I was used to seeing (rather like chicken mole’ after a lifetime thinking Mexican food meant tacos). And that is what I would like to see – or, better yet, some really modern choreographers, the Mariinsky doing work especially choreographed for it, a chance to see something truly new! But no, all we get is Balanchine, and it’s Balanchine war horses to boot. I mean, come on, Serenade and Rubies, not only have I seen them before, but they will have both been done in London earlier in the yeah, and even on the stage of the Royal Opera House.

Wah. On the other hand, there’s this wacky little “Tribute to Diaghilev” thing happening on June 7th, directed by Valeriy Ovsyanikov, with various Russian dancers and Royal Ballet members doing some real classics I’ve never even had a chance to see (Le Spectre de la Rose and The Dying Swan being particularly notable holes in my ballet experience), and while the tickets seem a bit painfully priced, I think I’m going to make the effort – 30 quid is more than I’ll normally spend for a ticket, but, well, you know, a few times a year I can let myself splurge. And, inevitably, it’s for ballet, and it’s in the summer, and it’s the shows that, with luck, I’ll spend the rest of my years talking about “that one time I saw that really great production of that wild XXX” and I won’t regret spending the money one little bit.

(Booking for these shows opens on April 28th, 2009. Gentlemen, start your engines!)

Entre deux vastes fresques narratives et hautement spectaculaires, Le Corsaire et Spartacus, le Bolchoï avait programmé pour sa tournée parisienne une soirée éclectique, associant des œuvres aussi dissemblables que celles d’Alexeï Ratmansky, Marius Petipa et Roland Petit.

Jeu de cartes d’Alexeï Ratmansky, sur la musique éponyme de Stravinsky, ouvrait ce programme. Ballet abstrait conçu dans un style proche de Balanchine, comportant notamment quelques clins d’œil à Rubis, cette oeuvre brève réunit sur scène quinze danseurs dans des ensembles construits sans hiérarchie, où des étoiles côtoient des solistes, voire des danseurs de corps de ballet. La chorégraphie, légère et enlevée, très exigeante physiquement et techniquement, séduit par son côté tout à la fois “glamour” et virtuose et se prête de ce fait assez bien aux qualités des danseurs du Bolchoï qui brillent ici par une énergie et une endurance remarquables. Au sein de ce tourbillon chorégraphique qui ne les laisse guère souffler un seul instant, les danseuses, parmi lesquelles on remarque notamment Svetlana Lunkina, pleine d’esprit, ou la bondissante Natalia Osipova, impressionnent par leurs personnalités scéniques explosives. Exercice de style lumineux et coloré, ludique, à l’image de son titre, Jeu de cartes gagne incontestablement à être revu.

La Descente des Ombres de La Bayadère, bizarrement placée au centre de la soirée alors qu’elle aurait dû en constituer l’apothéose, fut probablement le sommet de ce programme. Au-delà d’un corps de ballet exemplaire et harmonieux, littéralement porté par la musique et la poésie de la scène, les solistes, Svetlana Zakharova et Denis Matvienko, ont livré là une véritable démonstration d’évidence technique et stylistique. Zakharova, métamorphosée en une sublime vision poétique, se révèle une interprète souveraine et infaillible du rôle de Nikiya, tandis que Matvienko campe un fabuleux Solor, passionné, avalant l’espace, possédant de manière idéale le romantisme et la fougue du chef de guerre indien. Le trio des Ombres, interprétées par Maria Alexandrova, Ekaterina Shipulina et Maria Allash, charme également par son élégance et l’harmonie physique et stylistique qui s’en dégage. Aucune des interprètes, il est vrai, ne possède naturellement le caractère spirituel et éthéré de ces créatures confinant à l’abstraction, mais la présence de Maria Alexandrova, majestueuse, et de Ekaterina Shipulina, particulièrement rayonnante, aura en tout cas permis de goûter à un bel exercice de virtuosité.

A certains égards, La Dame de pique a peiné à succéder à ces Ombres saisissantes. Inspiré de la nouvelle de Pouchkine et chorégraphié sur la Symphonie Pathétique de Tchaïkovsky, le ballet de Petit, construit autour de la confrontation entre le personnage d’Hermann et celui de la Comtesse, privilégie le symbolisme aux aspects narratifs et anecdotiques de l’intrigue. Le principal intérêt de l’œuvre réside alors dans les évidentes possibilités dramatiques qu’il offre aux interprètes pour qui il a été créé. Nikolaï Tsiskaridze livre ainsi une interprétation très personnelle du rôle d’Hermann, dont l’expressionnisme est apte à fasciner au-delà même d’une chorégraphie à la virtuosité parfois peu musicale. Quant à Ilze Liepa, issue d’une lignée prestigieuse, elle révèle dans le rôle de la Comtesse son extraordinaire capacité de métamorphose plastique. Si le talent du corps du ballet reste ici peu exploité, on ne peut que saluer de tels artistes, à la présence flamboyante et à l’investissement total.

Article publié dans DLM, n°70.

Une version anglaise de cet article, légèrement différente et plus condensée, a également été publiée dans Pointe Magazine (avril-mai 2008), sous le titre “The Bolshoi winters in Paris”