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DANZ QUARTERLY Issue No 12
No 12 – July, August September 2008
The Sleeping Beauty
The Kiev Ballet
Aotea Centre, Auckland
27 April 2008
Reviewed by Francesca Horsley
There is nothing quite like seeing the setting of a folk tale from its country of origin. It scoops up many subtleties lost in translation. The Kiev Ballet’s production ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ in their brief season in Auckland was a case in point.
The spare but quintessential Russian settings were like stepping back in time – no bad thing. These 19th century ballets are period pieces, but told and danced well they still have charm. Recent sumptuous productions, ushered in with much pomp and tailored to a contemporary audience have sliced acts, reshaped scenes, often eclipsing the storyline and distorting characters beyond understanding.
This Ukrainian version was long to be sure, but as a dyed in the wool romantic, I found it wonderfully satisfying. It allowed clear, uncluttered story telling, with well framed scenes, and a storybook charm was clearly evident. The lilac fairy Shinobu Takita was a clear goody; as Carabosse the bad fairy, Oleg Tokar was more devious than scary and his/her peasant status as a witch illuminating. The queen, Lyudmyla Melnyk, was kind, the king, Volodiyr Chupryn, stupidly overly protective, the princess Natalia Domrecheva was teasing and the Prince, Viktor Ishchuk – well he was as ardent as expected.
The choreography of the Kiev production was also fascinating, although not as edifying. For the corps de ballet the choreography was minimal; lines of dancers were restrained with simple steps that slowly expanded into bigger movements, but they were never really given an expansive presence of their own. The virtuosic dancing was strictly confined to soloists and principals.
Domrecheva as Beauty was petite and light; her technique was flawless, with lightening foot work and a contained but youthful presence. Her prince Ishchuk, while slight, was very strong and athletic; gaining impressive height in his grand jetės and mastering rapid turns he was a joy to watch. The Bluebird pas de deux by Tatiana Goliakova and Sergeii Sydorskyi was also very accomplished.
The undoubted star was Takita, the Lilac Fairy whose assured grace, wonderful technique and steady hand guided the ballet from beginning to end, as she should.
Marring what was a great afternoon of ballet were the utterly sooty soles of the pointe shoes – why can’t a company of this standing front up to the expense of fresh shoes, especially for an international tour? Also some of the costumes, especially for the fairies were … garish. What were their designers thinking?
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