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PRESS: Kirov at the City Center. April 2008 Tour 
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WEEK THREE: APRIL 14 - 20

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Apr 15, 7:30 PM. Tuesday
Act One Steptext
Music: J.S. Bach
Choreography: William Forsythe
Vishneva, Kolb, Lobukhin, Sergeev

Act Two Approximate Sonata
Music: Thom Willems
Choreography: William Forsythe
Scheschina, Ivanov, Riu, Popov Sergei, Selina, Pimonov, Kondaurova, Zyuzin

Pause

The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude
Music: Franz Schubert
Choreography: William Forsythe
Androsova, Gonchar, Osmolkina, Sarafanov, Fadeev

Act Three In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated
Music: Thom Willems
Choreography: William Forsythe
Golub, Kondaurova, Novikova, Scheschina, Selina, Dubrovina, Lobukhin, Sergeev, Pimonov

Apr 16, 7:30 PM. Wednesday
Act One Steptext
Music: J.S. Bach
Choreography: William Forsythe
Kondaurova, Pimonov, Lobukhin, Sergeev

Act Two Approximate Sonata
Music: Thom Willems
Choreography: William Forsythe
Scheschina, Ivanov, Riu, Popov Sergei, Selina, Pimonov, Kondaurova, Zyuzin

Pause

The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude
Music: Franz Schubert
Choreography: William Forsythe
Androsova, Gonchar, Osmolkina, Sarafanov, Schklyarov

Act Three In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated
Music: Thom Willems
Choreography: William Forsythe
Golub, Kondaurova, Novikova, Scheschina, selina, Dubrovina, Lobukhin, Sergeev, Pimonov

Apr 17, 7:30 PM. Tursday
Act One Steptext
Music: J.S. Bach
Choreography: William Forsythe
Kondaurova, Pimonov, Lobukhin, Sergeev

Act Two Approximate Sonata
Music: Thom Willems
Choreography: William Forsythe
Scheschina, Ivanov, Riu, Popov Sergei, Petushkova, Nedviga, Dubrovina, Timofeev

Pause

The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude
Music: Franz Schubert
Choreography: William Forsythe
Androsova, Gonchar, Osmolkina, Schklyarov, Fadeev

Act Three In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated
Music: Thom Willems
Choreography: William Forsythe
Golub, Kondaurova, Novikova, Scheschina, Selina, Dubrovina, Lobukin, Sergeev, Pimonov

Apr 18, 8:00 PM. Friday
Act One Serenade
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Somova, Korsuntsev

Act Two Jewels (Rubies)
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Vishneva, Fadeev, Kondaurova

Act Three Ballet Imperial
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Tereshkina, Kolb

Apr 19, 2:00 PM. Saturday
Act One Serenade
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Osmolkina, Ivanchenko

Act Two Jewels (Rubies)
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Tereshkina, Korsakov, Gonchar

Act Three Ballet Imperial
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Somova, Schklyarov

Apr 19, 8:00 PM. Saturday
Act One Serenade
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Kondaurova, Korsuntsev

Act Two Jewels (Rubies)
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Golub, Sarafanov, Gonchar

Act Three Ballet Imperial
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Lopatkina, Korsuntsev

Apr 20, 3:00 PM. Sunday
Act One Serenade
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Tereshkina, Ivanchenko

Act Two Jewels (Rubies)
Music: Igor Stravinsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Novikova, Schklyarov, Kondaurova

Act Three Ballet Imperial
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Choreography: George Balanchine
Vishneva, Fadeev

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Последний раз редактировалось Octavia 02 апр 2008, 13:07, всего редактировалось 1 раз.



22 мар 2008, 21:18
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Meet The Artists
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    Irina Golub........Yekaterina Kondaurova

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    Igor Kolb.......Vladimir Shklyarov


A Preview of Coming Attractions

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In the Middle Somewhat Elevated


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......Mariinsky Theatre

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23 мар 2008, 00:00
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Сообщение Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution

By JOEL LOBENTHAL
March 24, 2008

The Kirov Ballet may be nearly 300 years old, but it is ready to shake things up. The Russian company returns to New York April 1 after a six-year absence, and, for the first time since the Kirov made its American debut in 1961, the company is opening not at the Metropolitan Opera House, but instead at City Center. And for its return, the Kirov is offering not full-length ballets, but "highlights" programs, consisting of one-act ballets and acts excerpted from evening-length works.

