With no summer visit from the Bolshoi or the Mariinsky this year, those seeking their annual Russian ballet fix turn to Irina Kolesnikova’s Swan Lake with the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre.
Kolesnikova has been a principal with SPBT since 2001 and carries herself with the bearing of someone who’s used to being the star. She’s a rangy dancer of (melo)drama and unflappable technique. Her white swan Odette is full of pain, arching her supple back in one long inhale; her black swan Odile is a Dynasty-style superbitch, conniving behind poor Prince Siegfried’s back. It’s a performance that’s about Kolesnikova rather than Odette/Odile’s relationship with Siegfried, but perhaps that’s what people come to see. Guest dancer Denis Rodkin (Bolshoi Ballet) plays her prince as a self-satisfied young man with mild disdain for his subjects, bored until he’s floored by Odile’s force of personality.
Yuri Gumba’s 1996 staging is consummately Russian, including the “comical” roles of the tutor and the jester (a livewire Sergei Fedorkov), which newer versions often eschew, and — spoiler alert — the Soviet happy ending. Overall, it’s sluggish and the stop-start-slow-fast tempo from conductor Timur Gorkovenko doesn’t help.
Kolesnikova’s solos are often slowed to near stasis, robbed of any natural flow. If you’re after a night at the ballet, with tutus and Tchaikovsky, this will do the job. But if you’re looking to be truly moved or see new life breathed into an old classic you might be disappointed.
Until August 20. The company also performs La Bayadère, August 22 to 23 (020 7845 9300)
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