Ballet Offers Gift Of Rare Talent
St. Petersburg Ballet Wednesday, Sept. 27, at Beasley Coliseum in Pullman
While classical Russian ballets can be stunningly beautiful and moving when performed by any competent troupe, they just seem to assume a new layer of depth when performed by dancers trained in the centuriesold Russian ballet schools.
While American audiences have seen ballets such as “Don Quixote,” “Swan Lake” and “The Dying Swan” performed by American troupes, the end of the Cold War meant for the first time ever, Russian companies such as the Bolshoi, the Kirov and St. Petersburg Ballet could tour extensively in the U.S.
The St. Petersburg danced for an enthusiastic audience of more than a thousand people at Beasley Coliseum last week and returns to the area to perform in Spokane in mid-October. While Beasley Coliseum seats more than 12,000 for basketball games, the building is curtained off to create a more intimate 2,500-seat venue for ballet. It showcased this ballet company perfectly.
The program Wednesday was a tour through some of the best of Russian ballet, performed by one of the best contemporary Russian ballerinas, Galina Mezentseva. She exhibited a broad range of expertise, dancing the White Swan adagio from “Swan Lake,” a more modern, primal monologue from the ballet “Legend of Love,” and what has become her signature piece, “The Dying Swan.”
While having the opportunity to see one of the best dancers in the world perform some of the best dances ever created is like being given a memorable gift, it was a couple of other dancers in St. Petersburg that offered another type of joy Wednesday night.
Natalia Bashkirtseva and Elena Poryvkina, both young ballerinas, exhibited a strength and athleticism atypical of female Russian dancers. This indicates a whole new generation of ballet dancers is being trained in the Russian schools, which suffered a funding crisis when the former Soviet Union dissolved. For those ballet fans who feared the great Russian ballet traditions might be lost along the way to capitalism, this, too, was one of the brightest spots of the performance.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo
MEMO: The St. Petersburg Ballet will perform Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Spokane Opera House. Tickets are $22.50, $18 and $16 (student discounts available) and are available from all G&B outlets, 325-SEAT or (800) 325-SEAT.