The Kirov has been refashioning its identity since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Some of the transformation has involved restoring the distant and elusive past, the pre-revolutionary ballet in which spectacle and pantomime were as important as classical steps. Since ballet was championed by France's King Louis XIV during the 17th century, it was inevitable that St. Petersburg, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 on the template of European capitals, would import and embrace the Bourbon nobility's art form. In the 1730s a ballet school was established for children of St. Petersburg court servants, and ballet remained one of the Russian aristocracy's pet interests right up through the 1917 revolution. The art form's existence in Russia was briefly in danger in the aftermath of the aristocracy's demise. But ballet's value as entertainment, as well as a vehicle of nationalistic pride, was soon recognized. During World War II, most of the Kirov was relocated to the distant city of Perm, and thus spared the catastrophes that befell St. Petersburg during its three-year blockade by the Nazis. (Needless to say, however, the Kirov's existence in Perm was hardly luxurious.)

In New York the Kirov will perform excerpts from the Imperial ballets, using the somewhat streamlined and modernized versions created during the Soviet era as performance text instead. There will also be the works of Mikhail Fokine, who grew up amid the Petipa tradition, and rebelled against it before leaving for the West in 1917. Just as influential in the development of 20th-century ballet were the neoclassical ballets of George Balanchine, which descended from, as well as contradicted, the tenets of both Petipa and Fokine. Balanchine was born in St. Petersburg, trained at the Mariinsky school, and danced with the company before he too left for the West in 1924. While performances of Balanchine's "Symphony in C" had been given under the radar at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in the late 1960s, starring legendary Kirov performers, his ballets could not enter the Kirov's repertory until 1989, when work created in the West was no longer proscribed. The Kirov's upcoming season features four performances of an all-Balanchine program. In addition, there are three performances of the works of William Forsythe, dating from the 1980s and '90s, but tracing some of their lineage back to the spiky edges of Balanchine's more extreme vocabulary.

Principal roles for the Kirov's City Center visit are dominated by a relatively restricted cadre of privileged performers, with many of the Kirov's most interesting dancers excluded or relegated to the periphery. The Kirov's two prima ballerinas — Uliana Lopatkina and Diana Vishneva — will, however, be on ample display. Indeed, Ms. Lopatkina and Ms. Vishneva are the only senior Kirov ballerinas coming to New York. They're certainly not all that senior — Ms. Lopatkina joined in 1991 and Ms. Vishneva four years later, both of them immediately after graduating from the Kirov's feeder school, the Vaganova Ballet Academy.

Each is at an enviable period in a ballerina's career, when authority and experience are coupled with prime physical capacity. Ms. Lopatkina has made an impressive recovery from a foot injury that kept her offstage for a couple of years during the early part of this decade; indeed, this season will be her first appearance in New York since the Kirov's 1999 season at the Met. Ms. Lopatkina is cooler, Ms. Vishneva more emotive. Each ballerina has triumphed in all of the different wings of the Kirov repertory; and there is a healthy rivalry between them. Every performance by the two ballerinas is sure to be an occasion.

The young women sharing ballerina roles with Ms. Lopatkina and Ms. Vishneva have demonstrated talent and potential. They have been overburdened with too many demanding roles and too heavy a workload, but I look forward to seeing how they have matured. The men whom the company has selected for exposure at City Center reflect a somewhat wider spectrum of age and experience than the women. There is certainly no shortfall of talent, energy, and ambition here.

The Kirov's female corps de ballet remains an ideal of length, breadth, and unanimity. This will be a taxing season for these women, who will be onstage in force from the rise of the curtain on opening night until it falls on the final matinee, April 20.

When the Kirov performed in Washington at the Kennedy Center last January, the corps de ballet was impressive but visibly exhausted by the end of a week of "La Bayadère." One hopes the company is bringing sufficient reinforcements to New York. These women deserve every possible consideration; they are the bedrock of the company.


