edition ENGLISH n° 269 • the international DANCE magazine TOM 650 CFP) • UK 5,00 £ Switzerland 8,00 CHF USA $ Canada 7,00 $; Mariinsky Ballet (Euro zone) € exit Ulyana Lopatkina 4,90 9 10 3 P 4 Editor-in-chief Alfio Agostini Contributors/writers the international dance magazine Erik Aschengreen Leonetta Bentivoglio ENGLISH Edition Donatella Bertozzi Valeria Crippa Clement Crisp Gerald Dowler Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino Marc Haegeman Anna Kisselgoff Dieudonné Korolakina Kevin Ng Jean Pierre Pastori Martine Planells Olga Rozanova Roger Salas Mariinsky Ballet: Sonia Schoonejans Ulyana Lopatkina, René Sirvin Andrei Yermakov Editorial advisor in “ Trois Gnossiennes”, Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino c. Hans van Manen (ph. Jack Devant ) Editorial assistant Cristiano Merlo Translations Simonetta Allder 6 News – from the dance world Cristiano Merlo Collaborator Alain Garanger 20 On the cover : Editorial services, design, web Mariinsky, having to be the best Luca Ruzza A film about Mathilda Kschessinskaya Swan Lake and other specialities Advertising [email protected] 28 On stage, critics : ph. (+33) 09.82.29.82.84 Paris Opéra Ballet (+39) 011.19.58.20.38 Hamburg Ballet Hamburg Ballet: “Anna Karenina” Subscriptions Aterballetto [email protected] English National Ballet, London Sasha Waltz and Guests n° 269 - X. 2017 Víctor Ullate Ballet Emanuel Gat Dance Eastman – Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui Compañía Manuel Liñán Ballet Preljocaj Het Nationale Ballet Ballet Nacional de Cuba Candoco Dance Company Kor’sia Paris Opéra de Paris: “Jewels” BALLET 2000 B.P. 1283 – 06005 Nice cedex 01 – F tél. (+33) 09.82.29.82.84 46 Miami Festival, against the winds and tides Éditions Ballet 2000 Sarl – France ISSN 2493-3880 (English Edition) Commission Paritaire P.A.P. 0718K91919 48 BalletTube: Romeo and Juliet Distribution : Messageries Lyonnaises de Presse, 76 rue de Reuilly, 75012 Paris 49 Multimedia : TV, Web, Dvd, Cinema... Imprimé en France/Printed in France by Imprimerie Trulli - 06140 Vence 54 Programmes TV www.ballet2000.com e-mail: [email protected] 56 International Calendar Het Nationale Ballet: “Symphonieen der Nederlanden” 5 Gonzalo García – New York City Ballet: “Pulcinella Variations”, c. Justin Peck 6 ECHOS NEWS • ECHOS • BREVIECHOS • •BREVES ECHOS • BREVINEWS •• ECHOSECHOS •• BREVIECHOS • •BREVES ECHOS • NEWSECHOS • ECHOS• ECHOS • BREVI• ECHOS • BREVES • ECHOS • ECHOS• ECHOS Creations A Rococo Raymonda in Copenhagen Raymonda reaches Denmark for the first time. The work was Marius Petipa’s final “ballet à grand spectacle” (1898), to music by Alexan- der Glazunov and with a grand total of five variations for Raymonda and three sumptu- ous grands pas spread over the ballet’s three acts. The Royal Danish Ballet has Raymonda on its programme at The Royal Danish Theatre, Copenhagen as from Novem- ber (with various revivals until April), though in a new version by the company’s director Nikolaj Hübbe. The latter’s re-readings of the ballets of August Bournonville are notorious and can, at the very least, be described as eccentric – for example Napoli, re-located to the 1950s and steeped in a ‘Fellini-like’ at- mosphere; the same can be said about Hübbe’s versions of Russian ballet classics such as La Bayadère, re-set in 19th-century colonial In- dia. Also Raymonda, the love-story between the titular character and crusader knight Jean de Brienne, thwarted by the fiery Saracen The Royal Danish Ballet’s poster for the new Nikolaj Hübbe “Raymonda” . Abderakhman, gets a new setting: from the In the photo Jaime Crandall and Ulrik Birkkjaer Middle Ages and the Crusades, to a southern European early 18th-century Rococo ambi- tury (using the Stepanov method); of a com- ence. The show’s poster shows the dancers of choreological reconstruction, Messerer has pletely different character is the original crea- in a pose typical of the final pas de dix... but been restaging various ballets of the Russian tion by Pontus Lidberg for The Royal Swed- in a launderette, so as to emphasise the non- 19th-century repertory on the basis of the ish Ballet (2014) which turns the plot into a conventional character of this operation. great Soviet tradition (Swan Lake, Don love-story between the dancers of a company Petipa’s Raymonda, today considered a great Quixote, La Bayadère, Le Corsaire), as well who are rehearsing Raymonda and contains classic, was exported from the Soviet Union as others from the 20th century that are em- ‘citations’ from Petipa’s into Western Europe by Rudolf Nureyev who original. restaged it for The Royal Ballet of London in 1964; Nureyev went on to make various sub- sequent versions for other companies, culmi- Zakharov’s nating in the ultimate one for the Paris Opéra Ballet in 1983. In recent years – after a flurry Cinderella is back Mikhail Messerer descends of new productions of La Bayadère and Le from a great Russian ballet Corsaire – a sort of re-discovery of family: he is the son of Raymonda has also taken place: among these, Sulamith Messerer and the the so-called “philological” version created nephew of Asaf Messerer, by Sergei Vikharev for the