Mariinsky Ballet in La Bayadere Photo Natasha Razina |
Cal Performances
presents
Mariinsky Ballet
and Orchestra
La Bayadère
Zellerbach Hall,
Berkeley
October 30th,
2019
La Bayadère isn’t a ballet you go to for the story,
at least I don’t. Originally choreographed by Marius Petipa in 1877, with
additional material added mid-20th century, the full-length work is
plagued with some tough narratives, especially viewed through a modern lens. On
the surface, the ballet follows the complicated triangle of Nikia, Solor and
Gamzatti (and a huge cast of characters surrounding them), with all of its
passion, entitlement, jealousy and revenge. But look deeper. It’s also
impossible to ignore La Bayadère’s gender
dynamics, socio-economics and cultural appropriation. Some versions, like the
Mariinsky Ballet’s, which just began its Cal Performances’ engagement on
Wednesday night, even cross into some challenging terrain with animal props (references
that aren’t necessary for communicating the story and should have been
re-thought long before now).
I go to La Bayadère to see the dancers - to
witness their incredible technique and artistry. And the entire Mariinsky
Ballet was phenomenal. In the span of three hours, so many instances of physical
wonder unfurled. As Magedaveya, Maxim Izmestiev’s double attitude jumps were
out of this world. Over and over again, he leaped extraordinarily high, nearly
making contact each time with the back of his head. David Zaleyez’s Dance of
the Golden Idol similarly defied gravity with its bravura and ballon. And it
was no surprise that each of the three principals shone throughout. Ekaterina
Kondaurova’s (Nikia) series of solo arabesque developpés en pointe was
completely amazing. And Act II’s pas de deux between Gamzatti (Yekaterina
Chebykina) and Solor (Andrei Yermakov) proved layered and nuanced. As they
began their choreography, it seemed like they were struggling to connect, to
find their timing as a pair. Though as I considered the narrative, it stood out
that perhaps this was purposeful - they were never meant to click as a couple.
As wonderful as
all of these performances were, La
Bayadère belongs to the women of the corps de ballet. From their first
appearance in Act I with a group dance delightfully focused on the parallel
positions of the body to the extreme technical prowess in the next scene’s scarf
variation. From the sheer volume of different Act II divertissements to the
iconic Kingdom of the Shades scene, it was these women who stole the show.
Precision and specificity was paramount in every moment: unison arabesque
hopping turns, an abundance of identical front attitude positions, perfectly timed
pirouettes from fifth, entre chat quatres in complete synchronicity and of
course the transcendent sequence of arabesques and tendus from upstage to down
front in Act III.
La Bayadère is a longer ballet, though the action
moved along quite swiftly, including in the beginning moments, which have a lot
of gesture and pantomime. Often such sections can tend to drag a bit, but not
here. While I did love all the corps’ dances and enchaînements at the celebration
of Gamzatti and Solor’s wedding, this middle Act could be trimmed significantly
without much, or any, effect on the story. The number of internal applause
breaks (those that happen during the scenes as opposed to at the end of an Act
or the end of the entire ballet) also can present challenges - there are a lot
of them in La Bayadère and each one
is fairly lengthy. These internal bows are extremely well deserved, no
question. Though, an unintended side effect can be taking the audience out of
the story and breaking the flow of the evening. But then again, with such a
story, maybe being taken out of it periodically is not a bad thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment