RB 'Bayadere' reviews Bolle in reviews Pavlenko in reviews Yanowsky in reviews recent RB reviews more Diandri reviews

I was fascinated by Daria Pavlenko, I think I saw Sofia Gumerova do Nikiya with the Kirov earlier this season, but Pavlenko is gorgeous though I found her excessive skinniness a bit frightening. It just isn't healthy to be that thin. Anyway I was most impressed by her beautiful mime which really illuminated the role & many of the scenes. Of course her dancing was also beautiful & I particularly loved her use of her hands & arms, there was so much detail to look at & she is extremely expressive. I think at the start of Act 1 she was trying too hard to make an impression on the audience as in one of the high lifts over Roberto Bolle's head she almost overbalanced, but it was really well disguised & after that there weren't any forced effects.

Again the confrontation in Act 1, scene 2 between Gamzatti & Nikiya was very powerful. You just knew these two were going to slug it out ot the bitter end over Solor. Naturally as you'd expect from a Kirov ballerina her shades scenes were excellent & very romantic, but those damn hard Russian point shoes are very noisy. We had 3 beautiful shades variations from Galeazzi, Salerno & McMeekan followed by a little plink, plink, plonk variation from Pavlenko. Her Act 3 was also very strong, but I wish that Nikiya has more stage time in it, you wait for 10 minutes & then the last section seems over & done very quickly with a speedy apotheosis.

For those that already admire Zenaida Yanowsky I'll just say that she was the equal if not more than her rival. She is a beautiful dancer & just has that ability to make the utmost of every role I can't think of anything she didn't do perfectly & those strongly coloured costumes suit her wonderfully. She is gorgeous & deserves more opportunities across the rep.

Roberto Bolle has grown a little goatee as Solor & I thought it looked effective in making him seem less of a boy & more of a warrior. There's no doubting he can be a lovely dancer, but I keep wondering when he will be a truly effective partner as his skills sometimes let him down & his timing can be a bit off. He seems to lack Acosta's ability to whip audiences into a frenzy & leave them wanting more.

The corps was good again last night, bar 1 mistimed leg; yes, you can see some of the taller shades preparing their arms before the ramp, but it depends where you sit.

Another brilliant evening. For anyone doubting whether the RB is still a world class company I suggest they get tickets to Bayadere to see for themselves.