Ballet Insider
Kremlin Gala 2015
Review of the Ballet Insider editor-in-chief of the gala "Ballet Stars of the XXI century", which took place on September 26 in the Kremlin.
Kremlin Gala is held on the stage of the State Kremlin Palace for the sixth time. The festival program 2015 was very special: this time its primary goal was not the pursuit of boresome “Don Quixotes” and show-off pas-de-deux – the programme appealed to unbanal fragments of the world ballet masterpieces. The educational mission perfectly fits the scale of the festival that has become not only key ballet, but also a fashionable event.
The honour to open the gala was given to the Italian star and favorite of the Russian public (and the whole world as well), the premiere of La Scala Roberto Bolle, who appeared on stage as the lost boy from “L’Arlesienne” by Roland Petit (fairly rare performance for our spectators). However, the fragment seemed torn out from the plot outline of the performance, which is why the unexpected intrigue was created – it was absolutely not clear, whether the Bolle’s hero rejected love of a young beauty (played by Mizuki Ueno, prima of the Tokyo Ballet) or simply lost interest in her. It is worth noting that this ambiguity, coupled with a sincere performance, nothing but gives the viewer a desire to see the whole ballet, and the incredible foot arсh of the Japanese ballerina riveted gaze to her every step.
Tragic theme was picked up and enhanced by the troupe of the Boris Eifman Theatre, performing an excerpt from the ballet “Requiem”. Both Russian choreographers – Boris Eifman and Alla Sigalova – presented at the gala contemporary compositions, dedicated to death and war respectively. And if Boris Eifman, despite the numbers of the dancers involved, the complexity of the dance pattern and the abundance of different choreographic ligaments clearly reflected the idea of loss and death, claimed by the prohetic music of Mozart, the “Ballad” by Alla Sigalova failed the task. Three pairs, moving simultaneously, but making completely different dancing duets, constantly forced eyes to run from one to the other, making the meaning of the work elusive. Alla Sigalova, albeit not quite as well as Eifman, has the force that brings viewer strong emotions, but in this case the dance could avoid falling apart and fading on the brilliant background of the Rachmaninov’s music. It must have been the only mistake of the gala organizers – to put these two numbers in one compartment.
Above all this innovation Ulyana Lopatkina swam as the white swan, as always regal and aloof, by her only presence raising the prestige of the gala to an unattainable height.
The first part of the show has surprised the guests with an unexpected discovery: a duet from the ballet “Scheherazade” of the leading soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre Maria Vinogradova and the premiere of the Mikhailovsky Theatre Ivan Vasiliev. Vinogradova’s catchy beauty helped her create an authentic image of a proud and cold Scheherazade. It was even more nice to see how Ivan Vasiliev gallantly gave primacy to his beautiful partner, attracting attention to himself only on his crown jumps, frantic chenet and frenzied jete anturnan.
The favorite of the audience, Ivan Vasiliev appeared on gala also as a choreographer with the number “Underwood” staged on the pulsating music by Max Richter. Vasilie performed his number himself in a duet with the soloist of the Bolshoi theatre Denis Savin. In unison, then in counter-tempo the performers danced quite interesting choreography with the new plastic solutions and sharp movements simulating the printing on the famous typewriter “Underwood”. The choreographer has left food for thought – everyone can find his own meaning in this piece of choreography.
The premier of the Berlin State Opera Michael Kaniskin and the soloists Thoraya Bruno and Michael Bantshafa opened a second compartment with a humorous number “The sofa”, already familiar to the audience from the Diana Vishneva Moscow festival “Context”. Despite the much-talked law by Elena Mizulina (and there were children in the hall!), the lightness and playful performance smoothed politically incorrect connotations, making number seem nothing more than a naughty joke and the organic continuation of the entr’acte, creating a smooth transition to a more serious choreography. We are confident that the State Duma deputies were laughing together with our editors.
