Bolshoi 'Don Quixote' reviews Ananiashvili in reviews Uvarov in reviews recent Bolshoi reviews more Baletoman reviews

Production: Marius Petipa, Alexander Gorsky, including dances of Goleizovsky, Zakharov, Simachyov

Revival and new choreographic version: Alexey Fadeechev

Desighner: Prof. Sergey Barkhin

Costumes: after the sketches by Vasiliy Diachkov (1906)

By giving the names of some dancers of this performance I would like to indicate those who, to my mind, were particularly good.

The star of the evening was, of course, Nina Ananiashvili. Beautiful, shining, inflammatory, filling the auditorium with her positive energy! “She lives onstage” ­ it is about her! All technical stuff was done with such an ease and assurance! Her jumps are still high and light, the balance on pointes is great! Her very good technique must allow her to be that great Kitri as she is: brisk in dancing, lively and natural in acting, attentive and responsive as a partner.

Her partner, Andrey Uvarov, is a very tall blond dancer with very long legs. What I liked the most was his great partnering, reliable (for example, when Nina took a run at one corner of the stage, ran diagonally to Andrey at the other corner, jumped to his hands, or when he supported Nina with one stretched hand holding her above his head for several seconds) and emotional (so natural and coordinated their reactions were!). I would not say that he has outstanding technique, besides, he seemed to be not very plastic, to my mind (sometimes he seemed non-bending). But there is something in this dancer! How superb, both technically and emotionally, he was in pas de deux in Act 3! The auditorium went crazy from his dancing! There were so many bravos that even when Nina Ananiashvili started her famous fouette we continued applauding Andrey Uvarov. This pas de deux was really something outstanding! I think it was one of the best pas de deux I have ever seen! Both dancers were very inspired and successful in everything! At the end of the pas de deux there was a storm of applauds and judging by the faces of the dancers they themselves were very content.

Maria Alexandrova, a young star of the Bolshoi, and a favourite of the Moscovites, was impressive as the Street dancer. Very well-built and strong she seemes to have very good technique and the drive and expressiveness that distinquishes the Bolshoi theatre from the others.

The dancing of Kitri’s girlfriends were technically very clean and emotionally very admirable. Another jewel was the Cupid danced by Kaptsova. Surrounded by girls from the Moscow Academy and dressed in a white light short tunic, she danced so lightly and tenderly that totally corresponded the style of small slim girls. We could not help applauding for such a nice piece of classical ballet. The high level of dancers was demonstrated once again by beautiful Yekaterina Shipulina, Lady of Dryads, who danced wonderfully and whose jumps were so high and beautiful that she rivaled Nina Ananiashvili at some moments, to my mind.

I can’t avoid saying about the character roles wonderfully performed by the artists of Bolshoi. I mean funny idealist Don Quixote, clumsy Sancho Pansa and grotesque Gamach (fantastically played by plastic Andrey Melanin).

Generally speaking, it seems that Don Quixote suits very well the expressive style of the Bolshoi. It was particularly noticeable in character dances: gypsy dance, bolero, Spanish dance, or the dance of Toreador. The latter impressed me with his passion that outweighed for me his not brilliant technique.

What impressed me immensely (but what does not relate much to the ballet and dancing itself ) was a real horse and a donkey on the stage! The auditorium reacted immediately by the ovation (poor animals! . There was a funny moment when the horse did not want to stand still and started moving back and sideways so that Don Quixote (supported by applauds of the public) had to dismount.

The only disappointment was the croaking of the orchestra which is a shame for such a theatre.

But as a whole, this performance was a great success. There were 10 minutes of curtain calls and piles of flowers presented to Nina Ananiashvili by her admirers and brought by the staff on the stage. Following the tradition of the theatre somebody threw flowers from the first row, which reminded me old ballet TV records. There were some bravos to the orchestra, though I don’t think they deserved them.