The Kirov-Mariinsky is performing a Forsythe program from June 13-15, and both carbro and I just receive emails from the Kennedy Center, with a 20% discount offer for this program. To get the discount, you must use promo code "14515." The offer can be closed at any time, so to take advantage of it, you might want to order soon.

From the Kennedy Center website (from which tickets can be ordered)

I got this as well. The Giselle tickets are still at the regular price, but I'd have to guess that the Forsythe programs are not selling as well.

Tonight was opening night (the Forsythe program) and the house was not well sold, especially for an opening. I hope anyone who's on the fence about going to this one will go -- if Washington won't go see the Kirov, then I worry about the future of the ballet subscription.

This program is all-Forsythe -- four of his works made for ballet companies. It's a very good chance to see a lot of the dancers. The people who were there seemed generally happy, although I have to say I don't think the company looked its best. They're too calm for Forsythe and smoothed everything -- tempi, dynamics, steps -- out. But they got a good response.

I hope if others go you'll report.

And any hope for the Mariinsky and Bolshoi to tour with anything but Swans and Don Q's...

It will be interesting to see how well the Royal Ballet's mixed bill sells next week. Isn't it a bit unusual to have two companies back to back like this? I'm sorry to have to miss "Giselle" this weekend, but I'll be driving in three times next week for three or four performances. The Kirov comes to town every year, it seems. Not the Royal.

That's my impression too, Alexandra. they were just too civilized, especially during "In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated." Needed more edge, more "attitude" (street attitude, I mean). Warm response but no S.O. I imagine Giselle will be more successful, artistically and attendance-wise.

This is interesting - The Forsythe programmes in London last year didn't do too badly (although they weren't Swan Lake), and many people *loved* them.

I was not one of those many. Some of it was too 'neat'. And, unfortunately in my eyes, some dancers seemed so concerned with throwing their leg up behind their ears as often as possible that it actually ruined it - even for the high extensions seen in some of this work. Particularly, I hated how the front leg in grand jetes were thrown so high that the jump never seemed to take off and just landed flat - ka-clunk.

Maybe at other venues, but the Kennedy Center ballet season is very "clumpy"--this year the performances were concentrated in (I think) Feb-March and the schedule was similar last year. I don't know why this is--maybe the Opera House has to be reconfigured somehow for ballet and it makes more sense to have the ballet companies in one right after the other.

The season is always clumpy alright, and perhaps one troupe has followed another the very next week and I just don't remember it because I haven't gone. But I'd think that this would keep some casual fans away. Also, if memory serves, weekday tickets for Forsythe's own company were discounted the last time it was here. And if that's so, it's a little surprising the Kirov were scheduled with his ballets.

Ballet goes into the Kennedy Center Opera House based on the dates that the Washington Opera is not using it - I believe they are principal tenants similar to NYCB, the NY Philharmonic and the Met are principal tenants at their respective theatres in New York. Could be wrong. But the Opera does tend to stick to its established 'seasons' - a Fall and Spring season, so ballet falls in between there in concentrated 'clumps' when the opera house is not in use by the Opera or a touring Broadway musical (usually July/August).

As for programming the Kirov doing Forsythe - there's something to be said for putting on artistically interesting program, even if it doesn't sell. I believe this program switch occurred right after the raves arrived from London for the same program. The Kennedy Center can certainly shoulder a few under-sold houses, and its good that they risk that so that we can see it. One can always see Giselle, Swan Lake and Your Favorite Classical Story Ballet on the weekends.

I'm all for new and varied programming, and I certainly don't mean to second guess Michael Kaiser, but I would think that the Kirov has plenty to offer besides Forsythe and the classics.

I went last night (Wednesday, June 14) and it was a dull, flat program. NOTHING like the sparkling two performances that I witnessed in London, one year ago, and in St Petersburg in '04 and '05. It is amazing how a switch in one or two dancers can 'kill' the energy of a ballet. For me, the 'first downer' happened right away with 'Steptext,' when kewpie-doll-faced Irina Golub batted her eyelashes and posed oh-so-carefully as if she were dancing 'Fairy Doll.' The edge was deflated -- like the puncturing of a balloon. Pavlenko, Sologub and Vishneva are miles, miles ahead of Ms Golub in this interpretation.