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Последний раз редактировалось Octavia 28 мар 2008, 18:38, всего редактировалось 1 раз.



25 мар 2008, 07:00
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A rare appearance by ballet's superpower

Friday, March 28, 2008
ROBERT JOHNSON

NEW YORK -- For fans of Russian ballet, nothing beats the chance to see the Kirov Ballet in performance. Yet despite the clamor that always greets it, the Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theater from St. Petersburg does not travel here often. It has been absent since 2002, making this three-week engagement, which opens Tuesday at New York City Center, an event of considerable weight.

The troupe owes its reclusiveness to many factors, some of them political. Yet even without Cold War rivalries or the tug of war that continues to dramatize artistic relations between Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Kirov would remain aloof. Its legendary school and rehearsal halls produced so many of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century, from Pavlova and Nijinsky to Makarova and Nureyev. These studios remain nestled within palaces in a fairy-tale city whose very history makes them seem inaccessible.

"Every time it's special," says Arlene Shuler, the president and CEO of City Center, which is presenting the Kirov for the first time. Because the company's visits are few and far between, "There's a real sense of discovery," she adds.

There is no comparison between the 100-member Kirov Ballet and its orchestra, and the small, essentially insignificant Russian ballet companies that return to the U.S. for bus-and-truck tours each year. Speaking of the Russian ballet superpower, Shuler says, "They represent the pinnacle in classical ballet."

At the relatively intimate City Center, the company can present only excerpts from the evening-length classics that it spreads on the ample stage of the Metropolitan Opera House. This time, the Kirov will dance highlights from "Raymonda," "Don Quixote," "Paquita" and, its calling card, the fantastic "Kingdom of the Shades" scene from "La Bayadère."

Yet the company also will perform some of the expressive, softly styled ballets that Mariinsky Theater alumnus Michel Fokine created for the Ballets Russes in the early 20th century. These will include "Chopiniana" ("Les Sylphides"), "Le Spectre de la Rose," "The Dying Swan" and "Schéhérazade."

The Kirov has embraced the late choreographer George Balanchine, another alumnus who fled from the Soviet Union, and his intricate yet streamlined ballets now find their fullest expression in St. Petersburg. The current tour will feature Balanchine's neoclassical "Serenade," "Rubies" and "Ballet Imperial."

But that's not all. In addition to the athletic bravura of the Soviet-era "Diana and Acteon" pas de deux, and the delicate "Jardin Animé" divertissement from "Le Corsaire," the Kirov will present Harald Lander's classical showcase "Etudes," and a whole evening of sharp-angled and extreme contemporary works by American choreographer William Forsythe. This engagement marks the first time the Russians have performed their Forsythe program in New York.

While featuring such established Kirov stars as Diana Vishneva, Uliana Lopatkina and Andrian Fadeyev, the proliferation of ballets on these mixed bills also means numerous opportunities for young ballerinas on the rise, including the light and stylish Olesya Novikova, the sparkling technician Viktoria Tereshkina, and the long-limbed and sensual Ekaterina Kondaurova.

Shuler, who underscores the Kirov's connection to Balanchine, says she hopes that in the future the company will return more often, dividing its repertoire as American Ballet Theatre now does to balance a season of mixed bills at City Center with a season of blockbusters at the Metropolitan Opera House.

"City Center is one of the great homes for dance in New York," Shuler says. "There is an excitement to come to Balanchine's theater, the theater where the New York City Ballet was founded."

Keenly aware of the Kirov's cherished status as a reliquary of ballet traditions, Shuler adds, "There's a historic connection here."

Robert Johnson writes about dance for The Star-Ledger. He may be reached at rjohnson@starledger.com.


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28 мар 2008, 18:35
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New York City Center: The Riches of the Kirov

By Susan Yung. 01 Apr 2008

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New York balletomanes are in for a royal treat when the Kirov Ballet performs at New York City Center from April 1 through 20.

