danceviewdc
writers on dancing

The DanceView Times, Washington, D.C. edition

A Tired Cinderella and an Inspired Giselle

Cinderella and Giselle
Moscow Festival Ballet
Center for the Arts
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia
Saturday evening, March 27 and Sunday afternoon, March 28, 2004

by George Jackson
copyright 2004 by George Jackson
published 12 April 2004

One heroine lives happily ever after and the other dies in distress before her ballet is finished and spends a whole act as a ghost to set things right, sort of, so that her soul can rest in peace. Plot lines, though, were not the only differences between Moscow Festival Ballet's two presentations in the Washington, DC area. There was a lackluster performance and one that achieved a glow, plus a bad staging and one that was acceptable.

Touring, as everyone knows, can affect performers adversely. MFB is on tour almost continually and with just two days at George Mason again this year, the company's first performance undoubtedly took place close on the heels of a long bus ride. As before, the dancers showed their weariness not so much by being stingy with technique as by stinting on make believe. There was no romance in Saturday night's Cinderella. Sergei Kaukov, as the Prince, was determined to jump high but had no other visible drive or desire. He succeeded in his aerial attempts, quantitatively. Tatiana Shevetsova, in the title role, had a meltingly lovely bouree and a reticence of character that was appropriate some of the time but not all the time.The comic characters, Cinderella's Stepmother (Maxim Vasiliev) and her two daughters, came off best.

Announced as the choreographer for Cinderella had been Rostislav Zakharov. His were the original dances to Sergei Prokofiev's music at the ballet's premiere in 1945, but outside Russia this version is a rarity. People in the USA had known it mainly from an old Soviet film with enough close-ups that it proved impossible to judge such things as the total stage picture, continuity of the action and movement development. Just a couple of years ago when Zakharov's 1934 Fountain of Bakhchisarai was danced in New York, it made a better choreographic impression on stage than it had as a famous post-World War 2 film with Ulanova and Plisetskaya. All the more reason to want to see Zakharov's Cinderella live. However, after sitting through MFB's new production, restaged by the company's associate director, Yuri Vetrov, I wouldn't venture a guess about the original.

Vetrov has condensed the action excessively. Several things mentioned in the printed program never made it to the stage, and what started out a starighforward story became hard to follow. Among the missing incidents were the Fairy Godmother's first apperance in the guise of an old beggar woman and Cinderella's scene with the portrait of her deceased mother. Retained was the presence of a pas de trois group in the ballroom scene but not its dance. The two ladies and their gentleman seemed lost. The Four Seasons soloists became mixed up with those of the Four Countries which the Prince searches to find the owner of the glass slipper. Good dance motifs could be spotted here and there, but no single theme was given significant development.

Sunday afternoon, following a night without travel, the company's Giselle was danced with mounting committment and imagination. The staging (uncredited) was solidly conventional, although there was no Peasant Pas de Deux in Act 1. While the Duke of Courland's hunting party rested out of sight, the villagers engaged in ensemble dancing—couples did folksy steps while a group of Giselle's girlfriends executed classical ones.

It was when Giselle realized she had been betrayed that Olga Grigorieva, in the role, began lifting the performance's level to above average. This Giselle's simple astonishment, vain hope and madness stabbed the heart. In Act 2, Grigorieva seemed to inspire other members of the cast. Valeri Shumilov's Albrecht became noble, the corps of Wilis moved as one. I wish I knew the name of the uncredited dancer in the role of the third ranking Wili, Zulma. Older in appearance, not good looking, she poured herself into her solo totally. This became a Giselle to remember.

Production values for both Cinderella and Giselle were commendable, although Cinderella could have used a bigger stage. I've seldom seen a finer coming of dawn than at the consclusion of this Giselle. Next time, is there an angel who could pay for these or other barn-storming Russians to spend two nights in a local hotel?

Originally published:
www.danceviewtimes.com
Volume 2, Number 17
May 10, 2004
© 2004 George Jackson