The traditional Christmas Ballet Gala, dedicated to the memory of Ekaterina Maximova, was held sold out on the stage of the Kremlin Palace. The leading soloists of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres, as well as “La Scala”, Berlin State Ballet and Stanislavsky Musical Theatre performed in two parts of the concert. Tatiana Kuznetsova reports.

The gala in honor of Ekaterina Maximova was curated by the Honoured Artist of the USSR Vladimir Vasiliev, her partner in life and stage. Before the concert, they showed a short video of dancing Maximova from different periods of her life. And that was the best moment of the evening: well, now there are no others like her, even in technique terms, not to mention Maximova’s crushing charm. However, there is a trait in artists that does not depend on a natural gift and technical equipment. This, as they used to say in the ballet school, is “danceability”: stage organics and enjoyment of the very process of dancing. Eminent professionals from different theatres and countries performed the Christmas gala concert honestly: they diligently performed the movements and imitated the necessary emotions.

But only two of them really danced: the premieres of the Bolshoi, Ekaterina Krysanova and Vladislav Lantratov, incredibly funny staged a dive of Katharina and Petruchio from “The Taming of the Shrew”, composed for them by Jean-Christophe Maillot. The leading one was a partner who returned to the stage after a serious injury with undisguised joy. It is difficult to say how ready he was for the classical repertoire, but in trousers and a cape made of feathers, this Petruchio soared as an eagle, not missing an opportunity to stir Katarina with scatalogical jokes, slap her a savory kiss and comically dodge a slap in the face.

It was worse for those who replaced Maximova – the idea of ​​presenting other performers in her iconic roles is basically unproductive. In an excerpt from ballet “Fragments of a Biography”, staged by Vasiliev for himself and his wife, the ballet dancer of Stanislavsky Musical Theater Natalya Somova did not even try to assimilate Maximova’s variation – playing with a skirt, slyly important heels passages, capriciously graceful shoulder dance: mechanically passing this “introductory” part, she was waiting for the adagio – this ballet dancer understands a lot about raising her legs. Her partner Georgi Smilewski, who is a “noble lover” by role, re-emphasized Vasiliev’s middle-aged charmer’s monologue in the spirit of ballet “Spaniards”, depriving him of those intimate details with which this simple dance captivated the audience. And, of course, the flashes of Vasiliev’s frantic pirouettes are incomparable with Smilewski’s careful twists. The leading soloist of the Bolshoi Kristina Kretova, whose track record includes a lot of bright acting works, with unexpected dullness performed a delightful tarantella from Vasiliev’s “Anyuta” only once: when too far away, with the threat of losing balance, threw her legs in the upper hold in a “candle”.

But the original repertoire did not bring the performers to life either. The idol of Italy, Roberto Bolle, for the entire perpormance “Two” stood in the foreground at the fourth position in the light square one and a half by one and a half meters, turning the body and spreading his arms in por-de-bras, although Russell Maliphant, Sylvie Guillem’s favorite, who staged this choreography, was clearly planning something more significant than demonstrating the dancer’s flawless torso sculpting. Ivan Vasiliev, with great enthusiasm, comparable to the excitement of chopping wood, performed with Kristina Kretova a pas de deux (it looks like a wedding one) from his own ballet “Dracula” to the music by Andrei Timonin. It is difficult to call this dump of platitudes and cliches, especially blatant in the male variation and code, a choreography: the director, dressed in some unimaginable armor that covered one of his legs with large-mesh scales to the groin, simply stuck all the tricks that made his glory into it: and triple sodebasks, and large double pirouettes, and complicated revolts, and split steps, and tours in the air. Kristina Kretova also perked up, having the opportunity to show off fouetté and jumping on pointes.

The sport-pragmatic attitude to ballet as a combination of percussion tricks and approaches to them, which was a kind of figure skating with obligatory and acting elements, which distinguished the majority of artists, was also quite shared by the Kremlin audience, which applauded all the upper holds, especially numerous “chairs” (this is when the partner raises the partner sitting on the palm on an outstretched arm, ostentatiously protruding the other arm). Rhythmically, “to the music,” they clapped on releve (a kind of “string” on pointes) in Kitri’s variation, tried to slap in time and on the fouet, but Evgenia Obraztsova twisted them at such a fast pace that they clapped every other time. The concert was well received, even stormy for the “deaf” Kremlin. During the interval, everyone was photographed in the foyer by a gigantic stuffed animal in a pseudo-folk costume. After the concert, they almost burst into tears to the impromptu poetry of Vladimir Vasiliev – the Honoured Artist of the USSR sketched verses about the New Year during the interval and warmly praised the artists. Little children in gauze skirts shyly shoved flowers to the gala participants, affecting the hall. In a word, the audience received both a holiday that it was asked to take for Christmas, and the ballet that it was invited to consider a real art.

Source: Газета Коммерсантъ

Author:  Татьяна Кузнецова