The Observer
25.08.19 35Critics
Dance
Critics
The dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet
have packed up their London base
and gone home to Moscow, leaving
behind them a lingering perfume
of ballet performed at the highest
level. Other companies worry about
relevance, about appealing to a
broad audience, about making work
that speaks to the modern age. Then
there’s the Bolshoi.
It has some contemporary work
in its repertory but mainly it just
exists in a place called Balletworld,
where costumes are garish, stories
are big, and where the dancing is of
such pure, bravura brilliance that it
makes the heart sing.
Don Quixote, fi rst choreographed
by Marius Petipa in 1869 and
adapted by Alexander Gorsky in
190 2 , is a throwback to the time
when spectacle was all. It’s got a
completely silly plot where the
wanderings of Cervantes’s deluded
knight and his mate Sancho Panza
are wound into the slim story of
the vivacious Kitri and her poor
barber lover, Basilio , trying to get
married against her innkeeper
father ’s wishes. The action grinds
to a halt repeatedly so people can
in themselves, never mind the
impassioned dancing of Kristina
Karasyova and Anna Balukova
bringing them to vivid life.
All the dancers throw themselves
into their roles with belief and care,
making the steps sing. There is
none of the easy naturalism that
characterises the Royal Ballet’s
version. Solos are always greeted
by a stylised wafting of fans and
waving of arms that pushes the
attention centre stage. But the
Bolshoi has so absorbed this crowd-
pleaser into its collective body that
the vitality springs from the way
they perform; it’s not that they act so
much as embody a style that in turn
creates broad brushes of character.
On the opening night of the
run, Margarita Shra iner , still a fi rst
soloist, seemed at fi rst nervous in
the demanding role of Kitri. She
performed all the steps perfectly- the light jumps, the rapid turns
- but appeared tense and anxious.
Yet as the evening progressed, you
could see her confi dence rise; by
the third act, where Kitri is just
showing off, Shra iner was throwing
off pirouettes so fast that her body
seemed to blur. She makes beautiful
arcs with her upper body too,
shaping each jump. In the pastel-
hued vision scene, she is gracious
and serene (as was the striking
Antonina Chapkina , as a chilly but
beautiful Queen of the Dryads .)
Shrainer was much assisted by her
Basilio, Igor Tsvirko , full of charm
and panache. He’s a slim, light
dancer who positively fl ies, but he’s
also incredibly strong, a safe and
courteous partner. The moments
where he lifts his love high in the
air on one hand were, quite literally,
show-stopping, and their third act
pas de deux was so stupendously
exciting that it was impossible not to
be swept away. Balletland is a very
genial place to live sometimes.
The action grinds
to a halt repeatedly
so people can
show off their
dancing skills
Welcome to Balletland
show off their dancing skills, both
in grand classical variations and in
character dances that summon the
atmosphere of Spain through the
fi lter of Petipa’s classical instincts.
Alexei Fadeyechev ’s production,
fi rst seen in 2016 , makes the tale set
to a cheery score by Minkus come
up as fresh as new paint. It has the
virtue of bright set designs from
Valery Leventhal, and particularly
the costume design s by Elena
Zaitseva, that take us from a market
square via a Gypsy encampment
and a bonkers vision scene to the
court of a noble 17th-century Duke,
with scant regard for period detail
but an effective eye for colour and
fl ounce. The combination of subtle
mauve and deep red lining in the
costume of the sultry fl amenco
dancer Mercedes , and the staggering
greens, reds and yellows in the
Gypsy girl’s skirts are breathtakingThe Bolshoi’s London
residency concludes
with the sheer bravura
brilliance of their old-
school, fan-waving
Don Quixote
Don Quixote
Royal Opera House,
London WC 2
Sarah
Crompton‘It’s impossible not to be swept away’: Don Quixote at the Royal Opera House. Photograph by Elliott Franks
‘Full of charm’: Igor Tsvirko (Basilio)
and Margarita Shrainer (Kitri).N ATA L I A V O R O N O VA