Royal Moscow Ballet delivers artistic charm
Spira Tlhankane | Friday April 15, 2016 11:41
As part of their Southern African tour, the Royal Moscow ballet put up flamboyant choreography with special lighting. The performers, eight females and a male, lit up the stage in the first act.
The first act entitled Chopiniana (Les Sylphides) lit up the stage with dazzling dancers flying through the air clad in white dresses.
Though the act was short and non-narrative, Chopiniana is about mood and dance. The beauty of the act is that it consisted of eight angelic like sylphs (slender young women that are spirits of the air) alongside a young man dressed in white tights and a black tunic. The young man dances in the blue moonlight and encounters a group of white sylphs. Some productions have characterised the young man as a poet.
Chopiniana had its first performance in St Petersburg Russia in 1907 with music by Frederic Chopin and choreography by Mikhail Fokine.
It was renamed Les Sylphides in 1909 and it featured the great Anna Pavlova and introduced Russian ballet to the world.
After a short break, the ballet resumed with the fiery second act entitled Carmen. The dancers arrived on stage with black romantic tutus waltzing on stage in a jolly mood. The plot centres on a Spanish gypsy girl called Carmen, a passionate, free-spirited woman who is consequently caught in a love triangle between Don José and popular bullfighter, Escamillo.
Carmen dances with the two until she is stabbed. In a very emotional scene, she dies in Don José’s arms while caressing his face and revealing him as the assassin.
The act captured the imagination of the crowd with an eclectic performance. The famous Russian choreographer, Marious Pepita first set Carmen as a one-act ballet in 1845.
The last act Paquita Grand Pas was about a young Gypsy heroine called Paquita. Even though she does not know, Paquita is of noble birth and in the plot she manages to save the life of a young French officer, Lucien d’Hervilly, who is a target of the Spanish governor.
After discovering the history of her birth and relations with Lucien, the two are then able to get married.
The Paris Opera Ballet first presented Paquita Grand Pas in 1846. After several revivals it is still a major cornerstone of traditional classical ballet repertory.
Principal dancer and choreographer, Anatoly Emelianov and creative director, Anna Alexidze founded the Royal Moscow Ballet in 2002.