The grand scale of this event is merely hinted at in the statistics: 100 dancers from this 200-year old St. Petersburg, Russia-based company performing 19 works in six different programs. Some of the finest ballet dancers today will be performing during this substantial run, including Diana Vishneva, Andrian Fadeev, Uliana Lopatkina, Leonid Sarafanov, Alina Somova, Danila Korsuntsev, and Igor Kolb. The company's artistic director is Maestro Valery Gergiev, and Makhar Vaziev is the director of the ballet. The April 1-20 season is presented by Ardani Artists in association with City Center.

Naturally, the Kirov Ballet--a descendant of the Russian Imperial Ballet, and known in its homeland as the Ballet Company of the Mariinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg--will perform beloved classics and excerpts from full-length ballets, including Raymonda, Scheherazade, Le Corsaire (all three of which will use sets reflecting their respective sections' full productions), Le Spectre de la Rose, Chopiniana, La Bayadere (The Kingdom of the Shadows), and The Dying Swan, as well as pas de deux from Don Quixote, Diana and Acteon, Paquita, and more.

In addition to these canonical ballets, the Kirov will also perform a program of four works by William Forsythe, whose forward-looking work is regarded as the antithesis of the romantic story ballet. Members of the illustrious Kirov Orchestra will accompany the programs, with the exception of the Forsythe evening, which features Steptext, Approximate Sonata, The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, and In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated.

As rich as dance offerings are in New York, for logistical and economical reasons the city is not a regular stop for many of the world's finest ballet companies. And when the Kirov has visited New York in the past, it has always performed at the larger Metropolitan Opera House. However, City Center has become a regular option for large companies to present shorter pieces or more experimental work. Producer Sergei Danilian of Ardani Artists cites a comparable model in American Ballet Theatre's fall run at City Center, which usually consists of mixed repertory, balancing its annual Met Opera summer season of mostly full-length story ballets.

Not only is this a chance to see the Kirov stretch its legs stylistically, but if not for the upcoming City Center engagement, "The break between the last Kirov dates in New York, and possibly the next, is too long. The company last performed here in 2002--the next visit will probably be 12 or 13 years from then, which is a lot for ballet dancers. It's almost a generation," says Danilian.

The Kirov is renowned for its historic ties to the ballets of Fokine and Petipa, supported by an impeccably refiined classical technique advocated in its legendary school, the Vaganova Academy. The current company reflects not only this relatively naturalistic, clean style of ballet, but it keeps pace with the open-ended evolution of the prototypical ballet dancer to be more flexible, faster, soar higher, and adapt to different styles. Besides the ever-increasing physical demands, the Kirov dancers are lauded for their sensitive theatrical interpretations.

Many of the world's most famous and talented ballet dancers passed through the Kirov--Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova, Rudolf Nureyev, to name a few. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union went the constant threat of dancer defections. It has become more common for star dancers to perform with companies around the world over the course of a year. Thus, New Yorkers in recent years have been lucky to see Diana Vishneva dance with ABT, where she is a celebrated principal dancer. The Kirov run will give audiences the opportunity to see Vishneva dance in works such as The Dying Swan and Scheherazade, as well as Forsythe's Steptext. (For complete program information, go to www.NYCityCenter.org.)

New York City Center has gained increasing prominence as a stage for major international companies, and is the New York home for leading American companies such as Paul Taylor Dance Company and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Morphoses, Christopher Wheeldon's fledgling company which made its New York debut here last fall, will return next season, and San Francisco Ballet visits City Center this fall. Notes Arlene Shuler, president and CEO of City Center, (which also presents Fall for Dance, the densely packed dance showcase with $10 tickets), "New York City Center continues to be a major destination for dance, and the Kirov engagement gives us yet another opportunity to bring the best of dance from around the world to a broader audience." Be sure to catch the current stars of the Kirov now.

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    Alina Somova and Leonid Sarafanov in La Bayadere

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Steptext


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02 апр 2008, 00:58
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The Kirov Shrinks To Fit

By JOEL LOBENTHAL
April 3, 2008

Amplitude traditionally been the keynote of Kirov Ballet style, but amplitude was not easily possible Tuesday night at the opening of the company's three-week City Center season. City Center has never been an ideal space for ballet, and certainly not on the grand scale for which the Kirov is famous. The stage here is drastically smaller than at the Kirov's home, the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, or the Metropolitan Opera, where it has customarily performed in New York since its debut here in 1961. At City Center on Tuesday, the ranks of dancers on stage and musicians in the pit (so my ears told me) had been reduced, and scenery was stripped down. Even so, the company seemed to be fighting for every inch of yardage. But they performed valiantly and professionally.

