The Kiev Ballet, the resident troupe of the National Opera of Ukraine, arrives in Taipei next week to make its Taiwan debut with two of the most beloved ballets in the Western dance canon.
The company, which is also known as the Kiev National Ballet, opens its run at the National Theater with the almost de rigor Swan Lake, but the real treat for ballet fans will come three days later with the first of two performances of Sleeping Beauty.
It has been almost a decade since a full scale Sleeping Beauty has been presented in Taipei; the Mariinsky Ballet from St Petersburg, Russia, brought their great production in 2009. As much as a balletomane can love the swans, it is great to have a chance to see another classic romantic ballet.
Photo courtesy of Kiev Ballet
What will make both productions even better is that the troupe will be accompanied by Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra (國家交響樂團), under the baton of the Kiev’s own conductors, instead of the canned soundtrack so many traveling companies are forced to rely on for financial and logistical reasons.
While the Kiev troupe, whose visit has been arranged by The Management of New Arts (MNA), might not be as well known to local audiences as such frequent visitors as the St Petersburg Ballet, or legendary companies such as the Royal Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet and Bolshoi Ballet, the quality of is dancers, from corps de ballet up to the prima ballerinas and premier danseurs is very high.
While most of the Kiev’s dancers are Ukrainian, like so many big companies these days, it does include other nationalities, such as principal Matthew Golding, a Canadian who has also danced with the Royal Ballet and the Dutch National Ballet.
Photo courtesy of Jack Devant
Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty were created by two of the greatest names in 19th century Russian ballet, composer Peter Ilytch Tchaikovsky and French-born choreographer and ballet master Marius Petipa, although there has been a lot of tinkering with the steps over the years by later choreographers. In the case of the Kiev’s productions, five additional choreographers for Swan Lake, two for Sleeping Beauty.
The two ballets are filled with solos and pas de deux designed to test the mettle and show off the technique of the principals, but they are also filled with shorter divertissements that give the more junior members of a company a chance to shine, such as four “baby swans” or the fairytale creatures who attend Princess Aurora’s wedding to Prince Florimund like Princess Florine and the Bluebird.
While the full 150-plus company from Kiev will not be in Taipei, a sizeable contingent is coming, which means that the company can offer various combinations of its prima ballerinas and principal danseurs for the five performances.
Natalia Matsak and Golding will dance the lead roles of Odette-Odile and Prince Siegfried respectively for Wednesday’s opening night, while the evil magician who enslaves the swans, Rothbart, will be danced by Iaroslav Tkachuk. The trio will also head Friday night’s cast.
Thursday’s leads will be danced by Anastasiia Shevchenko, Denys Nedak and Oleksii Potomkin. Stanislav Olshanskyi had been scheduled to dance Rothbart, but it turns out he will not be making the trip to Taipei.
The Ukrainians adhere to the Soviet tradition of a happy ending for the Odette and her prince. Siegfried battles Rothbart and succeeds in ripping off the bat-like wings of the magician’s costume, thereby depriving him of his powers and releasing all the swans to return to the human forms forever, as opposed to the version performed by most Western companies that ends with Odette and Siegfried jumping off a cliff so they can be united in death.
However, both ballets can test the endurance of their audiences. The three-act Swan Lake has a running time of two hours and 45 minutes, including two intermissions. Sleeping Beauty is also three acts, plus a prologue and a post-scrip, so it is 10 minutes longer, but it too has two intermissions.
The performance on June 9 will see Shevchenko as Aurora and Nedak as Florimund. Olga Skrypchenko will dance the role of the fairy Carabosse, who, outraged at not being invited to Aurora’s christening, places a curse on Aurora — that she will prick a finger on a needle when she is 16 and die.
Ruslan Avramenko will dance the Lilac Fairy, who mitigates the curse by casting a spell that will put Aurora into an enchanted sleep until she is awoke by the kiss of a prince who loves her.
The next day the cast will be led by Matsak and Golding, with Skrypchenko and Avramenko reprising their fairy roles.
MNA sells tickets to its productions to its membership list first, before opening sales to the general public, so some of the best seats for the five performances are already gone, but there are still plenty of choice in almost all the price tiers.
This story has been updated since it was first published to note that Stanislav Olshanskyi will not be appearing in Taipei.
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