The Kirov Delves into Balanchine

"Serenade," "Rubies," "Ballet Imperial"
Kirov Ballet
City Center
New York, NY
April 19, 2008 (evening)

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2008 Susan Reiter

It was exhilarating, and profoundly moving, to see the Kirov take on this ambitious and demanding program of Balanchine masterworks. After the oddly restrained response to the musical impetus that marked some of their earlier programs, this final (of six) programs let them truly connect to the music and dance with newfound openness and spontaneity. The layers of history and significance embedded in this program were fascinating. Here were works made by the choreographer who followed and inherited the legacies of Petipa and Fokine. who absorbed all the tradition and majesty of the Russian Imperial ballet, and then charted a brave new course that brilliantly transformed and translated everything from that noble past, to point the way to ballet's future. And here was the company that embodies, and keeps alive in today's terms, that past, finding its own distinctive way into a representative sampling of what he created.

This was the third of the program's four performances, and casting changes -- and surprises -- came thick and fast. Forget program inserts; if one was lucky, there was an announcement just before a ballet began. In the case of this evening's "Ballet Imperial," no notice was given of the fact that the second soloist, listed as Olesia Novikova, would instead be Nadezhda Gonchar - who had not even been scheduled to perform the role. But then, Novikova had become the weekend's go-to girl for "Rubies." The original plan had called for four different women to perform that ballet's lead role, but she ended up performing it at all four performances -- each time with a different partner, which must be some sort of record.

"Serenade" was the one work performed with its scheduled cast, and while at times the ensemble tended to be overly meticulous, they made their own strong case for the ever-blossoming and unfolding patterns through which Balanchine gets to the heart of Tchaikovsky. Perhaps it was due to the closer quarters -- compared to seeing this ballet at the New York State Theater -- but details of the patterning, delicate grace notes that sometimes don't register amid the rich swirl of activity, made an impact on this occasion.

The lighting was oddly bright when the curtain rose, lessening the hushed beauty of those meditative women in their diagonal, and the concluding moments were also robbed of a certain degree of mystery due to the lighting. But once the ballet got going, the dancers were touchingly in the moment and much of the time succeeded in letting Tchaikovsky pour through them. One missed the sense of sisterhood that can pervade the work, the sense that devotion to a higher calling has bonded these women together.

Leading the Waltz, Ekaterina Kondaurova had none of the ensemble's sometimes overly careful placement. She truly let it fly, seeming to ride on the wind in her diagonal passages slicing through the opening movement. Supple and yet strong, with long, elegant line, she danced with both reverence and joy, and cut a truly contemporary figure with her bold attack. Ekaterina Osmolkina, who led the Tema Russe (identified in the program simply as "Russian"), is a more petite dancer with an expressive heart-shaped face who danced with touching honesty and directness. She communicated the emotional power of the music's surges and sighs through the clarity of her movement, with a welcome lack of mannerism of embellishment.

Daria Vasnetsova, a member of the corps de ballet whom I was seeing for the first time in a solo role, is a tall, striking brunette beauty, but as the Dark Angel, she too often let her dancing announce itself rather than arise from the music. There was something stately and deliberate about her performance, and the lovely moment early in the ballet when she sinks to the ground lacked the sighing inevitability with which Kondaurova had performed it the previous evening. Danila Korsuntsev was Kondaurova's modestly ardent partner in the Waltz, and Alexander Sergeev was a reticent, placid figure in the Elegie, rather than one embracing his fate.

Novikova brought a leggy flexibility and demure amiability to "Rubies." Her attack was invigorating, but she was sweet where one wished for a touch of saucy impertinence. The ever-eager and delightful Leonid Sarafanov tore into the male lead with robust abandon. He was playful and daring, and also wonderfully attuned to his partner during the pas de deux. What was missing was the hint of a prizefighter's power and arrogance. Novikova, on the other hand, tended to play to the audience, as though she had been instructed to do so, rather than responding to him. This diminished the spontaneity and sensuality of the pas de deux. Gonchar brought her commanding power and a certain toughness to the second ballerina role. Where Kondaurova had made this woman a scintillating vamp, Gonchar delivered a no-nonsense interpretation, and was also somewhat reticent. One wanted her to seize the moment more assertively.

This performance of "Ballet Imperial" delivered star power. We had been deprived of the chance to see Diana Vishneva, who had been listed for the first performance, take on the ballerina role due to injury. But Uliana Lopatkina appeared as scheduled, with a more welcome and unexpected partner -- Igor Zelensky, whose only other appearance during the three weeks had been as the Golden Slave in "Scheherezade." He brought a true touch of the poet to his role, and was every inch the elegant cavalier as well as the soulful seeker. Lopatkina's entrance solo was slightly diminished by stiffness, but as the ballet went on, her long limbs and fluid elegance served the role well, and she relaxed into it. One wished for that extra degree of verve that can make this role so thrilling, but she was not quite ready to seize it that persuasively.

The grandeur and sweep of this expansive homage to the imperial tradition -- its courtly decorum and hierarchical deployment of personnel -- make it both a look back at the ballet world in which the young Balanchine was formed, as well as a sophisticated abstraction of those earlier ballets. The hero discovers, dances with and loses his ideal in what amounts to a vision scene in the melancholy second movement. But then in the finale, all complications have vanished, and everyone dances with brio. The Kirov corps was touchingly engaged throughout all the intersecting lines and exposed circles through which Balanchine sends them. Their inherent nobility of bearing and harmonious placement served the ballet beautifully. The men seized their brief moment of space-devouring bravura with such finesse and flair that they earned a brief ovation in the middle of the third movement.

Throughout the evening, the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater, under the baton of Mkhail Agrest, played with propulsive verve and refined texture. The seemingly tireless Lyudmila Sveshnikova was the capable pianist for both "Rubies" and "Ballet Imperial," as she was at all four performances.

Photo: Diana Vishneva and Igor Zelensky in "Ballet Imperial"