Marc Haegeman

CygneDanois, when considering the "type" of a ballerina, and more precisely whether they are adagio or allegro, I think we also have to take into account the possible evolution of the concept of how a role (take Aurora) needs to be performed, as much as the individual development of a certain dancer. I agree with you that Asylmuratova may now be characterised as adagio, but her performances of, let’s say, ten or more years ago gave quite a different picture. The speed and dynamics have surely been slowing down through the years and finishes have been polished. The same might apply to Kolpakova. We have a video recording of her in "Beauty" late in her career, which indeed shows her as adagio, but was she like that in her prime? And when you compare Asylmuratova's or Lezhnina's Aurora to Alla Sizova's from the 1960s (which I only know from video) then you see again that the whole concept of the role has been slowed down. Drew rightly mentions the girlish (or what he calls less womanly) quality of Larissa Lezhnina when we saw her ten years ago. My basic objection to Lezhnina’s Aurora in those years was simply that she stayed that way all the time in the ballet. Yet when you see her now in the role, in her early thirties, there is still this girlish quality in the beginning (how she cans till do it, I have no idea ), but it is followed by a real development to maturity and grandeur. Her Aurora today is also a lot warmer than it used to be when still in the Kirov. The present tendency at the Mariinsky seems to want to speed things up again (if yet caused by a factor completely alien to ballet: Gergiev likes to play the music fast), but that doesn't necessarily make the tall ballerinas more allegro.

Naoko, Irina Zhelonkina is indeed a delightful Aurora. She is however only rarely cast in leading roles on tours. In the last five years or so she could occasionally be seen as Maria in ?The Fountain of Bakhchisarai?, Masha, Gamzatti, Chopiniana, ballerina in Petrushka, and now Giselle, but for most of the time her repertory is limited to pas de deux and variations. Vrsfanatic, I agree, coaching isn?t everything of course (there is also schooling and mentality for instance), but in the case of a company like the Kirov Ballet working with strong personalities as ballet masters (Moiseyeva, Kurgapkina, the late Zubkovskaya, Selyutsky, Yevteyeva, Chenchikova?), who spend several years with the same dancers, I am always inclined to expect a certain stamp or mark of the coach on the pupil. Yet, in practice this proves completely wrong. No greater difference, for example, between Zakharova and Asylmuratova, who both prepare their roles with Moiseyeva. Interesting to note that Nina Sakhnovskaya especially came over to see Maya Dumchenko?s performance in Amsterdam.

Vishneva danced a second Giselle in Amsterdam, which fared even worse because of the presence of Farukh Ruzimatov, who looked embarrassingly out of shape this evening and never even touched the role. His variation was a poor man's version of "Le Corsaire". One might say they that Vishneva and Ruzimatov were well matched as they both excell in distorting their roles with questionable personal touches. It may all be very nice and spectacular on its own, but it's miles away from a Kirov's "Giselle". Amsterdam got some idea what this can be with the final Giselle performance of Maya Dumchenko and Viktor Baranov. From the lovely romantic hair dress to the carefully poised arabesques and the subtly crafted mad scene - everything looked right and true. Dumchenko is a wonderful Giselle and one with a rich pedigree. Baranov proved the ideal partner. The way he made Dumchenko float in the 2nd Act was unforgettable. And at last we had somebody who successfully attempted the swallow lifts in the 2nd Act. Interesting to note, finally, that Dumchenko and Vishneva have the same coach: Olga Chenchikova. An interesting example of how different performers can be even when guided by the same teacher

There is nothing to clarify, NO7: Zakharova isn't in Amsterdam, whatever the reason may be. Zhelonkina hadn't danced the role for ages either, yet she is here and she did dance it. That's the only thing that matters.

Not as much as the Kirov would want him to, Hu Xinxin. Samodurov is a busy man, very much in demand. He will appear with the Kirov again later this week as Petrushka, and then continue his series of performances as James with the Dutch National Ballet.

