GLASGOW ROYAL CONCERT HALL


ST PETERSBURG Ballet Theatre is obviously not in favour of change for change`s sake. After all, why reinvent a classic and put your own stamp on it, when the original is still perfectly viable? Currently on a five-month tour of the UK, this young Russian company is delivering
four classics just as their makers intended, with Swan Lake their only
Scottish performance.


While other companies have updated the setting, chopped the length, even turned the swans into men, St Petersburg kept their Swan Lake resolutely in the past. Beautiful costumes made from rich fabrics of velvet and gold adorned the dancers, while Tchaikovsky`s score was played note-for-note by the superb company orchestra.


Such a straightforward presentation might have fallen flat were it not for the technical skill of the dancers. Drilled to within an inch of their lives, the corps de ballet had the kind of precision movement an audience can get lost in. With 22 stiff white tutus jostling for space on the Concert Hall stage, each leg and arm moved in perfect synchrony.


The real jewel in the St Petersburg crown, however, is Irina Kolesnikova. The 25-year-old dancer has limbs that go on forever, and a dramatic style visible from several miles away. Her stunning portrayal of Odette/Odile was virtually flawless, and Kolesnikovas growing status as a world-class ballerina is well founded.


Leaving the original Petipa/Ivanov choreography intact, there was little room for error in the staging, although the ending will have been a disappointment for some. Odette`s death scene usually leads to teary eyes in the house, but on this occasion the curse was broken and she and Siegfried lived happily ever after. Sweet maybe, but nothing seals an evening quite like tragedy.