Kirov 'Les Sylphides' reviews Kirov 'Manon' reviews Kirov 'Le Corsaire' reviews 'Middle Duet' reviews Vishneva in reviews Sarafanov in reviews recent Kirov reviews more Susy reviews

The first of the two galas presented by the Kirov at the Ravenna Festival, honoring the 10th anniversary of Nureyev’s death, offered “Les Sylphides” in the first half and a row of pdds and a solo in the second half. No magic could be found in the Pala De André, hosting the performances, so the mood came solely from the dancers. The outstanding female cdb glided, grouped, twirled and lined up on Chopin’s music, the soloists showed elegant lines and floating footwork, but some details were forgotten, so that the style wasn’t perfect. Danila Korsuntsev as the Poet had heavy landings and if he doesn’t learn to deepen his pliés he will soon have problems at his knees and his back. Darja Sukhorukova was amazing in the Mazurka.

The first pdd was the White Swan with Andrian Fadejev and Viktoria Tereskina. She was wearing an old fashioned tutu and is a little bit too tall for her Siegfried, so the couple didn’t work and the performance was soon forgotten. On the contrary the following pdd from Arlequinada was hailed with many cheers. Elena Sesina and Andrej Ivanov don’t match the physical build of the latest generation, but they know perfectly well the style and the virtuosity required by such a work and watching them was a great pleasure. The true star of the evening, Diana Vishneva, danced the bedroom pdd from Manon with Andrej Merkurev, whose Des Grieux wasn’t quite enchanting as his beloved. The second highlight of the gala was Leonid Sarafanov’s Corsaire, not yet at ease with the lifts but extraordinary in his solos, eclipsing his partner Sofia Gumerova.

The gala closed with three disappointments. Ratmansky’s Middle Duet bored, Darja Pavlenko’s Dying Swan was quite dull, the Don Quixote pdd couldn’t raise the enthousiasm with Olesya Novikova’s weak fouettés and Anton Korsakov’s grimaces before every jumps.

The following evening was even worse. The announced program was changed and most of the pdds were the same of the previous gala, so that the audience was rather thin. The Kingdom of the Shades became a nightmare: we had only two variations from the soloists (maybe the Kirov hasn’t enough replacements on his tours?), Danila Korsuntsev scaled down his manège and we had a power blackout towards the end, so that poor Darja Pavlenko didn’t receive the deserved tribute.

The White Swan pdd was an improvement, Natalja Sologub and Danila Korsuntsev being a better matched couple. The Ciaikovsky pdd was pure bliss with Diana Vishneva sparkling like a precious stone together with her partner Andrian Fadejev. Same results as the previous evening for the following four pieces, Arlequinada, Middle Duet, Dying Swan and Don Quixote, with many people leaving before the end.

Someone must have noticed the disappointment so that while the dancers were bowing on stage we got an extra pdd: again Corsaire with Sofia Gumerova and Leonid Sarafanov. But the evenig was definitely bewitched, as during the coda the music we heard was from Ciaikovsky pdd! Sarafanov stopped during his double tours à la seconde, waited for the right music and started again, very confident and charismatic, so that he was submerged by the audience’s enthousiasm.

Definitely the Kirov Ballet in Ravenna looked like a company owning a group of good soloists, one great star named Diana Vishneva and a star-to-be named Leonid Sarafanov.