Inspiration has clearly been found on the banks of the river Amstel, during the Kirov's second night's "Giselle" with Irina Zhelonkina and Vyacheslav Samodurov. Irina Zhelonkina possesses a delicately beautiful plastique, has always been a gorgeous stylist, and as this performance proves she is a ballerina who seems to be aware that there is something like a performance tradition which deserves some respect, especially in the context of a company like the Kirov. After the performance, backstage there were comments that this is "Leningrad" style - and the use of the name Leningrad instead of St. Petersburg was surely no coincidence. Zhelonkina's more traditional approach is so much more convincing because she goes right to the point and doesn't loose herself in superficial gimmicks or unnecessary tricks. The drama was there in front of us and you believed in it from start to finish. I haven't seen the mad scene as moving as in this performance for ages. Although there were a few rough edges here and there in her dancing, for somebody who didn't dance the role in two years and with a minimum of preparation, this was by all means a remarkable performance. I also warmed to Samodurov's Albrecht and for having only had two rehearsals with Zhelonkina, they were truly together on stage. They never danced the ballet together before, but they obviously sparked each other off and the final scenes had a sense of despair, both being aware that these were their last moments together. Convincing performance of veteran Alexander Kurkov as Hilarion. More of that, please !

Sonja, I know that you are dying to see Zakharova in Manon . Four weeks is still a long time. There seems to be a problem with her leg. We will all keep our fingers crossed. Ilya, all I know is that Lopatkina is having therapy in Austria. She apparently wants proper treatment and I haven't heard anything as alarming. Liebs, Irina Zhelonkina can now dance the peasant pas de deux blindfolded, but since she was cast as Giselle on the very last minute, she had to concentrate on that, and nobody else is around to replace her in the pas de deux.

How did Nureyev contribute to the rehabilitation of POB ? If you would ask this question to many of the dancers, the answer would be, simply, "by being around".

The company seems to be extremely stretched. Some of the dancers are indeed injured or recovering (Lopatkina, Zakharova), but others are just occupied by other engagements. Prime example is Vyacheslav Samodurov here, who just runs between theatres (luckily for him they are only three canals from each other), spending his time between preparing James for the Dutch National and Albrecht for the Kirov. (Samodurov is supposed to dance Albrecht tonight, BTW.) He will have to make up his mind some day, as nobody seems to be very happy with this situation. Others are busy in a project with John Neumeier etc. One can judge easily how 'short on dancers' the company is by the fact that they even have to bring in soloists who otherwise hardly ever or even never get a chance to perform a leading role on a tour: Irina Zhelonkina for one, who hasn't seen the dress of Giselle in the last two or three years; Maya Dumchenko, too, in a way, as she wasn't cast initially. And frankly, I kind of like this situation, as it gives us a nice opportunity to see some other talent. However, since Zhelonkina is preparing and dancing Giselle, she cannot appear in the peasant pas deux. Unfortunately for the Kirov she seems to have been the only one around who can do peasant pas de deux. So, no peasant pas de deux for Amsterdam. It's that simple. NO7, the theater was sold out except for the seats with limited visibility. The performance was received with much enthusiasm. Vishneva's hyperstretch obviously conquered the audience. There was a critic of a local newspaper sitting right next to me. She much enjoyed 'the modern side' of Vishneva's interpretation, but had never seen the Kirov's "Giselle" before. Yes, Alexandra there are still coaches around . Of course rehearsal conditions are anything but ideal. The pressure is high, time is short, as always. Most rehearsals take place on the stage and sometimes a soloist has to ask permission from a colleague if he/she can have part of the stage to do some rehearsing, behind the graveyard of Giselle for instance...

The Kirov Ballet opened its short season in Amsterdam yesterday with "Giselle". The company looked in excellent shape, the corps de ballet doing fine, the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre playing well, and the Theater Carre, although far from the ideal venue for ballet, being definitely a much happier choice than the catastrophic RAI where the Kirov guested last year. The scheduled casts have once again been turned upside down. Opening night was danced by Diana Vishneva and Igor Kolb. For an opening night I found this leading couple rather weak and underpowered. Vishneva's Giselle is a too sophisticated, playful (hair tied in a long tail - for when the pony-tailed Giselle ?), featherlight and superficial girl, obviously finding pleasure in misplacing the dramatic accents. The moment when Giselle feels slightly faint when dancing with Albrecht resulted in some heavy-handed histrionics, while the mad scene showed nothing but a slightly tipsy girl unable to make any impression at all. The final scene with the exhausted Albrecht showed a faint effort of creating some heartfelt drama, although Vishneva's obvious hesitation as to where to place her head had an unwilling comical effect. The 1st Act variation was rather well danced, but her exxagerated plasticity and towering extensions became irritating and totally out of place in the 2nd Act pas de deux. Igor Kolb is surely a fine dancer, although he never succeeded in creating any rapport with Vishneva. At some point it looked as if the principals (Vishneva, Kolb, Amosova as Myrtha) were all dancing solo, having no eyes for each other and turning some of the scenes in a competition of 'Who can jump the highest?'. In the context of a company like the Kirov I find this weird. Amosova was a strong Myrtha, tough as nails and really hard on the floor. Yet, she too, was nothing but a visitor to the role. The peasant pas de deux was not included in the 1st Act, allegedly because of shortage of dancers. The next Giselles will be danced by Irina Zhelonkina, Vishneva again, and Maya Dumchenko. Lopatkina, Zakharova and Sologub are not in Amsterdam. Opening night wasn't exactly a bad night out, and inspiration will surely find the following soloists (at least so I hope), but I couldn't help thinking that ten years ago an evening like this would have been impossible. No way.

