Kirov will tour Taipei from 27 March to 1 April 2009 with "Swan Lake" and "The Sleeping Beauty". And a gala in Kaoshiung on 2 April.
http://www.ntch.edu.tw/englishProgram/show/2c90bcd71dd6e5cd011dd6ecdbb852ac

Kirov will tour Amsterdam at the end of July
http://www.theatercarre.nl/site/voorstelling.php?&vid=161&taal=nl

Kirov will tour Covent Garden from August 3-15
http://www.roh.org.uk/whatson/mariinsky/index.aspx

There will be a tour to Japan at the end of November to mid-December - Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Little Humpbacked Horse, Gala.
http://www.japanarts.co.jp/html/2009/ballet/mariinsky/english.htm

There will be a tour to Baden Baden from Dec. 23-28 - Nutcracker, Swan Lake, La Sylphide, Gala
http://www.festspielhaus.de/en/what-s-on/programme-tickets/

Mariinsky Ballet will tour Washington Kennedy Center from Feb. 9-14 2010 with The Sleeping Beauty.
http://www.kennedycenter.com/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=BKBSE

Mariinsky Ballet will tour Hong Kong 20-24 March 2010 with "Don Quixote".
http://www.artsfestival.org/en/prog/3

Previous thread for reference.
http://www.ballet.co.uk/dcforum/DCForumID18/223.html

(edited to update information)

http://www.musiccenter.org/events/dance_0809_kirov_casting.pdf

Swan Lake (Dec 23)
Odette/Odile - Ulyana Lopatkina
Prince - Daniil Korsuntsev
Rothbart - Konstantin Zverev
Jester - Grigory Popov
Friends - Yana Selina, Nadejda Gonchar, Alexei Timofeev

The Nutcracker
25 Dec
Masha - Alina Somova
The Nutcracker/Prince - Andrian Fadeyev
Snowflakes - Ekaterina Kondaurova, Alexandra Iosifidi

27 Dec
Masha - Evgenia Obraztsova
The Nutcracker/Prince - Vladimir Shklyarov

Glass Heart (Dec 26)
Alma - Ekaterina Kondaurova
Alexander - Maxim Zyuzin
Gustav - Islom Baimuradov

Don Quixote (Dec 28 )
Matinee
Kitri - Viktoria Tereshkina
Basil - Mikhail Lobukhin
Espada - Islom Baimuradov
Street Dancer - Alexandra Iosifidi
Queen of the Driads - Alina Somova
Variation (in the Wedding Scene) - Ekaterina Kondaurova

Evening
Kitri - Olesya Novikova
Basil - Leonid Sarafanov
Espada - Islom Baimuradov
Street Dancer - Alexandra Iosifidi
Queen of the Driads - Alina Somova
Variation - Ekaterina Kondaurova

Gala Evening (Dec 29)
Part I
Pas de Quatre - Kondaurova, Selina, Shirinkina, Somova
Carnival in Venice - Obraztsova, Shklyarov and corps de ballet
Contradictions - Ulyana Lopatkina, Ivan Kozlov

Part II
Laurencia Pas d'Action - Tereshkina, Sarafanov, soloists and corps
Tchaikovsky pas de deux - Somova, Fadeyev
Diana and Akteon - Novikova, Lobukhin and corps

Part III - Paquita Grand Pas
Paquita - Ulyana Lopatkina
Cavalier - Daniil Korsuntsev
Pas de trois - Nadejda Gonchar, Yana Selina, Alexei Timofeev
Variation 1 - Alina Somova
Variation 2 - Ekaterina Kondaurova
Variation 3 - Evgenia Obraztsova
Variation 4 - Olesya Novikova
Variation 5 - Viktoria Tereshkina
Variation 6 - Ulyana Lopatkina

"Pas de Quatre" has been danced in the Mariinsky Theatre in the past few years. I haven't seen the piece yet.

I think "The Nutcracker" to be shown in Baden-Baden is the Vainonen version instead of the Shemyakin/Simonov version. Kiril Simonov's "Glass Heart" is a short two-act ballet premiered in this year's Mariinsky Festival.

