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To design his production, Kobborg invited Peter Farmer (so beloved of the Royal Ballet companies) and though it looks pleasant enough, I believe he fudges key elements in the tale, especially so in its first act. The tartans – so vivid in the London/Danish staging – are here indistinct: dusky browns and reds, which fog over that key dramatic moment when Effy changes her tartan to the colours of James’ clan. The window, through which the Sylphide makes her second appearance and which, in all other productions I have seen, usually faces down-stage, is here placed to the side and the Sylphide’s sudden, magical entrance is lost to half the theatre. This placement also, I believe, affects the staging’s dynamic and the fact that the Sylphide must enter across the vast stage, rather than towards the audience, somehow seems at odds with the forward-thrusting sense I associate with much of Danish dancing. So too in The Reel, which had great width, but little depth, presumably to allow for the length of the stage. (Even on the New Stage the production looked swamped and I suspect it would be swamped even more if transferred to the Bolshoi’s Old Stage after renovation)
 

Of the dancing itself, it is clear that the Bolshoi’s exposure to the Danish school has been a very good thing. That said - it is also clear that it will take a long time for the company to lose its distinct Bolshoi style. The footwork is as bright and effervescent as it ought to be, but there is too much energy in the upper body, and those who try to correct this often over-compensate by hunching up their shoulders.

In mime, there is a distinct difference between the Danish and Bolshoi schools – that of character and declamation. As Arlene Croce once wrote of Danish mime artists: “it isn’t what the characters are “saying” that tells the story – it’s the characters themselves.” This distinction is most obvious here in the portrayal of Madge, where Kobborg has given his dancers free reign with their interpretations. I saw two Madges – Irina Zibrova on the first night proper and Gennady Yanin at the public rehearsal (sadly I had to leave Moscow before Kobborg’s own debut in the role) – and though both offered “characterful” performances they did not offer that great dramatic kaleidoscope which Sorella Englund had presented in her London performances. Zibrova was a fallen women, a wronged beauty who glittered and ensnared – and suggested that moment at the end when she briefly lifted up her skirts to show the shimmer of a Sylph’s dress; Yanin was a hag, a grotesque whose of hands and wrists spoke with as much intelligibility as his wizened face (very much as he had with Lankedem in Le Corsaire).
 

Where I think Kobborg has been at his most perceptive is in his selection of leading dancers, many of whom have not danced the ballet before. By far the most astonishing debut was that of Viacheslav Lopatin as the first-night James: a performance which must surely catapult him into the front ranks of the company – energetic, stylish solos and clarity of dramatic manner. Where his inexperience showed was in those moments in which he must do very little; where an established star would walk with a certain ardency, Lopatin seemed unsure of his stage personality, but no doubt this will grow over time. His Sylphide, Natalia Osipova, has no problems in this area and her debut in this role was mesmerizing. Osipova lives her character on stage and there is never a moment when you are not aware of her dramatic truth. She enlightens the tiniest of moments to give them dramatic credence – I had never before seen the simplicity and the delight with which the Sylph encourages James to release a trapped butterfly from his palms – and even when she “lets go” of herself in the Sylpide’s death scene, Osipova brings to it such a moving interpretation (first the loss of her wings, then of her sight, then of the remainder of her senses) that it becomes infinitely touching. In the air she is lightness itself, willowy and soft – never the loaded bullet that we expect from her Kitri – and she is one of the most beautiful jumpers I have ever seen. A remarkable performance.