Andrei, did you ever see Yulia Makhalina as Myrtha? She danced it early in her career at the Kirov (it was one of her very first soloist roles) but somehow never really developed it. I thought she gave Myrtha nobility and a lot of feminine grace, and I somehow always felt that the role suited her better than Giselle which she took on later (although Makhalina herself thinks quite different about this )

Andrei, did you ever see Yulia Makhalina as Myrtha? She danced it early in her career at the Kirov (it was one of her very first soloist roles) but somehow never really developed it. I thought she gave Myrtha nobility and a lot of feminine grace, and I somehow always felt that the role suited her better than Giselle which she took on later (although Makhalina herself thinks quite different about this )

If only there would be as many people in the Kirov who agree with this as on this board... As for the regrets: Shelest, Sizova and above all Soloviev.

Tatiana Terekhova of the Kirov Ballet also gave us a different (and very memorable) Myrtha. She, too, is small, thin and wiry, possessing the most wonderful jump, and dancing with chilling precision, nothing sloppy. The authority of her Myrtha came above all from the quality of dancing.

Tatiana Terekhova of the Kirov Ballet also gave us a different (and very memorable) Myrtha. She, too, is small, thin and wiry, possessing the most wonderful jump, and dancing with chilling precision, nothing sloppy. The authority of her Myrtha came above all from the quality of dancing.

Estelle - I really don't see any of them as a "danseur noble" either (which doesn't say anything about the artistic qualities of these gentlemen, of course, excellent dancers all).

Thanks, Estelle, I missed Guérin too in the Robbins program.

Has it been decided yet which farewell performance Isabelle Guérin is going to do ? When I interviewed her last December there wasn't anything special planned for her either. And in any case she was not very happy about the eventual prospect of having to bow out at the Bastille with "Romeo and Juliet".

So in the end it was Maya Dumchenko who danced the second Juliet, not Vishneva, not Ayupova. Even if they give two possible names they still turn up with a third one.

No, I didn't.

This Nutcracker must be real magic, according to the now immortal words of Mr. Adasinsky: "On the first day of rehearsal, nobody could dance" No further comments, Leigh... Yet, I'd like to live to see that year wherein the Kirov Ballet will mount 12 new works. I was also very much intrigued by the final line of Mr. Crisp's review.

