© Olga Larionova Preljocaj 'Rite' reviews Ballet Preljocaj reviews Kibbutz Contemporary DC Reviews? Rambert 'PreSentient' reviews Rambert 'Ghost Dances' Rambert reviews Tsiskaridze in reviews Zakharova in reviews more Olga Larionova reviews

This year the group of organizers, some of them new, decided to give the festival a new start. Unwilling to repeat the events of the previous Grand Pas Festival, and now full of energy and optimism and apparently backed by Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, they concentrated on bringing to Moscow three world-famous contemporary dance companies to give the unfamiliar Moscow audience a glimpse of European standards of alternative dance. Each of the invited companies had an evening dedicated to their own performances, and on the fourth day of the festival they met together for a grand gala performance at the Bolshoi Theatre itself.

Ballet Preljocaj's Romeo and Juliet
(danced at the final gala)
© Olga Larionova

Ballet Preljocaj – the company that became the National Centre of Choreography in France – was just the right beginning to impress everyone in its own way. Political minorities, whispering about Angelin Preljocaj’s sexual orientation, were very articulate and persistent in accusing the charming and somewhat shy French choreographer of blasphemy and erotomania. The scandal mostly concerned his “Annonciation” – a 23-minute ballet in which the duet of Mary and the Angel was performed by two female dancers, Natasha Grimaud and Isabelle Arnaud. Angelin could really not have conceived the duet for a man and a woman - it would have been frivolous indeed. On the contrary, the piece looked chaste and profound, and was really a great success. Unfortunately the previously advertised “Helikopter” was dropped from the programme. “Le Sacre du Printemps”, choreographically fairly monotonous with several false endings, was still intriguing with its adjustable green glade as the setting for the characters’ love-making and the raging nude solo of the main heroine, Isabelle Arnaud. The packed house of the Malyj Theatre gave a standing ovation to this company visiting Russia for the third time – no surprise: after the female dancers had slipped out of their panties in the middle of the piece, the spectators were curious as to how the action would develop. The music of Stravinsky was even more powerful than the passions on the stage.

Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company's Screensaver
© Olga Larionova

“Screensaver” brought by Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company – dancers from Israeli villages - promised to tell a story of war, love and simple pleasures. Computer graphics, special lighting effects, five beds as the set, army-drill choreography, openly erotic, partly homosexual scenes, dancers in white knickers – that was “Screensaver”, known internationally as “Dances in Bed”. The idea of the injustice of war and terrorism, of ordinary people finding solace in physical love, was conveyed rather diffusely, lasting more than an hour. At half the length the piece would be less tiring and look much stronger – exactly as it did on gala night.

The guests from Great Britain, Rambert Dance Company, brought to Moscow three rather different performances from their repertoire. The original name of the first piece on the programme, “Visions Fugitives” failed to rescue the extremely dull, poor choreography of Hans van Manen, neither classical nor modern. The fifteen miniatures to the music of Sergei Prokoviev were indeed too fleeting to give any idea of the secret meaning of the ballet, where bustling and diligent dancers had to concentrate mostly on the vague battements and pirouettes closely packed into miniatures of a few seconds. Staged in 2003 the work looked much more outdated than the company’s second piece, “Ghost Dances”.

This legendary work by Christopher Bruce easily became the favourite of the festival’s audience. Reminiscent of the eighties with its old-fashioned backdrop and dark lighting designs, it still looked surprisingly fresh and vivid. The transformed dancers cheerfully played scenes of everyday life based on South American folklore to the specially arranged rhythmic music of Chilean ensemble “Inti-Illimany”. Performed with sensitivity and emotion, playfulness and good humour, it received a rousing ovation from the grateful house, only half-full because of the extremely expensive tickets. The stage of the Bolshoi Theatre was a little too wide for the first two ballets but absolutely fitted the third piece, “PreSentient”. In Wayne McGregor’s brilliant, sweeping choreography, Rambert Dance Company showed its impressive technical standard. Sharp angles, intertwining high-tech dance combinations reminiscent of William Forsythe and Merce Cunningham, clear, bright flashes of lighting – now turquoise now lilac – the dance captivated the spectators from the very first moment it literally burst into the space of the Bolshoi Theatre. A little overloaded with graphics and a little too long, “PreSentient” was nevertheless quite melancholy, deep and very fascinating.

On the final evening there was no opportunity to investigate contemporary Russian dance styles. Classical ballet stars were called in to help to fill the gap in current Russian contemporary dance achievements… Tatyana Baganova’s “The Provincial Dances” and Sasha Pepelyaev were found unsuitable for the event, which is understandable as any participation of a Russian contemporary dance company would have diluted if not spoiled the effect produced by excluding any local contemporary performances. This then avoided contrasting Russia with Europe. (Incidentally, within the framework of the festival several workshops (albeit of a rather intermediate level) were organized for those eager to learn something from the world-famous visiting companies.) On Gala night the spectators had to be content with a new duet by Principal Dancer Svetlana Zakharova, who has just joined the Bolshoi from the Mariinsky Theatre, and Nikolai Tsiskaridze, fresh and sound after his summer vacation. After their passionate pas de deux from “Sheherazade”, Zhanna Ayupova and Igor Kolb diligently performed an adagio from MacMillan’s “Manon”, then Dmitry Gudanov made an attempt to move classical dance towards the modern in his solo “Crane” from the ballet “Dreams of Japan”, skipping all the academic pirouettes and conveying all the deep meaning of the ballet to the audience. However his acting talents were forgotten as soon as Anna Antonicheva and Dmitry Belogolovtsev appeared on stage to perform a scene from “Notre Dame de Paris”. Dmitry decided to add some Russian drama to the French ballet and embellished his part of Roland Petit’s choreography with some vivid and expressive gestures and mime that looked rather like overacting.

The highly energetic dance during guest performances that followed in the next two acts truly thrilled the public. Natacha Grimaud and Thomas Michaux from Ballet Preljocaj performed two scenes from “Romeo and Juliet” – psychologically profound and very sensual. The dancers from Kibbutz CDC pperformed an edited version of their hit, “Screensaver”, and Rambert Dance Company gave pleasure in performing “Ghost Dances” for one more time – probably the last as it was said to be omitted from the future repertoire of the theatre.

At the final ceremony the Director of the festival, Sergei Oldenburg-Svintsov, handed commemorative statuettes to the Directors of the foreign companies to mark the event and make it famous. And as an encore all the dancers together performed a musical parody dance – the final scene from “Screensaver” - to the absolute delight of the spectators who were applauding furiously and practically dancing themselves. The gala night was a complete success - the public left satisfied and encouraged, proving that the Festival Grand Pas was the best summer dance event in Moscow.