(edited to correct typo)

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/highlights-of-2009-dance-1220734.html

27-29 March - The Sleeping Beauty (Konstantin Sergeyev's Soviet version, instead of Vikharev's reconstructed Imperial Ballet version)

30 March to 1 April - Swan Lake

Taipei

The Sleeping Beauty
27 March - Vishneva, Ivanchenko
28 March - Obraztsova, Sarafanov
29 March - Kolegova, Ivanchenko

Swan Lake
30 March - Lopatkina, Korsuntsev
31 March - Vishneva, Ivanchenko
1 April - Nioradze, Korsuntsev

Kaoshiung

Gala on 2 April
Chopiniana - Kolegova, Korsuntsev
Divertissements
Paquita - Lopatkina, Ivanchenko

(edited to correct typos)

By the way, the Mariinsky will also tour Amsterdam at the end of July, just before their two-week tour to London in August.

(corrected typo)

By Diane Baker
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Mar 27, 2009, Page 13

It's a good thing that the seats in the National Theater are comfortable. Ballet lovers will be spending a great deal of time in them now that the Mariinsky Theater Ballet Company and Orchestra have returned to Taipei for six performances, beginning tonight.

Important Edit: I've just removed most of the copied words of a review that were posted in their entirety here. We can't paste up entire reviews unless we have authority to do so from the copyright holder and I very much doubt that is the case here. Apologies if you did have the clear and unambiguous OK to do so Voldemar.

While we can't routinly copy entire articles, we can link to such reviews - and of course do that everyday, across the world, on the TodaysLinks page. Anyway this review is here:
Diane Baker Taipei Times review

We will add it to the database of reviews so it can be found into the future too.

BM

Below is the casting for the divertissements in the middle section

1. Pas de Quatre (18 min) Anastasia Kolegova
Maria Shirinkina
Nadejda Gonchar
Yana Selina

2. “Legend of Love” – Irma Nioradze – Evgeny Ivanchenko
Adagio and Monologue

3. Arlekinada Yulia Kasenkova – Andrey Ivanov
(12 min)

4. The Dying Swan Irma Nioradze
(4 min)

5. Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux Evgenya Obraztsova – Leonid Sarafanov
(12 min)

Gala on 2 April
Part I
Chopiniana- Anastasia Kolegova, Danila Korsuntsev, Yulia Kasenkova, Nadezhda Gonchar, Elena Yushkovskya, Maria Shirinkina
Intermission
Part II Divertissements
Pas de Quartre- Anastasia Kolegova, Evgenya Dolmatova, Nadezhda Gonchar, Daria Vasnetsova
Arlekinada Pas de Deux- Yulia Kasenkova, Andrei Ivanov
Bluebird Pas de Deux- Alexei Timofeyev and Nadezhda Gonchar
The Dying Swan- Uliana Lopatkina
Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux- Yevgenia Obraztsova, Lenoid Sarafanov
Intermission
Part III
Paquita- Uliana Lopatkina, Evgeny Ivanchenko, Nadezhda Gonchar, Daria Vasnetsova, Yulia Kasenkova

Below is a review that I wrote in an e-mail to Kevin Ng. I'm very grateful for his help and encouragement.