Geoffrey York in the Canadian Globe and Mail, Wednesday, February 21, 2001: ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA -- Less than an hour before the 7 p.m. scheduled opening of the premiere, the Kirov Ballet dancers are still struggling through their final rehearsal. Disaster is looming. The rehearsal is riddled with glitches. A lighting computer has broken down, leaving key scenes in garish colours. Last-minute changes in the choreography are being introduced. A painter is still touching up the set. Outside on the snowy streets of Russia's northern capital, a crowd of ticket-holders is gathering, unaware of the chaos inside the hallowed walls of the Mariinsky Theatre. The long-awaited world premiere of the experimental new production of The Nutcracker has been sold out for weeks. Anticipation has been building for months. Inside, on the historic stage where The Nutcracker was first produced in 1892, tension is mounting. The producers are bracing for a catastrophe. But when the curtain rises, only 20 minutes later than scheduled, the turmoil has vanished. The performance is flawless, the sets are stunning -- even the lighting works. Two hours later, the audience leaps to its feet for a rapturous standing ovation. Transforming chaos into genius is the daily miracle of the Kirov Ballet. From the poverty and corruption of post-Soviet Russia, the Kirov has fought back to regain its historic status as one of the world's great ballet companies. The Kirov (known in Russia now as the Mariinsky) is now widely recognized as Russia's best ballet company, surpassing the more famous Bolshoi Ballet of Moscow. Its foreign tours have been commercial and critical triumphs. Its performances have dazzled the demanding audiences of London and New York. None of this could be guessed from the gloomy warren of narrow corridors and cramped rehearsal rooms in its 141-year-old permanent home. >From a glance at its back rooms, a visitor might wonder how the Kirov manages to survive in the 21st century. Its cafeteria staff rely on an ancient wooden abacus to tot up prices. Its cleaning ladies use bundled twigs to sweep the floors. Its rank-and-file dancers are paid a basic wage of barely $100 (U.S.) a month, not including revenue from foreign tours. But the Kirov has built its success on an improbable combination of obsessive work, exhaustingly long hours, daring productions, Russian national pride, the legacy of a glorious history and the personal flair of the Mariinsky's charismatic musical and artistic director, Valery Gergiev. While the Bolshoi remains shackled by museum-like stodginess, Gergiev has pushed the Mariinsky in bold new directions, experimenting with fresh adaptations, creating dozens of productions and recruiting the talent of young newcomers and imaginative outsiders such as the Hollywood filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky (who directed the Mariinsky's acclaimed version of the opera War and Peace) and the former Soviet dissident artist Mikhail Shemyakin (who provided the designs and artistic vision for the latest staging of The Nutcracker). "Gergiev works at a pace beyond any human norms," Shemyakin says. "The entire collective has tremendous enthusiasm. When Gergiev says, 'We're going to rehearse all night,' the dancers say, 'Okay, we'll rehearse all night.' That would be unthinkable in the West. It's a peculiarly Russian madness. Perhaps only the Russian organism can endure it." Shemyakin had never done a ballet before, but Gergiev took a gamble and invited him to create a new concept for The Nutcracker . The visually powerful production, filled with grotesque masks and psychedelic colours, took almost two years for Shemyakin to prepare. "One has to take a risk, and we risk a little more than others," Gergiev said in an interview backstage after the curtain had fallen on the premiere of Shemyakin's adaptation of The Nutcracker. "My concern is to bring the best of the best here," he said. "People don't like grey, unimaginative, boring productions. We respect tradition, but we also respect the taste of international audiences. It helps make our season more colourful." Another recruit was Anton Adasinsky, a well-known mime artist and founder of the avant-garde Derevo theatre company of Dresden, who was invited to play the crucial role of Drosselmeyer in the new staging of The Nutcracker, giving a stylish twist to the classic role of the heroine's godfather. Adasinsky, a former Soviet underground artist who emigrated to Czechoslovakia in 1991, remembers the Kirov ballet as a stately and pompous institution in the Soviet era. He was astonished to discover that the innovative new Kirov could adapt to the radical ideas of his modern dance and theatre company. "They're even crazier than our company," he marvels. "When you see 200 people running around and screaming at each other, it looks like chaos, but I call it Russian Dadaism. When six people are screaming at the same time, it's actually a conversation." The Kirov's brilliance, he says, stems obsessive work habits. "They work from 8 a.m. until midnight. You can't imagine the hours and hours, every day, with no time off. If they had a trade union, they would work until 6 p.m. and then stop -- but the Kirov is an army of artists. They're like soldiers. It's in the Russian blood to compete and be better than others. They just work harder." Shemyakin's adaptation had its genesis two years ago, when Gergiev phoned the artist and asked him to create something "insane" for a new production of The Nutcracker. Shortly after, Gergiev called back and added: "Within the realm of reason, of course." This notion of "sane insanity" symbolizes the contradictions of the Kirov, where Gergiev searches for novelty and imagination within the boundaries of classical