The company performed an all-Petipa program that began with the celebratory final act of "Raymonda." The Kirov's character dancers showed panache in the Polish Mazurka and Hungarian Czardas. In "Raymonda," the classical landscape is beguilingly inflected with some flavor of the Czardas. Uliana Lopatkina was queen of the realm here, in full and majestic control of her very long limbs. Ms. Lopatkina could be called the Catherine Deneuve of classical ballet by virtue of the minimalist style she distills from its airs and graces. Her take can sometimes be a bit futuristic and too cold, but on Tuesday she was mellow and charming. Swirls and swoons interested her as much as right angles. During her solo, she interacted playfully with the accompanying piano. The very tall and greyhound-sleek Danila Korsuntsev gave a clean and springy performance, less lackadaisical than the way I've seen him perform recently in Russia.

In the Grand Pas from "Paquita," Petipa's surviving 1881 addition to his ballet first prepared for St. Petersburg in 1847, there isn't character dance per se, but a tincture of Spanish style to the classicism. On Tuesday, "Paquita" was led by Diana Vishneva and Andrian Fadeyev. New York has never before seen Ms. Vishneva in "Paquita," and it's one of her best roles. Tuesday night, she seemed rattled by the stage's confines, and no one could blame her: The price of letting her leg stretch fully into arabesque was at one point a glancing collision with a scenery flat. She wasn't at her most centered or stable technically, but a less-than-peak performance from her is still a major contribution. This ballet can awaken in a virtuoso performer such as Ms. Vishneva a temptation to oversell or overflounce, yet she resisted. Mr. Fadeyev was his personable balletic self and, all things considered, in very good shape technically. But although these two have danced together many times over the past decade, they were certainly not at their most relaxed or connected. The five soloist variations were danced by Alina Somova, Ekaterina Kondaurova, Valeria Martynyuk, Ekaterina Osmolkina, and Victoria Tereshkina. They were for the most part correct and classical.

In the final act, the Kingdom of the Shades from "La Bayadère," the Kirov omitted scenery altogether in order to give room to the ensemble, reduced here to 24 women. The company appeared to put the very same cast of corps women onstage in all three ballets. Their stamina was extraordinary, despite the fact that almost everyone in this company — both men and women — is now too thin. In this kind of situation, strength takes precedence over any other consideration, and the corps women managed to be not only secure but in possession of a good deal of their expressive and stylistic faculties.

Ms. Somova, having danced a solo variation in "Paquita," now returned as Nikiya. In "Paquita," she had been every bit as guilty of exaggerating her extensions as she has been in the past. She just didn't seem to care how much her silhouette and alignment were disturbed as a result. As Nikiya, she curbed her extensions so that they were acceptable. But she would do better to forget about height altogether until she has been able to bring more warmth, legato, and sensuality into those extensions.

I was of several minds about Leonid Sarafanov's Solor. Mr. Sarafanov is in his mid-20s, but his body and face still look adolescent: Visually, he is improbable in the role of Solor, who is both warrior and spiritual sojourner, seeking the ghost of his beloved in a hallucinogenic Nirvana. On the one hand, Mr. Sarafanov has improved over the past five years that I've seen him dance this hero. He is more actively present for his ballerina, and he has toned down some of his showboating mannerisms. On the other hand, he is still allowed to add his own choreography, whereas the last thing a technician like him needs to do is to dance any additional steps. He can turn and jump to anyone's satisfaction; in his variation and, to a lesser degree, his coda, he was exciting without resorting to flinging the steps around as he sometimes does. Mechanically, his partnership with Ms. Somova worked most of the time, but they failed to generate mystery or poetry in their dialogue together.


