It is easy to feel jaded in this ballet-laden spring dance season, but next week brings a new Russian troupe to the National Theater, or at least new to Taipei audiences. The St Petersburg Ballet Theatre is one of a handful of companies that have emerged since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resulting relaxation of travel restrictions and encouragement of private enterprise.
The company was founded in 1994 by Konstantin Tachkin and while it is based in the heart of Russian ballet tradition, St Petersburg, it is primarily a touring company appearing outside of Russia for months at a time. And that’s the rub. Not all touring ballet companies, and not all Russian companies from St Petersburg, are created equal.
In addition to the legendary Mariinsky Theater (known as “the troupe formerly known as the Kirov”), there is the Mikhailovsky Theater (which went through about four name changes over the decades, including Leningrad State Order of Lenin Academic Malay Opera and Ballet Theatre before regaining its original moniker), the St Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theatre of Boris Eifman and a few more. Sometimes it’s hard for even the experts to keep track of who’s who.
Photo Courtesy of St Petersburg Ballet Theatre
That is why much of the publicity for the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre focuses on its leading ballerina, Irina Kolesnikova, who is pretty much the star of the show. However, judging from the critical acclaim she has garnered in just a few short years in London and elsewhere in Europe, she deserves the spotlight.
Like the majority of the 60-strong company, St Petersburg native Kolesnikova is a graduate of the Vaganova Ballet Academy, which has long filled the ranks of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Ballet troupes. However, despite being a silver medallist at the prestigious ballet competition in Varna and winning the gold at a similar event in Prague, she was not snapped up by the Mariinsky troupe when she graduated from Vaganova. Maybe it was her height. You don’t see a lot of 178cm-tall ballerinas because when the extra centimeters of the pointe shoes are added in, there are not many male danseurs tall enough to partner such a leggy dancer.
Luckily for Kolesnikova, and for dance fans worldwide, the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre hired her. The downside is that the company is so dependent on her star power that she often has to dance every performance.
Photo Courtesy of St Petersburg Ballet Theatre
Taipei is no exception. Kolesnikova was scheduled to dance the lead in four of the five shows, but such was the demand she will be performing in both the matinee and the evening shows on April 23. It’s rare for a ballerina to dance the very demanding Odette/Odile role two days in a row. To do it in back-to-back shows is almost unheard of.
While the company’s repertoire is centered on the traditional Russian romantic classics of Giselle, La Bayadere, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, among others, it is most famed for its Swan Lake.
In keeping with the Russian — well Soviet — tradition, Swan Lake does not end with the suicides of its star-crossed lovers Odette and Prince Siegfried, but with the prince vanquishing the evil Von Rothbart so he can live happily ever after with his beloved. In the Western European versions, the couple are happy together in the end, but only in the ever after.
Unusually for a Russian touring company, the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre will be performing with a 30-member orchestra for all its National Theater performances.
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