While the audience gave this iconic company a rousing reception I couldn’t help feeling the evening was just a little flat compared with other visits, particularly the selection of dance.
I had thought the first part of the second programme brought to Wales, Concert DSCH and Sacre, would be the pleasant hors d’oeuvre before the main event. However, Alexei Ratmansky’s choreography on Shostakovich was an absolute delight, filled with lightness and joy, whimsical and elegant in equal measure.
The one-act ballet cannot fail to please and I rather wish the programme here had been reversed as I would have gone home with a lighter heart and written a more positive review of the whole night. Musically, this was a sparkling performance with solo piano from Vladimir Rumyantsev.
In contrast Sasha Waltz’s movement created on Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring had a retro feel, splendidly executed by these young dancers but rather unsatisfying. Rather than evoking primeval energy and raw emotions, I had the image of corny 1950s movies of stereotypical natives dancing round a cauldron, arms in the air, and making silly gestures and hopping around.
Yekaterina Kondaurova in Sacre, image Natasha Razina
My suspicion is that the presence of Valery Gergiev in the pit was both the big draw and prompted the audience response. Would offer this was a night for the music lover rather than necessarily the dance aficionados in the audience.
I am not suggesting the Mariinsky should stick to the stable of classical ballets that we are know and love but there is no shortage of exponents of these Western-styles, ballet programmes. For this reason I was not drawn to the rest of the Mariinsky’s repertoire on this visit, Hans Van Manen’s Five Tangos, Jerome Robbins’s In the Night and Wayne McGregor’s Infra or Sunday’s family concert. Perhaps I would have enjoyed these more.
Yet I would have missed Russian born and New York based Ratmansky spirit-raising, zippy one-act ballet. This sprightly and thrilling work with a wealth of imaginative solos and duets, marvellous ensemble movement and smile-inducing brightness that translates from the music into this charming celebration of motion, interaction, cheeky rivalry and playfulness. The opening colour-melding lighting is exquisite and the youthful costumes contribution to the cheeky, happy feel of the developing movements.
Concerto DSCH
This may be the Mariinsky’s first UK performance of German choreographer Sasha Waltz’s first take on Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, created in 2013, to mark the centenary of the original ballet’s infamous Paris premiere, but I would have happy to have waited longer!
The orchestra might have been exploding with Stravinsky’s passionate music but the atmosphere created on the stage was oddly drab and flat. This is all over fussy, from the distracting use of a pile of ash in the centre of the stage and an annoyingly slowly descending glass shard, all of that hand waving and jigging around culminating in a dreary time on the eye. The music remains fabulous, as you would expect from these musicians, but even the choreography interrupted the music rather than surf on this gargantuan, scintillating score.
Yes, danced with verve and moments of great panache but even what should be the disturbing sacrificial dance began my eye a quick look at my watch. Maybe they should stick to the classics and play on their strengths or at least safe repertoire – and I hear the upper tiers were closed which is a real shame when such a company is in town.