I am not a seasoned ballet-goer and most of my knowledge on ballet comes from books written by Clement Crisp and reviews on Ballet.co.uk, Critical Dance and Ballet Talk. I watch most ballet performances on DVDs and Youtube. Ever since I started enjoying ballet, Kirov has always been on the top of my list of "must-sees"; therefore, as soon as I read Kevin's post about the gala in Kaohsiung back in February, I couldn't hold my excitement and I immediately wrote to the city government to confirm the news of Kirov's arrival. Once I receive the confirmation, I had no second thought but to buy the best ticket. And indeed, it was money well-spent.
Last night's programme was split into three parts. Chopiniana was a very good choice as an opener for this magical evening. Accompanied by Chopin's music, it was easy for the audience to be absorbed into the romantic aura. Anastasia Kolegova was splendid in her variation as well as the pas de deux with Danila Korsuntsev. She had a delicate and feminine beauty about her. Her pas de deux with Korsuntsev, in my opinion, is probably the best of the evening because I could sense Ms. Kolegova's trust in Korsuntsev and they danced in such harmoney and style. One thing I have to mention though is that Korsuntsev's height made the stage look rather small and I felt that he was quite reserved in his own solo. Again, I assumed that it was the size and the unfamiliarity of the stage that kept him from showcasing his best.
The second part of the programme consisted of divertissements. Pas de Quatre was, in a way, a contiuance of Chopiniana for their similarity in style. I am not very familiar with all the Kirov dancers so I only recognized Ms. Kolegova as Marie Taglioni and Nadezhda Gonchar as Fanny Cerrito. Ms. Kolegova displayed a sense of aloofness here and I thought she lost some of her charm from the previous performance. Generally, I thought the four of them complemented each other in height and temperament.
Arlekinada Pas de Deux was a work that I had never heard of nor seen before seeing it listed in the programme so naturally I did some research beforehand to find that it is actually better known as Harlequinade and I also managed to find videos of it on youtube. I though it was a fun piece of work and quite interactive as well which was probably the reason why audience responded well to it. Andrei Ivanov was energetic and ebullient in his variation. Though he had a minor stumble which he quickly recovered from, he received huge applause from the audience. Yulia Kasenkova's physique and style was so different from the other ballerinas that I found her oddly out of place among her fellow dancers. I have a question regarding this particular ballet and I hope that you could enlighten me on this. Is it typical for this work to have a female lead tower almost a head over the male dancer? Although the difference in Ivanov's and Kasenkova's heights infused a comical element into the performance, I still found it rather strange and it must be quite a strain on the male dancer.
The Bluebird Pas de Deux from Sleeping Beauty was solidly if not spectacularly danced by Alexei Timofeyev and Nadezhda Gonchar. Both the Harlequinade and Bluebird Pas de Deux struck me as a bit lackluster compared to the other performances. I thought that in both Pas de Deux, the dancers failed to establish a connection with each other.
The Dying Swan, billed and advertised as the center piece of the evening, was no disappointment. When the light suddenly dimmed, the audience all sensed that something amazing was about to unfold and the atmosphere in the hall changed. From her very first entrance to that last stroke for life until finally giving in to destiny, Ms. Lopatkina kept everyone on the verge of their seats, holding their breath and gasping in wonder. Her hands, her arms, her torso, her legs and her expression and the music were as one. She was the swan. Her performance sent shiver down my spine and I felt so touched that half way through it, I couldn't help but feel a soreness in my nose. It was so short that I yearned for more. When it came to an end, the hall broke out into thunderous applause. I found her interpretation quite different from other ballerinas that I had seen. While others had unrealistically undulating arms and displayed an almost violent struggle, Ms. Lopatkina's arms were extremely swan-like and she exuded a kind of serene quality that sharpened the emotion tenfold. Before seeing this performance, Maya Plisetskaya's rendition that I have on DVD was my favorite and now I would say Ms. Lopatkina is my favorite dying swan. I wonder, though, what I might felt if I were able to watch Plisetskaya live.
Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux was refreshing after the solemnness of the Dying Swan. Ms. Obraztsova was a pure joy to watch. She was lyrical and light. She had such a tenderness, youthfulness and delightfulness in her dancing. I hope that she would continue to grow and mature and become a principal soon. Sarafanov performed the best male solo of the evening but he wasn't as spectacular as I had expected. Since he was notorious for his partnering skill, it came as no surprise that he made a mistake when partnering Obraztsova. In the first part of the pas de duex, he didn't turn Obraztsova into the right position, resulting in her kicking his leg when extending her leg backwards. Fortunately though, it was minor and didn't affect the smoothness of th performance much. Both of them received great applause from the audience.
The evening closed with the glorious Paquita. Ms. Lopatkina was a sparkling dimond and dominated the stage. I really adored the way she seemed to weave the music with her arms and hands in her variation. The audience pretty much went into a frenzy with her series of fouettes and I lost count of it because of all the double spins she did. Nadezhda Gonchar did a fine first variation but I can't help but comparing her performance to the one Alina Somova did in Lopatkina's Gala. Evgeny Ivanchenko was quite good in his own variation and I thought he partnered Lopatkina well. Standing ovation and curtain calls were rewarded from the audience. Lopatkina and Ivanchenko, accompanied by Kaohsiung City Mayor walked outside to greet the 5000 or more people watching the performance from live outdoor broadcast. There they received even more enthusiastic applause. The Kirov had a successful evening here in Kaohsiung. I only hope that Kaohsiung would soon have a national performance hall with a larger stage to accommodate the Kirov's full-length ballets.

p.s. The city government gave out 1000 posters of Ms. Lopatkina's Dying Swan with her signature to people attending the event.