ballet. The Kirov is keenly aware of its legacy as the wellspring of Russia's greatest dancers -- Nijinsky, Nureyev, Baryshnikov -- and the first theatre to stage some of the world's greatest ballets, including The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. Its history goes back more than 200 years, to the creation of Russia's first imperial opera and ballet company in St. Petersburg in the late 18th century. The theatre's building, named after the wife of Czar Alexander II, dates back to 1860. "Everyone, from the simplest cleaning ladies to the international ballet stars, understands that the walls of the Mariinsky are sacred," Shemyakin says. Yet while preserving this tradition, the Kirov still manages to mount 12 new productions a year -- an extraordinary number for a classical-ballet company. Though the workload is exhausting, the payoff has been enormous. The Kirov has garnered rave reviews around the world, from North America to Japan. The American billionaire arts patron Alberto Vilar announced last year that he is giving $14-million (U.S.) to the Kirov to finance new operas and ballets. This year, he donated a further $15-million for a series of Kirov visits to the Kennedy Center in Washington. Even in Moscow, home of the Bolshoi Ballet, the Kirov has won the battle for critical success. The Moscow press, which routinely comments on the superiority of the Kirov, has advised the long-troubled Bolshoi to try to learn something from its northern rival. "Comparing the two theatres, you cannot help noting the openness of the Mariinsky and the closed character of the Bolshoi," the weekly Argumenty i Fakty wrote recently. "The Mariinsky has fire in the eyes. At the Mariinsky, you can find almost all national schools and styles; at the Bolshoi there are only a minimal number of Russian and foreign classics. The Bolshoi had its golden years in Stalin's time. . . . Today, the president prefers to visit the Mariinsky." According to the Moscow media, the Kirov has attracted far more money in sponsorships than the Bolshoi has ever seen. When British Prime Minister Tony Blair came to Russia last year, he chose to attend a performance of War and Peace at the Kirov -- with President Vladimir Putin at his side -- rather than go to the Bolshoi. And, in a final insult, the Bolshoi has been dumped from a prestigious run at the Royal Opera House in London this summer to make room for the Kirov. The adventurous new staging of The Nutcracker is typical of how the Kirov transcends the Bolshoi's musty repertoire. Gergiev and Shemyakin demolished the cloyingly sentimental tone of the traditional Christmas children's-matinee version. Reviving instead the nightmarish mood of Hoffman's original fairy tale, they designed the ballet for adults -- or at least for the streetwise kids of today, reared on the violence and surrealism of video games and computer graphics. "You can't frighten children today with plush mice," Shemyakin says. "You can't interest them with scenes of a nice bourgeois life. Look at the psychology of today's children. Look at the police blotter." What he unveiled at the premiere in St. Petersburg last week was a phantasmagoria of wild creatures in birdlike masks and carnival costumes, including a rat aristocracy in magnificent wigs and a rat army brandishing cheese flags. A huge rabbit's-head trophy was mounted on a wall. Giant flies and wasps crawled up rainbow-coloured candy canes. Even the snowflakes were dressed in fashionable black, speckled with white flakes to suggest a blizzard. "It was completely different from any version I've danced in before," said Vladimir Malakhov, former principal dancer at the National Ballet of Canada, who attended the premiere. "It was wonderful, amazing -- exactly like a fairy tale, with lots of surprises. The scenery was fabulous." The new adaptation (expected to be performed in a Kirov tour of Paris, North America and Japan next year) also features Gergiev's adaptation of Tchaikovsky's music, in which he has restored its original fast tempo. The whole performance, including intermission, whizzed by in two hours, compared with a dawdling three hours in traditional versions. Generations of ballerinas had insisted on a slower tempo to make it easier to dance, so Gergiev's faster version led to some consternation among the Kirov performers. "On the first day of rehearsal, nobody could dance," Adasinsky recalls. Even after years of innovation at the Kirov, some of its traditionalists resisted the avant-garde outsiders who descended on them for the new Nutcracker. Tensions rose when a veteran choreographer quit, to be replaced by a 23-year-old novice. "There had to be some confrontations," Adasinsky says. "It was an artistic fight, but it turned out beautifully." [This message has been edited by Marc Haegeman (edited February 23, 2001).]

Ann, the interview appeared in Dance View, Winter 2001. Don't miss her Manon ! Thank you Estelle. Of course, Gillot is a problem for her partners. And with the lack of rehearsal time it's quite understandable.

I enjoyed "Paquita" a lot. Thanks to Lacotte's theatrical flair, the sweep of his dances, and the spirit and talent of the Paris company, this ballet is irresistibly entertaining. I saw the casts Gillot/Bart, and Gillot/ Martinez. Excellent performances all, the only disappointment coming from Martinez who was all too obviously in trouble when he had to lift Gillot. Anyway, I have written a review of it for the next issue of Dance View.

Estelle, thanks for the review. I'm glad that you mention the notable difference in style and atmosphere between Petipa's choreography and Lacotte's (to say nothing of the music). Of course you mean "Giselle" instead of "La Sylphide" as the ballet which was premiered in 1841 with Grisi and Petipa.