The second 'downer' was the over-careful (non-risk-taking) dancing of the three girls in 'Vertiginous Thrill.' The absence of Tatiana Tkachenko among the group was noticeable. Oh...and that was Svetlana Ivanova dancing in place of the absent Ekaterina Osmolkina, even though it was not announced to the public.

And what can we say about the 'hissy fit' thrown by Olesya Novikova at the start of the curtain calls for 'Thrill'? Did anyone else notice how all five dancers held hands at the start of the bows, began walking to the footlights, then Novikova angrily shoved Andrian Fadeev's (to her right) hand out of the way...prompting Fadeev and Sarafanov (to her left, still holding the other of her hands) to laugh out loud and visibly. Second curtain call, the entire group was smiling and laughing as Novikova kept a diva face. Hmmm...I don't care what happens backstage but, as an audience member, I should not be witnessing such unprofessionalism on the stage, methinks.

'Sonata' was fine, although Alexander Sergeev didn't come close to matching the greatness of Andrei Ivanov in the leading role of the 'first boy.' I was at the premiere of this ballet in St.P in March 2005 & also saw it in London. The entire gist of the ballet is that the first couple is 'too short & squat,' the second pair 'too tall & lanky,' the third are 'average,' and the fourth 'exemplary.' (Thus the word 'YES' -- or 'DA" in Russian -- lights up when the 4th pair begins to dance.) Sergeev, unlike Ivanov, is too tall and lanky for the leading role, thus upsetting the entire theme of the ballet: imperfectly-proportioned, hard-working dancers trying to exist in this often-cruel and unforgiving world of ballet.

I did not bother to stay to the last ballet, the evening was so flat and mediocre, compared to multiple London & St Petersburg presentations that I had so enjoyed. It's the first -- and hopefully the last -- time that I walk out on the Kirov-Mariinsky Ballet.

Natalia, thanks for the very interesting review! The curtain call drama reminds me of the spectacle during the filmed Giselle with Mesentzeva, Zaklinsky, and Terekhova, in which Terekhova is thrown a HUGE bouquet of flowers. She has a HUGE smirk on her face, as Mezentseva gets a smaller bouquet. She smirks through the rest of the curtain calls. It's funny. The performance is set to be released on dvd -- check that out.

As for Novikova, did you notice any partnering mishaps that might have prompted the hissy fit?

Hope the Giselles are better ...

kfw -- an acute observation, as usual!

Natalia -- I had the same feeling, generally, as you, but Wednesday night was twice as zippy as Tuesday.

Yikes! That's scary.

canbelto - I'm assuming that it was a partnering mishap. The ballet is so speedy that I honestly don't recall where the mishap occurred. Most of the ballet involves solo, not pair-couples, work. All three girls were off -- trying to play 'catch-up' to the music.

Audience was warmer last night, too. Steptext got three calls. I only remember one Tuesday. I did miss Mercuriev in that. I thought he was quite good.

I have to say that four Forsythes on a program is three too many for me. The repetitions, the stop/starts, the lack of dynamics, all the clever little Sixties avant-gardisms....too much of a muchness for me. I'd seen all of these before except for Vertiginous. "He looks like he's trying to prove that he can do it [make a classical ballet] and he can't!" a friend said at intermission. And I'd second that.

The program is a good chance to see a lot of the dancers in soloist roles, though. (The house looked about as full/empty Wednesday night as Tuesday. Which is good news, actually. Usually the opening night has the largest audience.)

Thanks for pointing-out the absence of Merkuriev in 'Steptext' last night! I was wondering if that 'third guy' (after Kolb and Khrebtov) was a somewhat-heftier Merkuriev. So that's yet another unannounced casting change, beside Svetlana Ivanova dancing in place of Osmolkina.

I'm wondering if Osmolkina appeared on Tuesday? Is Osmolkina even in DC? If not...then who-on-earth will dance the four Peasant pdd's with Shklyarov? It's not Obraztsova, by the way. She will be returning to St. Petersburg on Friday afternoon.