> Arlekinada Pas de Deux
>I have a question regarding this particular ballet and I hope
>that you could enlighten me on this. Is it typical for this
>work to have a female lead tower almost a head over the male
>dancer? Although the difference in Ivanov's and Kasenkova's
>heights infused a comical element into the performance, I
>still found it rather strange and it must be quite a strain
>on the male dancer.

Hmm not too sure if it's typical or not to make the pdd look 'comical'.... at least in the summer of '07, in Tokyo, this pdd was danced by Evgenia Obraztsova & Vladimir Shklyarov. (It was 'he' who towered over the partner, in this case!)

>Lopatkina and Ivanchenko, accompanied by Kaohsiung
>City Mayor walked outside to greet the 5000 or more people
>watching the performance from live outdoor broadcast. There
>they received even more enthusiastic applause. The Kirov had
>a successful evening here in Kaohsiung. I only hope that
>Kaohsiung would soon have a national performance hall with a
>larger stage to accommodate the Kirov's full-length ballets.
>
>p.s. The city government gave out 1000 posters of Ms.
>Lopatkina's Dying Swan with her signature to people
>attending the event.

Live broadcast and free posters - what a generous giveaway! (I hope you did get one, witchcoven.)

http://www.japanarts.co.jp/html/2009/ballet/mariinsky/english.htm

http://www.ballet.co.uk/dcforum/DCForumID18/254.html

Link to the theatre in Amsterdam
http://www.theatercarre.nl/site/voorstelling.php?&vid=161&taal=nl

(edited to add 2nd link)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/arts/dance/14dance.html?_r=1&ref=dance

The actual dates at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre are March 20-24.

http://ja-ballet.seesaa.net/

erm... No. Haven't returned to the country; I am and will be in London (sorry!).

>And please continue to update with links to the media coverage of
>this Japanese tour.

Yup, will try. (Although I have a feeling not many will be available online, as opposed to in papers....)

Naoko, I see from the impresario's website that Evgenia Obraztsova has arrived in Japan early this week. She has been very busy lately. After her guesting with the Royal Ballet, she also made her debut in "Giselle" last Thursday in the Mariinsky Theatre, with Leonid Sarafanov as her Albrecht.

There was a press release last weekend on the Mariinsky website about this current Japanese tour.

http://www.mariinsky.ru/en/news1/news1/20_november/

(edited to add link)

http://www.mde.co.jp/danza/book/025/

Any more news or reviews of this Japan tour? The Tokyo performances opened this weekend with "Swan Lake" led by Uliana Lopatkina and Danila Korsuntsev.

http://www.japanarts.co.jp/html/2009/ballet/mariinsky/english.htm

Diana Vishneva and Andrian Fadeyev will dance on the opening night of Konstantin Sergeyev's production of "The Sleeping Beauty". How good to see Fadeyev fully recovered nearly a year after his injury in Washington in January.

http://www.kennedycenter.com/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=BKBSE

Meanwhile, please continue to follow the current Tokyo tour on the impresario's website. There are more photos of Vikitoria Tereshkina, Vladimir Shklyarov and other stars.

http://ja-ballet.seesaa.net/

No casting has yet been announced for the Baden Baden tour from Dec. 23-28. - Nutcracker, Swan Lake, La Sylphide, Gala.

http://www.festspielhaus.de/en/what-s-on/programme-tickets/

(edited to add link to Baden Baden)

Nutcracker
22/12 - Obraztsova / Shklyarov
26/12 - Osmolkina / Matvienko

Swan Lake
23/12 - Tereshkina / Shklyarov
25/12 (m) - Kondaurova / Ivanchenko
25/12 (e) - Lopatkina / Korsuntsev