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03 апр 2008, 17:17
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Ballet’s Classical History, the Kirov Edition

By ALASTAIR MACAULAY. Published: April 3, 2008

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The best way to learn dance history is in the theater. And the three-week Kirov Ballet season that opened at City Center on Tuesday night looks on paper like a major course in the history of ballet classicism. You could know nothing about dance and learn from this season much about the forms of ballet and how they have changed. Audiences perusing the lineups will assume the season’s focus will be on choreography. It has started with the first of two Petipa anthologies and will include a Fokine, a Balanchine and a Forsythe program.

The three late-19th-century ballets presented on opening night, all Kirov home repertory, are core texts of the ballet classicism perfected in St. Petersburg by Marius Petipa. Act III of “Raymonda” (1898) is a nonpareil demonstration of how Petipa could take folk dances as thematic material on which he then concocted exuberant classical variations. The Grand Pas from “Paquita” (1881) is a bright classicization of Spanish dance style that stops to include a series of solo variations. And in the Shades scene from “La Bayadère” (1877) an Orphic journey into the realm of the dead is shown as a Romantic vision but arranged in intensely and hierarchical classical-ballet terms.

There is an infinity of detail to be learned from each of these works and from the immense resources of Kirov ballet style evident in all three. And yet the company’s productions treat them in part as far more finite affairs. For any Kirov season, alas, is an exercise in balletomania (obsession with dancers rather than with choreography), in ballet mannerism and in circus acrobatics.

Yes, that phrase I just danced was charming, wasn’t it? You cannot have missed how I pivoted from my above-head-level sideways extension into a spectacular arabesque penchée. (The raised leg remained just as high, but now my torso turned into profile and plunged low, the kind of change of silhouette in which Petipa specialized.) Now bear with me while I walk — so slowly, so proudly — across the stage, looking so dignified while I collect my breath, change gears and prepare for the next event. Watch! Here I go around the stage doing the same jump (or turn or both) again and again and again; ah, how kind of you to applaud even the first one.”

Ballet often takes circus acrobatics and turns them into thrilling art, but the art comes in two ways: stylistic liquefaction and choreographic ordering. The Kirov is one of those ballet companies that too often present show-off steps as if the art lay nakedly in nothing but excellence of technical execution. Michel Fokine (who was dancing in “Raymonda” in 1898) began complaining about this in about 1904, but has the Kirov ever changed this aspect of its act since then? A century later the Kirov’s way with Petipa choreography would surely make Fokine every bit as angry. Much about the style is moment-by-moment glamorous and shows the immense wealth of Kirov training; but the delivery is often the world’s least spontaneous. And the emphasis often attends to academic nicety and pyrotechnic splendor rather than sheer dance pleasure.

To make matters considerably worse, any Kirov (any Russian) season is accompanied by numerous audience members who behave like a claque, talking (usually in Russian) right through the dancing, applauding through the music, creating what ovations they can for individual dancers. Need I say that this creates the law of diminishing returns?

On Tuesday night you could feel how Diana Vishneva in “Paquita” made less of a sensation than she deserved. As lustrous a ballerina as any in the world today, she seems now to have reached the early summer of her powers; but by the time we had come to her variation, we had already been asked to applaud turns and jumps beyond count.

Equally eminent among Kirov luminaries is Uliana Lopatkina, who on Tuesday danced the “Raymonda” ballerina role. Although in past years I have known her to exemplify the worst kind of Kirov mannerisms, she seems now to have simplified her style and to address her music with refreshing directness; and she carries her authority lightly.

I’m inclined to think the Kirov’s way with the “Raymonda” classical dances has airbrushed a lot of the real dance juice out of them. (The old film of Maria Tallchief dancing Balanchine’s arrangement of this material in “Pas de Dix” might jolt them usefully, as might the texture and phrasing of Rudolf Nureyev’s version for the Royal Ballet.) Even so, this staging — gorgeously designed, as is the “Paquita” Grand Pas — is the highlight of the opening program, not least because the Maryinsky Orchestra, as conducted by Mikhail Sinkevich, brings such rapturous color to Glazunov’s music.

It was fascinating to watch the five guest ballerinas who preceded Ms. Vishneva in “Paquita.” The grandly dignified Ekaterina Kondaurova deserves special acclaim, though even she exhibits the too-polished guardedness that often deprives these exceptional dancers from making the impression they should. The opening of the “Bayadère” Shades scene — badly lighted and taken faster than ever before — was simply the most obvious demonstration of how the Kirov has painstakingly combed the poetry out of this choreography; and Alina Somova’s account of the ballerina role typifies the company’s most glacially showy and least appealing features.