The performance of the white classics was entrusted to the duet from the Bolshoi Theatre: the leading soloist Olga Smirnova and the premier Semen Chudin. Olga has not been seen on stage for a while due to injury, and Moscow missed her distantly discrete, noble manner of dance. Her Nikia technically was executed perfectly and has clearly become more mature and free, which allows us to expect that soon her career enters a new, more sophisticated period, and new interpretations of the performances will arrive.
Roberto Bolle showed the last word in the art of ballet in the choreographic miniature by Massimiliano Volpini “The Prototype.” Apparently, the choreographer, having caught one of the best dancers of the century, decided to make him a perfect ballet model for the future generations. The number starts with the usual ballet exercise, where nearly naked Bolle demonstrates almost perfect performance of various steps, the names of which are projected on the screen behind. We say “almost perfect”, because sometimes the choreographer deliberately forced the premier to make mistakes, so the screen blazed scarlet, and the unforgiving computer, which controlled the quality of the dance gave the status “Failed!” It is terrible to imagine what this indifferent machine could have done with any another dancer – unable to withstand a furious pace of this virtual class and maintain the stunning precision of movements. After the “test” Bolle matching the rhythm of the music controls the digital charts (his movements are synchronized with 3D-graphics), giving impetus to all that was happening on the screen. Nevertheless the idea of this number does not shock with its originality and novelty, as a whole this miniature is a very interesting finding, the first sign of the future, in which the success of the ballet will depend on special effects as much, as the box office of a Hollywood blockbuster. It seems it is quite the right time to prepare for publication the project “Ballet + IT”.
Final is the most delicious and the most intriguing part of the Kremlin Gala. We were concerned that the hypnotic “Bolero” by Bejart, which was shown in Moscow for the first time in many years, will not become the headliner because of the replacement of the main character (initially it has been declared that a world star Polina Semionova would dance the leading role). Semionova is ideal for this part: with her Russian school, the ability to calculate every movement to the millimeter, and the chic of the European style, she could make her “Bolero” unforgettable, but alas … She was replaced with the soloist of the Bejart Ballet – Julien Favreau.
Remembering performance of Plisetskaya, Vishneva, non-ballet Russian spectators, who also do not know the name of Julien Favreau, were not expecting much. And the masculine “Bolero” in Russia is extremely unusual. Although remembering the dance of the great Don Jorge, who paralyzed the audience with his hypnotic plastics, personally I expected that there will be something exciting ……
Favreau, who worked with the choreographer himself and was let into to the sacrament of this ballet, has marveled the ballet fans and exceeded the expectations of the tempted. With his snake movements and barely-noticeable nuances of the dance pattern he did not just worthily dance the legendary ballet, but turned it into a magic act. The Frenchman, with his lean figure and glass-blue eyes, danced with such concentration and dedication that when the dance ended and he fell on the dais, he did not have to play the exhaustion. “Bolero”, performed with such passion, at the last gasp, has become almost a self-sacrifice. Julien Favreau has not only managed to hypnotize the audience, but surprisingly, perhaps to even himself, he has outperformed the two world stars, becoming the main hero of the evening.
By the way of summing up, I can say that the Kremlin Gala remains a trendsetter and offers a bright opening of the ballet season in Moscow. Perhaps this festival alone, enjoying broad administrative support – from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Administration of the President – can accustom non-balletomane (but influential) Russian spectators to qualitative contemporary choreography. After all, who has the strength to bring Lopatkina, Vasilyev and the whole troupe of the Bejart ballet for the sake of sake single performance, cream of the cream, so to speak? And notwithstanding whom the organizers would invite for the next year, I assure you, it is obligatory to come to the Kremlin Gala, at least to criticize it. Just do not forget to buy tickets beforehand – this year in the hall of the Kremlin Palace there was not a single free seat out of five thousand.
Author: Alisa Aslanova
Photographer: Octavia Kolt
Source: balletinsider.com