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St Petersburg Ballet Theatre
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With a large repertoire of six classical ballets: Giselle, La Bayadère, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, Konstantin Tachkin, Director, Cultural Advisor to the Saint Petersburg City Council and founder of the Saint Petersburg Ballet Theatre, is continuing his tour of Europe, The Canary Islands, Taipei and Tokyo. Chief conductor, Vadim Nikitin, is conducting the ballets.
The troupe is led by the outstanding ballerina, Irina Kolesnikova who was born in Saint Petersburg and is a graduate of the Vaganova Academy. She joined the company as a soloist in 1998, became Prima Ballerina in 2000 and has been its star since 2001.
This is the second time that the Saint Petersburg Ballet Theatre has performed in Paris, displaying its highest achievements in the complex ballets Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, which represent the pinnacle of Romanticism.
The founding of this non-state run theatre, which does not enjoy the opportunities of an officially sponsored company is worthy of even more respect.
The ballets are staged to a serious and professional level even though one has to ignore certain costumes and set elements. There can be no shame attached to presenting pieces like these in a capital like Paris.
The sparse choreography (in Konstantin Sergeev’s version of Petipa’s and Ivanov’s original work) in act one of Swan Lake was a weakness by virtue of its over-scholarly, indeed over-simplified character.
The Jester (Mikhail Ovcharov) was superb and successfully surmounted all the problem moments. Evgeniy Ivanchenko’s Prince Siegfried, however, was lacking in nobility and his technique patchy. Similarly, Dmitry Rudachenko, the male soloist in the pas de trois, whose heaviness of movement and occasional slip-ups created a positively comical effect. On the other hand, his two dance partners Anna Samostrelova and Oki Aiami coped with their parts beautifully displaying a lightness of performance showing the benefit of superb training.
Act two saw the appearance of Kolesnikova herself!
Thanks to this amazingly supple dancer, an artist from head to toe, we got to see the truly ideal Swan. Her tenderness and timidity were very touching. Her assured équilibre, her pirouettes, the span of her développés all combined with the beauty of her port de bras.
In the third act Irina united drama with virtuosity in her marvellous illustration of the double-sided nature of this role. Her Black Swan was imposing and self-assured. Her perfect pirouettes and double and triple fouettés electrified the audience of the Théâtre des Champs Elysées.
After the two evening performances of Swan Lake, we were presented with Sleeping Beauty and once more Irina Kolesnikova enchanted us with her precise interpretation and assured technique in the role of the blossoming princess Aurora.
Her lack of any internal tension, freedom of movement and her expressiveness all combine to allow us to place this Saint Petersburg star, pleasant behind the scenes and brilliant on stage, at the summit of a choreographic Olympia alongside the other outstanding talents of her generation.
The troupe is led by the outstanding ballerina, Irina Kolesnikova who was born in Saint Petersburg and is a graduate of the Vaganova Academy. She joined the company as a soloist in 1998, became Prima Ballerina in 2000 and has been its star since 2001.
This is the second time that the Saint Petersburg Ballet Theatre has performed in Paris, displaying its highest achievements in the complex ballets Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, which represent the pinnacle of Romanticism.
The founding of this non-state run theatre, which does not enjoy the opportunities of an officially sponsored company is worthy of even more respect.
The ballets are staged to a serious and professional level even though one has to ignore certain costumes and set elements. There can be no shame attached to presenting pieces like these in a capital like Paris.
The sparse choreography (in Konstantin Sergeev’s version of Petipa’s and Ivanov’s original work) in act one of Swan Lake was a weakness by virtue of its over-scholarly, indeed over-simplified character.
The Jester (Mikhail Ovcharov) was superb and successfully surmounted all the problem moments. Evgeniy Ivanchenko’s Prince Siegfried, however, was lacking in nobility and his technique patchy. Similarly, Dmitry Rudachenko, the male soloist in the pas de trois, whose heaviness of movement and occasional slip-ups created a positively comical effect. On the other hand, his two dance partners Anna Samostrelova and Oki Aiami coped with their parts beautifully displaying a lightness of performance showing the benefit of superb training.
Act two saw the appearance of Kolesnikova herself!
Thanks to this amazingly supple dancer, an artist from head to toe, we got to see the truly ideal Swan. Her tenderness and timidity were very touching. Her assured équilibre, her pirouettes, the span of her développés all combined with the beauty of her port de bras.
In the third act Irina united drama with virtuosity in her marvellous illustration of the double-sided nature of this role. Her Black Swan was imposing and self-assured. Her perfect pirouettes and double and triple fouettés electrified the audience of the Théâtre des Champs Elysées.
After the two evening performances of Swan Lake, we were presented with Sleeping Beauty and once more Irina Kolesnikova enchanted us with her precise interpretation and assured technique in the role of the blossoming princess Aurora.
Her lack of any internal tension, freedom of movement and her expressiveness all combine to allow us to place this Saint Petersburg star, pleasant behind the scenes and brilliant on stage, at the summit of a choreographic Olympia alongside the other outstanding talents of her generation.
St Petersburg Ballet Theatre
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