© Natasha Razina Kirov reviews Kevin Ng reviews

On 25 April 2005 Makhar Vaziev celebrated his tenth anniversary as Artistic Director of the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet. During that week the Kirov Ballet, which will perform at Covent Garden again for a fortnight from 18 July, was performing at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. I met Vaziev for breakfast in his hotel in Cardiff and we discussed the present and future of the Kirov Ballet.

Since succeeding Oleg Vinogradov as Artistic Director in 1995, Vaziev has revitalised the company while building on the solid foundation which he inherited from his predecessor. Vaziev has an eye for spotting young talented dancers, and more importantly a skill for developing their careers and bringing their talents to fruition. During the Kirov's overseas tours, which have become more frequent in recent years, he has brought to international prominence a new generation of stars, including notably the ballerinas Uliana Lopatkina and Diana Vishneva and most recently the young male virtuoso Leonid Sarafanov.

During his directorship he has enriched the Kirov Ballet's repertory by acquiring ballets by George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Roland Petit, Kenneth MacMillan and John Neumeier. There were also creations by the Russian choreographers Alexei Ratmansky and Kirill Simonov. Another achievement of Vaziev lies in his sponsorship of historical reconstructions of the classics. In 1999 Sergei Vikharev, a former principal dancer, reconstructed Petipa's 1890 production of "The Sleeping Beauty" and followed this in 2002 with a reconstruction of Petipa's 1900 version of "La Bayadere".

Vaziev, born in Alagir, North Ossetia, graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy in 1981. He joined the Kirov Ballet in 1979, and became a principal dancer in 1989. His repertory included Siegfried, Prince Desire, Solor, and the Golden Slave in "Scheherazade". I first saw Vaziev dance during the Kirov's 1988 season in London, and I can still vividly remember his dazzling Ali in "Le Corsaire".

Kevin Ng:     Mr. Vaziev, what are the plans of the Kirov Ballet after the closure of the Mariinsky Theatre for renovation in the autumn of 2006?

Makhar Vaziev - The Theatre will be closed for at least two years. We have options of using another stage in St. Petersburg, which however is not of a similar size as the Mariinsky. But anyway we have no choice. It's really vital to keep the company going and moving forward. I really hope that we have another stage in St. Petersburg, and that we won't lose anything during the period of the closure. I am sure that we will find the right solution for the company.

I heard that Helsinki can provide a venue during the closure.

Yes, we are going to use the Alexandrovsky Theatre there too. Hopefully we will have enough venues to perform.

And there are several US tours planned already before the closure of the Mariinsky Theatre.

We will tour America this autumn, as you know. In 2006 we will also dance in a festival in the Orange County. We will tour New York maybe in 2007 or 2008.

Why can't you tour sometimes with less familiar ballets? For instance "Raymonda" and "La Sylphide" never seem to be performed on overseas tours.

It's a good question. "Raymonda" is a huge production with four acts which utilises so many dancers. It's also long. Sometimes the impresarios have a problem with the timing. But if there are ballets that we really want to bring on tours, we will try to convince them.

Will Sergei Vikharev's reconstructed versions of "The Sleeping Beauty" and "La Bayadere" still be danced as often? I noticed that it's Vladimir Ponomarev's 1941 version of "La Bayadere" which will be danced at Covent Garden in July, and Konstantin Sergeyev's 1952 version of "The Sleeping Beauty" that will be danced in the US tour this autumn.

Even at the time of the creation of Vikharev's versions, I already said that our theatre will have both versions for "The Sleeping Beauty" and "La Bayadere". There was never any question of the new versions replacing the old versions. Historical reconstruction is necessary for the future generations who have to know what we had before. If we don't know our heritage, how can we go onto the next step? I actually like both versions, which are necessary to show our theatre's history. By the way, when we tour Moscow at the end of May, we will bring Vikharev's version of "La Bayadere".

When the Kirov was touring New York in 2002, I read reports about a possible reconstruction of "Swan Lake" as well. Has this project now been put on hold?

I really have to think carefully what we can do about "Swan Lake". Maybe in the future. But right now we have Konstantin Sergeyev's 1950 version which we will actually show in Covent Garden in July as the opening production.

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Last year's new Balanchine programme to celebrate Balanchine's centennial was very successful and won the Golden Sofit award. Two of the ballets - "Ballet Imperial" and "La Valse" - will of course be shown in London. In future will there be more Balanchine ballets added to the repertory?

Balanchine was a genius, and I admire him tremendously. I am sure that Balanchine is very necessary for any classical company. We now have quite a big Balanchine repertory - "The Prodigal Son", "Apollo", "Theme and Variations", "Jewels", "The Four Temperaments", "Serenade" etc. And no, last year's three new Balanchine ballets won't be the last.

The Forsythe programme is another highlight of the London tour. Are Forsythe's ballets well received by the St. Petersburg public?

