© John Ross Kirov 'La Bayadere' reviews 'La Bayadere' reviews Zakharova in reviews Sarafanov in reviews recent Kirov reviews more Naoko S reviews

After a 3 days' thoroughly extravagant dance fare, my mind is still hovering around Himalayan mountains.... Already every one passionately praised the great ensemble but once again I'd like to stress that the true stars of the ballet, for the last 3 days, really were Corps and supporting acts. Only their consistently high level of dancing made our eyes glued on the stage for a good three hours.

Dancers worth a special mention are: Yana Selina, whose elegant movements in Act II (as a Bayadere) and Pas d'action in Act IV stood out among others. AND as if it's not good enough, she even led Shades' scene in Act III as the 1st Shade - Amazing; miraculous! Elena Vasyukovich as Manu, whose face has a resemblance of Natalia Makarova, was a delightful dancer with a radiant smile. "Infernal Dance" was quite properly done by Islom Baimuradov and Galina Rakhmanova - turbulent! Among Shades' Trio, Irina Zhelonkina appeared to be the only dancer equipped with the noise-free pointe shoes. Her feather-light, feline-like movements were so precious - indeed we should see more of her sort among younger dancers. Elvira Tarassova, whose haughty manner very plausible as Gamzatti was absolutely in her element in Act IV - her secure and confident dancing shone through with equally delightful four dancers in Pas d'action.... and lastly but not the least, Corps. To my amazement in the very last performance (in evening 2 Aug), Shades' scene looked even better than the previous two nights. Surely this could never happen without firm commitments and devotions from dancers at all levels?

As to leading pairs - I saw Pavlenko on 1st and 3rd nights and had the impressions she was still recovering; not 100%, unfortunately. Though she was in much better form last night, particularly in acting department, her white scene left a patchy impression - to my eyes she appeared to try painfully hard to pull things together. (One friend of mine pointed out she slightly altered the choreography in the coda of Shades' scene.) She has a great potential to become a great Nikiya of the Company though - with the exotic face and a certain mysterious atmosphere around her she would make a very convincing Nikiya. Her Solor, Andrian Fadeyev on the 1st night looked absolutely sank into a horribly make-up-ed mask-like face (his face was pale white, literally) and totally lost facial expressions, regained his usual charms last night (though to certain degrees). Incidentally his dancing on both nights was clean and impeccable.

Another pair, Svetlana Zakharova and Leonid Sarafanov was a greater crowd pleaser of the two. Zakharova, who has an aura and stage presence only the certain ballerinas can have, thrilled audience yet again. Technically formidable than ever, the lady was utterly non-stoppable, and I found her speed when the music got up-beat a bit too fast. Shades' scene was very effectively done with well-controlled movements and her so-surreal physique. ("Look at that arch-shaped feet she has!") Sarafanov didn't quite look like a great match with Zakharova - he looked too boyish. But then the quality of dance came from the guy was astonishing - it would be a dream for any dancers to dance like that, I thought.

Svetlana Zakharova and Leonid Sarafanov
© John Ross

As to the production - one of the biggest advantages may be that as stress is now on narrative, the ballet regained logic and seems more rational than the previous Kirov's version or any other prevailed versions adopted elsewhere. Nikiya's character in this reconstructed version is also clearly defined, I thought. In the previous version or other prevailed versions, her characterisation was rather ambiguous (don't you think?), or stress was on her spiritual side. And because almost only emotionally-charged scene for her was that of confronting with Gamzatti with a knife - often it appeared too abrupt, and the phycological drama Nikiya had to go through was not clearly apparent. In this version Nikiya is depicted as a passionate, strong-minded woman, even as tight-gripped and determined as Gamzatti. These qualities can be seen after she's dead and became a Shade - she haunts Solor thoroughout the last 2 acts and never lets him go!

Lastly I've spotted quite a few commented on over-presence of miming. What's so bad about it? Anyway my solution is this: Next time have the Company's Management call in Veronika Part, Kirov's Queen of Mime, and cast her as Gamzatti. I bet no one would argue on this matter any more.