La Sylphide
27/12 - Obraztsova / Sarafanov

Gala
In the Night
1 Pas de Deux Anastasia Matvienko
Denis Matvienko
2 Pas de Deux Ekaterina Kondaurova
Evgeny Ivanchenko
3 Pas de Deux Uliana Lopatkina
Daniil Korsuntsev

Divertissement
Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux - Osmolkina / Korsakov
Parting - Obraztsova / Shklyarov
Tarantella - Gonchar / Sarafanov
Auber Pas de Deux - Somova / Zuzin
Pas de Six from La Vivindiere - Evseeva / Stepin
DonQ pdd - the Matvienkos

Theme and Variations
Tereshkina / Shklyarov

Dec. 18th : Somova / Shklyarov
Dec. 19th : Matvienko / Ivanchenko

http://ja-ballet.seesaa.net/

Little Humpbacked Horse was very enjoyable and I was fasscinated by the wonderful rich talent of Victoria Tereshkina. She was with very beautiful lines and was gorgeous in Swan Lake, but she showed other charms in LHH. Also at the gala, her Tarantella with Sarafanov was amazing. It wasn't so much Balanchine, but their performance was very lively and technical and such fun to watch, show-stopping and the climax of the gala.
She has grown into such a great ballerina, the greatest of her generation.

And Lopatkina's Swan Lake was such a divine and haunting experience, it was a moment I would like to treasure in my mind for a long time.

Diana's Swan is a very characteristic swan, very sensual and was almost like a siren, very beautiful and charming but with her strong mustles and magical power showed that she might seduce the poor Prince to death. Her Odile's personality was not that strong, Maybe Odette might have been Odile in fact. Her technique was very strong, but the floor seemed slippery and she slipped in her black swan adajio (but quickley recovered and danced flawless grand fouettes)

And her Aurora was glorious and so perfect, this role must be much easier for her than Odette. She was so radiant and fresh in her first act, willowy and haunting in the second act and so gorgeous in the 3rd. Igor Kolb was great in partnering.

Oksana Skorik is indeed a rising star in the Mariinsky, with her long lines and beautiful movement, flexibility and sweetness. She was memorable as one of the two swans in act 3 and also she was in the standing out positions in the corps in SL, Sleeping Beauty and Le Coisaire.

I have a lot more to mention but I have to go to bed, so to be continued.

Among the younger soloists, I've not had the opportunity to see much of Oksana Skorik in performances in St. Petersburg. I've been impressed particularly by Maria Shirinkina. Last month in Jerome Robbins' "In The Night" Shirinkina was most expressive in the first pas de deux.

(corrected typo)

Mariinsky DQ in Hong-Kong (March 20-24): http://www.artsfestival.org/en/prog/3/

Apparently there is going to be another tour to China in May. More details later.

The 2-night All Star Gala showed the richness and talent of the Mariinsky stars. 2 nights of Scheherazade with Lopatkina/Korsuntsev night and Vishneva/Kolb cast. Lopatkina's Zobeide was a proud queen, sensual but also showed heart-crushing loneliness and sadness inside, her longing for love bursted into passion and lust with her super-flexible limbs. Korsuntsev had amazing physique, he was a very loyal slave and straightforward but his dancing was very powerful with grace. It was very thrillng to see two amazing dancers syncronizing in the allegro duet, much in harmony.
Vishneva's Zobeide was much cooler, but was a goddess of eros. She was so radiant and beautiful, but she showed strong presence and was overwhelming. And Kolb, he was like a serpent rather than a panther. He was like an anaconda tied to her body, he was not a human but someone with animal instinct. This pair had very strong impression, was filled with lust not love or compassion but basic sexual instinct. What was very impressive was her death scene, Diana suddenly became very vulnerable, innocent and accepted her destiny of death as though she was a martyr.

On the second night, The Grand Pas de Deux (by Christian Spuck) danced by Lopatkina and Kolb was very very funny, showing that only the perfect dancers can make this work really amazing. Lopatkina, with her perfect technique and academic lines, showed such sweet humour and her ability of a comedienne was there. Also Kolb had wonderful partnering skills, was a bit nervous -looking that made this piece even funnier.

http://www.ballet.co.uk/dcforum/DCForumID18/261.html