Forsythe is actually becoming more and more popular in our city. Of course in the beginning it was quite hard for his works, when new, to please our audience, who is quite hard to please because they like the more classical ballets due to the tradition of our theatre. But step by step their interest has been increasing, and his works have become more acceptable to them. In fact the Forsythe programme was extremely popular in last year's White Nights Festival. Actually if you look at our schedule, you will see that we normally perform Forsythe's ballets almost every month. I have scheduled this because I believe that his ballets are very necessary for our company. Forsythe is one of the geniuses working today. His choreography gives rise to more and more freedom on stage, as well as enabling dancers to understand how they can reach their inner soul. It's very important for dancers to feel stronger by dancing his choreography which can be like an internal challenge.

David Dawson created "Reverence" for the Mariinsky Festival this year.

I found him, and he accepted my invitation. He's a very talented young man. In the Festival it wasn't easy because there wasn't sufficient time for his creation. But anyway his new ballet was quite interesting, and I am very happy. I am going to bring this new ballet to Mosocw in May, and I also plan to show his ballet on other overseas tours in future.

What about your own house choreographer Alexei Miroshnichenko?

He is young and quite smart. He is actually doing very well. We are planning on a new ballet to be created by him for the company maybe next year.

Svetlana Zakharova left the Kirov two years ago. It must have been a big loss for the company.

Zakharova is a wonderful ballerina; there's no doubt about that. She is a very very talented ballerina and one of the most popular today. But it is never my strategy to plan the Kirov Ballet around only one ballerina such that her departure would destroy the company It's a pity that she left; it's her decision. I don't really know what she has gained. But life is life. I invited her to dance in the closing gala of the Mariinsky Festival in early April. She danced the Don Quixote pas de deux very well. I also have plans to invite her again, and I'm sure that she will come back to St. Petersburg.

Makhar Vaziev
© Natasha Razina

We have a lot of young talented women like Viktoria Tereshkina, Alina Somova, Olesia Novikova, Olga Yesina, and Elena Vostrotina.

By the way, we will have five performances of "Swan Lake" in London. The first night is of course Lopatkina's. But for the other performances I am planning to cast Tereshkina, Somova, Vostrotina, and also a young talented 18-year-old new dancer called Yulia Bolshakova. These dancers are our future.

However there now seems to be a lack of senior ballerinas in the Kirov like Zhanna Ayupova.

Zhanna is pregnant at the moment, which is very good news for her. I like young dancers, but at the same time I don't want to say that I would be very satisfied with only the young generation. Of course we also need to have accomplished ballerinas who are very experienced, otherwise it would be very difficult for the new generation. Sometimes they need to watch ballerinas like Zhanna Ayupova, so that they can learn from her. It's our tradition, which they have to know.

What about young male dancers? I admire very much Vladimir Shklyarov in "La Sylphide" at the Mariinsky Theatre in mid-April.

Yes, indeed, Shklyarov in the young generation, in addition to Leonid Sarafanov whom you know already. But don't forget Anton Korsakov, who is a wonderful classical dancer, and Andrian Fadeyev.

Evgenia Obraztsova and Vladimir Shklyarov in La Sylphide
Photograph by Natasha Razina ©

The Kirov still has incomparable character dancers like Islom Baimuradov, Galina Rakhmanova, Nikolai Zubkovsky etc.

You also saw Andrei Merkuriev last night as Espada. He is one of the best Espadas - so theatrical in his characterisation. It's amazing and I am really happy to see him.

Do you think that your legendary corps de ballet is still as good as in the past?

The corps de ballet is really the most important in our theatre. They are improving all the time. We actually work a lot with our corps de ballet, which is important for our repertory.

Do you think that the Bolshoi is now a stronger competitor to the Kirov with Alexei Ratmansky as their director?

They had problems in the past just like other companies. I am sure that they just need time. It is my sincere wish that they get better and better. It's important.

As you are celebrating this week your tenth anniversary as director, what do you consider as your major achievements in the last decade?

I cannot really say. Everything that I've achieved is already in the past. And I am always thinking about what to do in the future and how to achieve it.

So what do you plan to achieve in the next ten years then?

I am thinking more about the future of the Kirov Ballet. Of course there is a lot which I want to achieve in the future. I am always thinking of keeping a balance. We are a classical company historically. Almost all the greatest classics were created in St. Petersburg. This is our identity and we have to keep that. We have to uphold our tradition and our schooling. But at the same time we also have to do new creations, and so we have to invite new choreographers.

We also need to find new dancers and teachers. Now this is an important point. We always tend to talk about artists, but seldom about teachers. For me, coaching is a more important issue. I am thinking more about teachers than dancers. I am always searching for new teachers and then provide them with a career for their own future. It's really very important in such a huge company like ours. We have 45 soloists. We need great teachers like Gennady Selyutsky, Ninel Kurgapkina, Olga Moiseyeva. They are really wonderful. I also have Elena Evteyeva, Tatiana Terekhova, Olga Chenchikova, Lubyov Kunakova, Yuri Fateyev etc. Of course I adore Nina Ukhova who coaches the corps de ballet. With the presence of great teachers, we have a much higher chance to achieve good results, otherwise there would be no chance at all even with talented dancers if they don't have great teachers to coach them.