The Kirov Ballet of the Maryinsky Theater, St. Petersburg, has brought its latest flock of swans to Taipei this week, and while tickets are very dear indeed, this is one ballet company that no one should miss.
The Kirov Ballet is the dance world's equivalent of Mount Olympus -- the home of the gods, a place of legends. One might think the imagery a bit overwrought, a bit too dramatic. But consider the names that emerged from the Kirov -- or, as it was known in the beginning, the Imperial Ballet of the Maryinsky Theater.
While the Russian School was founded in St. Petersburg in 1738, it was in the late 19th century that the foundations were laid for generations to come. There was the dance teacher and choreographer Marius Petipa, who created the pieces that have become the standards of classical ballet, and Peter Tchaikovsky, who composed the music for those ballets, including Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were the dancers Vaslav Nijinski and Anna Pavlova, who first dazzled Russia and then the world with their performances.
There was the choreographer Mikhail Fokine, whose The Dying Swan, Les Sylphides and Le Spectre de la Rose stunned audiences of his time but were quickly included into the repertoire of companies the world over. In Fokine's creations, dance and mime blend seamlessly together and the dance, the decor and the music were for the first time all treated as equal elements of the performance.
Then there was George Balanchine, who left Russia in 1924 and went on to create the New York City Ballet.
Then there was one who stayed in St. Petersburg after it became Leningrad -- Agrippa Vaganova, a dancer with the Imperial Ballet who, as a teacher, created the Russian system of technique that bears her name and who taught generations of dancers, including Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Barishnikov.
It was that last trio, the great defectors of the 1960s and 1970s -- who stunned the Western ballet world with their technique, virtuosity and hunger to expand their dance horizons -- who reminded people of the power of the Russian dance system. But having defected, their photographs were removed from the walls and their names not mentioned at the Kirov, or its training school, the Vagonova Choreographic Institute, for decades.
The traditions and conservativeness of the Kirov have been both its blessing and its curse. They have kept the myths and techniques of the past alive -- through the political repressions and upheavals of the Soviet era -- setting a standard by which other classical companies are judged.
The majority of the Kirov's repertoire is classical ballets, because that's what the audiences at home and abroad both expect and want. But this has also limited the incentive for change to more modern ballets, and this has been the cause of some dissention. Only in the last decade or so have ballets created for other companies, such as the New York City Ballet, or the Royal Ballet, been added to the Kirov's repertoire.
So, given all that history, what can dance fans in Taipei expect? For starters, a gala of technical virtuosity today that will showcase the depth of the Kirov's talented principal dancers and soloists.
Fokine's creations dominate the lineup: Chopiniana (known outside Russia as Les Sylphides), Le Spectre de la Rose, The Dying Swan, and Polovtsian Dances, as well as Pepita's Talisman and Paquita Grand Pas.
Irina Zhelonkina will be highlighted in three of the pieces, while Uliana Lopatkina will dance the role Pavlova made her own -- The Dying Swan.
Beginning tomorrow, there are three nights of Swan Lake and then two performances, on Sunday, of The Nutcracker.
So if you can only afford to go once (and given the price of the remaining tickets, few will be able to do so without breaking the bank), go for the swans. Because once you have seen a Kirov/Vagonova-trained ballerina dance as the white and black swans Odette/Odile, no one else can quite compare -- their arms really do move like wings. And because it is as the swan maidens that the Kirov corps de ballet, with their unity of style and technique, make most other companies look as if they are filled with ducks.
However, given that a few of the moderately priced tickets (NT$3,600) are still available for Sunday's performances, if you are short of cash, don't think about saving it for a rainy day, because the Kirov's Nutcracker is worth the price. It is also unlike any other Nutcracker you will see.
The added bonus to all the performances is that the Kirov Orchestra will be playing. To have a full orchestra for any classical ballet performance in Taiwan is rare enough. To have a company's own musicians is almost unique. The musicians are under the baton of Mikhail Argrest.
For those who don't know the stories, Swan Lake can be summed up as handsome prince Siegfried, under pressure from Mom to marry, goes hunting and meets the mysterious white swan maiden, Odette, who is really a beautiful woman trapped by the curse of an evil magician (Von Rothbart).
Only true love can break the spell. The prince vows undying love. He goes home, Mom has a party to introduce him to some eligible young princesses and von Rothbart brings along Odile, the Black Swan. She seduces the prince, who is understandably confused by her resemblance to his beloved. That betrayal will doom Odette.
Swan Lake, whatever company performs it, has lots of beautiful pas de deux and pas de troix and lots of bravura solos, not to mention the 32 foutettes (the series of quick spins, on the point of one foot, drilled right down the center of the stage) by Odile. And in the Konstanin Sergeyev production of Swan Lake that the Kirov has performed for more than 50 years, the focus is on the dancing rather than the plot.
There are also major differences, such as the Von Rothbart role being a major dancing part. But most of all, it is the happy ending that sets this production apart. In Taipei, Lopatkina has the lead role tomorrow night, partnered by Danila Korsuntsev. Thursday night's partners are Irma Nioradze and Igor Zelensky, while on Friday it is Sofia Gumerova and Igor Kolb.
The Kirov's Nutcracker is also very different from that staged by the other major companies in the world. The choreography is by Kirill Simonov, with sets and costumes by Mihail Chemiakin. It first premiered in 1934.
It is a much darker vision than the spun sugar confections that one usually gets to see -- if fact in this production, the Sugar Plum Fairy is grounded -- she doesn't get a big pas de deux with the prince.
In this production, the heroine Masha receives a Nutcracker doll from her godfather Drosselmayer at a Christmas party. The doll later turns into the Nutcracker prince, who whisks Masha away to an imaginary world where dolls come to life. The visit to this enchanted kingdom, of course, is simply an excuse for an array of divertissements -- the Chinese Dance, the Eastern Dance, as well as the Dance of the Snowflakes and the Waltz of the Flowers.
Though some critics have called the Kirov's Nutcracker heavy-handed or a "danse macabre," because of its dark and surreal look, the Kirov's artistic director Makhabek Vaziev stoutly defended it at a press conference on Monday.
"It's more for children, not adults," he said. "All the Nutcrackers are different; but I like the Russian ones best."
Taipei audiences will now also be able to decide which they like best.
Performance notes:
What: The Kirov Ballet and Kirov Orchestra
Where: The National Theater. National Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center
When: Tonight through Saturday at 7:45pm, Sunday at 1:30pm and 7pm. The only tickets remaining are those at NT$3,600, NT$4,800 and NT$6,000
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