Ballet Company two of the most celebrated of Teatro alla Scala (2011), based on the balletmasters at the Bolshoi choreological notations made by Nicholas Theatre of Moscow and, more Sergeyev at the beginning of the 20th cen- generally, of the Russian School in the 20th century. Since 2009 he has been at the Nikolaj Hübbe rehearsing with helm of the Mikhailovsky Christopher Rickertt Ballet, the second most-im- portant ballet company of St Petersburg (after the Mariinsky, obviously) where, contrary to the current trend 1965, Kirov Theatre, Leningrad: Irina Kolpakova in a revival of "Cinderella" by Rostislav Zakharov 7 NEWS • ECHOS • BREVI • BREVES • NEWS • ECHOS • BREVI • BREVES • NEWS • ECHOS • BREVI • BREVES • ECHOS • Choreographers Maguy Marin and consent of the masses Perhaps not yet entirely disillusioned despite her age (66), Maguy Marin continues relentlessly to wage her social battles – using the weapon of radical, scathing protest (devoid of the slightest concession to the glamour of showbiz) to advo- cate a better world. The eternal enfant terrible of French dance now works with her company at Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, on the outskirts of Lyon, in a centre called “Ramdam, un centre d’art” which has the same unadorned, stark air of her stage aesthetics. Marin’s latest creation, premiered in early October at the Centre Culturel André Malraux de Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy (in Greater Nancy, France), was inspired by Propaganda, a book by Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud. Propaganda explored the psychology be- hind manipulating the masses and the technique for shaping the will of the masses to the require- ments of the élite in a peaceful way, creating what Bernays calls the “factory of consent”. Starting off from these considerations, Maguy Marin pro- poses in her new creation to bring out the “smell Zurich Opera Ballet: “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, c. Christian Spuck of death” and “existential abyss” of this “carefree (ph. G. Batardon) society” of ours which we strive to make “dy- blematic of the “Socialist Realism” style, such Angelina Vorontsova – Mikhalovsky Ballet, St Petersburg: “Cinderella”, as The Flames of Paris (Vasili Vainonen) and c. Rostislav Zakharov (ph. J. Devant) Laurencia (Vakhtang Chabukiani). Unde- terred in his revaluation of the Soviet reper- tory, Messerer inaugurated the Mikhailovsky’s new ballet season last Sep- tember with Cinderella by Rostislav Zakharov, a choreographer who is more widely known for his ballet The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (1935) which is still in the rep- ertoire at the Mariinsky and emblematic of the dramatic/lyrical/psychological ballet genre. Zakharov’s Cinderella (to the famous score which Sergei Prokofiev had just com- pleted after a somewhat complex creation process) debuted at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow in 1945. New Nutcrackers As Christmas gets closer, The Nutcracker continues to be the festive season’s most popular ballet. Alongside the great classical versions – Vasili Vainonen’s traditional ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre of St Petersburg and George Balanchine’s Nutcracker, much loved by New Yorkers – there are also a number of creations. At the Zurich Opera House, Christian Spuck will be presenting his version which is based directly on the original short story by German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, while at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, company director Kader Belarbi will be premiering his own new production, set among students at a college. 8 ECHOS NEWS • ECHOS • BREVIECHOS • •BREVES ECHOS • BREVINEWS •• ECHOSECHOS •• BREVIECHOS • •BREVES ECHOS • NEWSECHOS • ECHOS• ECHOS • BREVI• ECHOS • BREVES • ECHOS • ECHOS• ECHOS Sergei Polunin, an acting dancer Sergei Polunin is now into films. After last year’s Dancer documentary that recounted his career and tormented soul (see review of the DVD on our Multimedia page), we now await his appearance on the silver screen in the remake of Murder on the Orient Express, based on the famous thriller by Agatha Christie. On release as from November, the star-studded cast includes names like Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Penélope Cruz. Polunin plays the role of Hungarian Count Rudolf Andrenyi who, in the famous 1974 movie directed by Sidney Lumet, had been played by Michael York. The Rus- sian dancer has also acted in another thriller film, to be released in 2018, Red Sparrow directed by Francis Law- rence: it is the story of a Russian ballerina who is forced to become a spy for her gov- ernment. But along with appearing in movies, Polunin is also posing for the camera. David LaChapelle, who directed the famous video-gone-viral that catapulted Polunin to public attention also beyond the ballet world, has taken shots of the dancer, with Canadian actress Pamela Anderson and his fiancée/partner Natalia Osipova, for arts maga- zine King Kong; incidentally, the risqué photos with Anderson remind us of the still of Rudolf Nureyev used to publicise his film Valentino.