Last fall, Taipei audiences got to see the famed Kirov Ballet, and this weekend the second wave of the Russian invasion is in full swing thanks to the Moscow City Ballet, which is storming Taiwan's dance world with productions of Swan Lake and Cinderella.
This week, as the troupe barnstormed from Taichung and back again, the rest of the country has been getting a chance to see what all the fuss over Russian technique is about. But Taipei balletomanes will have to wait a few more days for their turn.
While not as well-known as the Kirov, the Moscow City Ballet has become one of the most-traveled of the Russian troupes and appears around Europe, Asia and the US regularly. It has almost made a second home for itself in the UK, where it has performed more than 1,300 times in the last 15 years.
The company is still a toddler in the Russian dance world -- compared to the Kirov or the Bolshoi Ballet -- having been formed in 1988 by the choreographer Victor Smirnov-Golovanov. It is a rarity in that it is a private company, not a state-funded troupe. It is also something of a family business, since Smirnov-Golovanov remains artistic director while his wife, Ludmila Nerubashenko, a former soloist with the company, is now its principal ballet mistress.
The 61-year-old Smirnov-Golovanov graduated from the Moscow School of Choreography and danced with the Bolshoi Ballet for more than 20 years. After leaving the Bolshoi he became chief ballet master of the Odessa State Opera and Ballet Theater, then jumped on the capitalist bandwagon and struck out on his own with the Moscow City Ballet.
Smirnov-Golovanov's aim in establishing the troupe was to bring the great 19th-century romantic ballets to a new generation of theatergoers in Russia and around the world. The troupe has performed Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty and Giselle, as well as 20th-century classics such as Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella.
That said, the Moscow City Ballet is not at the level of either the Kirov or the Bolshoi -- yet. (Think the Washington Ballet or San Francisco Ballet, not American Ballet Theater; or the Berlin Opera Ballet, not the Stuggart Ballet.) However, performances with a top price of NT$3,000 are also more affordable than those of the Kirov, which reach NT$6,000.
For a touring company, the Moscow City Ballet is a huge troupe, and its 60 dancers are all graduates of the finest ballet schools in Russia and Ukraine. The company's strength, like that of its Russian elders, lies in the discipline of its corps de ballet. The perfect synchronization of the corps is fully displayed in both productions the company has brought to Taiwan.
Moscow City Ballet's Swan Lake will be somewhat familiar to those who have seen the Kirov or Bolshoi's versions, since it is based on the traditional choreography that 19th-century choreographer Marius Petipa brought to Peter Tchaikovsky's luscious score. Added onto the Pepita base are reworkings by the famous Russian dance teacher Agrippina Vaganova and the legendary Bolshoi artistic director/choreographer Yuri Grigorovich, along with Smirnov-Golovanov's own variations.
There are the standard Russian additions of a prancing, bouncy jester to help keep the festivities moving, and there is an owlish, dancing Von Rothbart, instead of the character mime usually seen in Western versions of the ballet.
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