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In “The Importance of Being Earnest” Lady Bracknell says, “The chin is worn particularly high this season,” and for several years I have suspected that Lady Bracknell is now one of the Kirov’s ballet mistresses. Ms. Lopatkina used to wield her chin like a ship’s prow, and now Ms. Somova has acquired the habit. She also skews her pelvis sideways to achieve her high extensions, even though the angle of her tutu in this role shows just how much this distorts her line.

Ms. Somova was partnered in “Bayadère” by Leonid Sarafanov, the fastest and most astoundingly buoyant of the opening night’s male dancers. He is also the most youthful; and, like Danila Korsuntsev (who partnered Ms. Lopatkina in “Raymonda”) and Andrian Fadeev (Ms. Vishneva’s consort in “Paquita”), he shows a freshness of manner that seems not to be allowed among the women. It will be good to see more of these and other dancers as the season proceeds. But will the stunt-heavy nature of Kirov dance theater make it as great a pleasure as these artists and their choreography deserve?


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05 апр 2008, 18:53
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Kirov Dazzles With Exquisite Bodies, Tough Hearts

Review by Tobi Tobias

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April 4 (Bloomberg) -- The Kirov Ballet's three-week run at New York's City Center opened Tuesday with wall-to-wall choreography by Marius Petipa, the grandest master of 19th- century ballet. That makes sense. The company is widely revered in America as the font of such dancing, having given the world Pavlova, Nijinsky, Nureyev, Makarova and Baryshnikov.

It wasn't one of Petipa's multi-act works on view this week, though, but rather the showiest segments from several, as if the presenters feared losing the attention of their audience.

The bill consisted of the festive third act of ``Raymonda,'' (think medieval Hungary as conceived by a tsarist imagination); the Grand Pas from ``Paquita,'' (which offers a ballerina, her cavalier and a bevy of soloists every chance to display their technical audacity in both allegro and legato modes) and the sublime ``Kingdom of Shadows'' scene from ``La Bayadere,'' where the scrupulously schooled female corps de ballet becomes a star in its own right.

The season features Uliana Lopatkina, in whom nearly every human quality is subjugated to forge an icon of classical ballet. Lopatkina is eerily slender, with muscles so fine-honed they mask her steely control. Stretching her long limbs in arabesque, she etches a line from fingertips to toes that is impeccably graceful. The slow-streaming lyricism of her movement is echoed in the moods that flicker across her face, usually tender, somewhat melancholy and aloof. Whatever she does is a marvel of exquisitely calculated delicacy.

Down to Earth

Viewers who find this type too rarefied may prefer the other ranking ballerina, Diana Vishneva, more compactly built and more down to earth. Vishneva can do everything -- every step and every style -- with vibrant aplomb. When she whipped off the 32 fouette turns in ``Paquita,'' punctuating them neatly with doubles, she made this old challenge look like a game she was confident of winning. From the heady dramatic works she performs in annual stints with American Ballet Theatre to the jazzy off-kilter work of Balanchine's ``Rubies,'' she's on the mark.

The Kirov's men are conspicuously less distinguished, apart from the wunderkind Leonid Sarafanov. Small and slight like Peter Pan, he projects a ferocious desire to surpass even his present astonishing virtuosity.

His spectacular feats, flawlessly brought off, seem to be fueled by well-nigh manic energy. His leaps are high and wide, his whiz-bang turns have perfect control, his landings are as sure-footed as a mountain goat's. Andrian Fadeev, another of the young men the company is bringing forward, doesn't yet have the technical security to match his personal charm.

Meticulous Execution

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In general, the company dances as if to the manner born, giving first allegiance to meticulous execution. Even the folk- tinged segments in ``Raymonda'' sacrifice their rightful lustiness to the aristocratic demeanor. It comes as no surprise, then, that the performances aren't emotionally persuasive. No doubt this will loosen up in the course of the season, allowing for some of the spontaneity that is an essential part of dancing.

Starting this weekend, the Kirov will offer programs dedicated to Michel Fokine, William Forsythe and George Balanchine.


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05 апр 2008, 19:04
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Kirov Ballet sets the bar high
by Robert Johnson, Star-Ledger Staff

NEW YORK -- Russian dancers, the late British dance writer Arnold Haskell observed in 1934, are as different from other dancers as dancers in general are from ordinary people. In recent years, American audiences awash in cheap ballet imports have had good reason to suspect that not all Russian dancers are of the same quality. Yet the Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre, now in the midst of a three-week engagement at New York City Center, still offers the epitome of stylistic refinement.

The merits of this company appearing at City Center can be debated, along with the respective virtues of individual dancers. In this season's repertory of mixed bills, the relatively intimate auditorium showcases the Ballets Russes program to advantage, even though gems like "Chopiniana" and "Le Spectre de la Rose" are too brightly lit to retain their mystery.

Fans may relish their proximity to classics like "Raymonda," yet excerpts from evening-length works also look crowded -- especially "La Bayadere," where the reduced entrance of the Shades lacks both scenery and atmosphere. Glorious prima ballerinas Uliana Lopatkina and Diana Vishneva have an ability to nuance their dancing, manage their breathing and gauge the timing of a gesture in ways that still elude junior members of the troupe, which now seems exceptionally youthful.

Beyond question, however, is the superiority of the Kirov's "school," a word that signifies a code of conduct and a way of thinking about dancing as much as it implies physical conditioning. The flower of three centuries' development, this system regulates deportment to produce bodily attitudes of supreme elegance. The Kirov style embodies what T.S. Eliot refers to when he writes about maturity of manners and "a community of taste" in literature ("What Is a Classic," 1944).

Idle mannerisms are quite different from the Kirov's manners, the "isms" being the province of dancers who ape the Kirov's classical style without understanding it. Dancers with mannerisms always appear self-consciously artificial, either in gesture or in skittish temperament. The Kirov style instead reflects the calm dominion over nature, as in the art of the 18th century.

Kirov dancers' movements appear unforced, and they (these performers) tackle the most astonishing difficulties with gaiety or with the reserved assurance that these tests will affirm their courage, if not their skill. The movement must look natural to defend the presumption of innate nobility. Because of this stylized naturalism, Michel Fokine, the choreographic reformer who rejected tours de force, nevertheless could remain faithful to his academy.

Paradoxically, since the style itself does not vary, the other thing that makes the Kirov dancers so remarkable is their individuality. While admiring the perfect placement of the corps de ballet in "Raymonda," one can see they are all real people. In solos and duets, or when the choreography passes from the public realms of Petipa into the hidden worlds of Fokine, this individuality becomes pronounced. The dancing only appears homogenous if the performers are bored or unimaginative, which is not the case here.

How different in physique and temperament are the trio of Shades in "Bayadere," for instance: sprightly, sensitive Olesia Novikova; serene Nadezhda Gonchar; and the exquisitely formed Ekaterina Kondaurova, whose musicality is the key to her performance here and in a variation of "Paquita," where she deploys a lovely rubato. Add to these beauties the outer facility and inner fire of Victoria Tereshkina, an alternate lead in both "Raymonda" and "Paquita"; the lightness, speed and precision of Yana Selina; and the gentleness of Ekaterina Osmolkina, and you have an amazing female contingent. Though gifted, the highly profiled Alina Somova still lacks interpretive power.

Some of the men appear less technically assured, great jumpers but poor turners. Leonid Sarafanov made the greatest impression with his faultless bravura in the opening-night "La Bayadere." Yevgeny Ivanchenko has much-needed stature, but the Kirov's secret weapon may be Anton Korsakov, whose musicality complements his large, catlike jump.


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07 апр 2008, 07:06
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Зарегистрирован: 20 ноя 2004, 15:36
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Написала мне одна посетительница, что "не могла дышать" от прилива чувств :P , а поймав у входа Диану, вложила ей в руку букет с тихим писком "спасиба!", а на большее не хватило сил :roll:

Сила искусства.

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07 апр 2008, 13:26
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