Dance
The Kirov Ballet (London Coliseum)
Balanchine comes home
Deirdre McMahon
The opening of Tchaikovsky's Theme and Variations, the final movement of his Third Suite, is formal and elegant. When I walked down the stately Theatre Street in Leningrad, it seemed like a perfect evoca- tion of the music. Theatre Street is also the home of the Kirov's legendary ballet school which for over a hundred years has produced generations of the world's finest dancers and choreographers. George Balanchine, the great Russian-American choreographer, was a distinguished alum- nus of this school and in a series of dazzling works — Ballet Imperial, Theme and Variations, Allegro Brillante and Di- amonds — he paid homage to his St Petersburg background and to the compos- er who was so much a part of it — Tchai kovsky.
Balanchine never forgot his Russian roots but his compatriots did not recipro- cate. For decades his work was condemned in the Soviet Union as formalist and decadent but now, seven years after Balan- chine's death, his old company is at last performing his ballets. When the curtain rises on the Kirov's production of Theme and Variations, we glimpse through a gauze curtain a backdrop which portrays the blue and gold Kirov Theatre. Balan- chine has come home, and not a moment too soon for the Kirov.
The Kirov is a great company caught in a time warp. Its classicism is still firmly rooted in the 19th-century masterworks like Swan Lake, Giselle and The Sleeping Beauty. Soviet cultural politics have un- doubtedly contributed to this ossification but without an infusion of new, challenging choreography the Kirov style has looked increasingly like a museum exhibit, cher- ishable but quaint. The two Balanchine works which the Kirov has staged, Scotch Symphony and Theme and Variations, are performed by the younger dancers of the company and the way that they respond to Balanchine's choreography is a thrilling experience.
In Scotch Symphony (to Mendelssohn), Yelena Pankova gives an outstanding per- formance. Fleet and lyrical, she soars through the choreography, looking com- pletely at home. Balanchine's choreogra- phy is difficult for the Kirov dancers because of its energy and complexity. The Kirov women have been taught to move with a kind of dreamy legato, wonderful in Swan Lake but rather monochrome in other works. The Kirov men move in a simple prepare-step-pause sequence typic- al of the Russian style. Balanchine's tricky combinations of turns and beats are a technical challenge for the dancers and some of them, not surprisingly, look a mite uncomfortable.
I was fascinated by Larissa Lezhnina's performance in Theme and Variations. She is one of those blonde, porcelain princesses that the Kirov seem to produce effortless- ly. Her Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty had a porcelain quality too, fragile, beautiful but not very interesting. Theme and Varia- tions is Balanchine's homage to The Sleep- ing Beauty, but here Lezhnina was trans- formed. The choreography for the baller- ina is full of majestic developpes and penchees demanding fully stretched legs and alternates with speedy variations such as the famous pas de chat/pirouette sequ- ence. Lezhnina didn't hold back or, as I feared she might, try to scale down the steps and as a result she was infinitely more grand and authoritative than she had been in The Sleeping Beauty.
Lezhnina's partner was Kirill Melnikov, a fine dancer of whom we have seen too little during the current London season. Just 24, Melnikov is tall, dark and very handsome. He moves with an easy ele- gance and assurance which was perfect for this ballet. After a lean time in the 1980s, the Kirov's male dancing, on the strength of this season at least, appears to have been rejuvenated. Melnikov, Igor Zelen- sky (who danced an electrifying Ali in Le Corsaire) and Makharbek Vaziyev have given some of the highlight performances of the season.
I wish I could be enthusiastic about Oleg Vinagradov's new version of Petrushka but
I can't. My heart sank when I read in the programme that this version was intended as an allegory of oppression by modern society and politics. Coming after the two Balanchine works, where the dancers showed such commitment and excitement, these sub-Mart meanderings were de- pressing in the extreme. 1 love this com- pany but sometimes its identity problems are as disorienting for the audience as for the dancers.
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