I can't answer about Osmolkina, I'm afraid. Two cast changes were announced, very quickly, and I missed them. I thought they announced the Merkuriev change last night -- but I didn't catch the substitution. (Very unprofessional, I know, but I wasn't covering. )

Alexandra - The one change that they announced last night was that Alexei Nedviga would dance '3rd movement' of 'Approximate Sonata,' in place of Anton Pimonov. Nothing on Merkuriev.

Thanks. Hmm. Now I hope I"m right and Merkuriev didn't dance Wednesdays. Apologies to all in advance if I'm wrong.

I saw the Forsythe program Thursday night and the house was far from full. I haven’t seen much Forsythe and this was my first time seeing this program so I can’t comment on whether or not the dancers “got” his style – but they are such gorgeous dancers! I was not that impressed with Stepext or Approximate Sonata and completely missed the joke/scenario that Natalia described (wish I’d read her post before the performance!). For me the program took a major turn for the better starting after Sonata – I loved both Vertiginous and In the Middle.

The Kirov casting mysteries continue, the only substitution they announced was Tkachenko replacing Golub in Vertiginous and Gumerova in In the Middle. But surely that small, pretty brunette in Vertiginous wasn’t Osmolkina? I don’t know the Kirov dancers well enough to recognize most of them, especially not the men. I’m not even sure it was Pavlenko in the last piece last night - she didn’t look the way I remember her but I could be wrong. Anyway, whoever the lead brunette was in In the Middle was wonderful, but the real star of the night for me was Kondaurova. What a standout! If she does Somova’s Myrthas as rumored this will be a very interesting weekend!

Susan

I got two reports this morning, one from a Forsythe hater, another an admirer, who both thought Thursday night was very well danced. Both had seen earlier evenings and thought that Thursday was the best. We often have jet lagged openings, and this may have been one of them.

I was also there last night (Thursday). There were many empty seats, and more as the night went on, even though (IMO) the program improved with each piece. If my second ticket were to the same show (rather than Giselle), I'd likely go to see a different cast.

Now for a bit of "name that dancer": in the second-to-last piece (green leotards, black tights), there was a blond dancer who, relative to the others, was downright zaftig (meaning, of course, that she is likely a size 2 rather than a size 0) with fantastic presence. Who was she?

For that matter, who was the tall redhead?

And finally, why oh why are minimalist leotard costumes for women designed with absolutely no support in the front (a problem with Balanchine ballet costumes too)? And why, in this event, could the Kirov costume shop not come up with a set of appropriately cut or sewn-in liner leotards for the dancers who wanted or needed them? In the green leotard piece, a couple of dancers had bra straps that did not even approximate the lines of the leotards. That's bad enough at a school performance, but for the Kirov??? Come on.

Of course, I look forward to any news about the SUnday cast for Giselle....

Tatyana Tkachenko? She always brings a glamorous presence to any piece, with her beautiful face and hour-glass figure.

Redhead probably Kondaurova?

I'm not sure which blonde you're referring to. The Vertiginous Thrill (3rd piece, after Sonata and before the last intermission) had 5 dancers including 3 women with flat, "platter" type tutus. The tiny blond with the big personality was Obraztsova (who, by the way, was fabulous) , the taller blondish woman was Tkachenko, and the third was a mystery brunette. Tkachenko also danced in the last piece.

There were 2 redheads in the last piece, I’m assuming that the taller one with the lighter red hair who danced one of the leading roles was Kondaurova and the shorter one with the darker red hair was Yana Selina.

I also noticed another shortish, blondish,heavyish female dancer – first as part of the 1st couple in Sonata and then again in the last (4th) piece. By comparing casts I’m deducing the shortish one is Elena Sheshina. This is fun, I feel like Sherlock Holmes…

BTW did anyone notice that they listed 1 less dancer for Thursday night’s In the Middle than for the other 2 performances? You notice things like that when you pour over the program trying to figure out who’s who!

Yana Serebryakova was listed as part of the 2nd couple in Sonata (tall blond, neon green pants). Is this the same dancer who did the Sheherazade pdd with Zelensky at the YAGP gala? The name sounds the same but she sure looked like a petite brunette in Sheherazade.

(this ended up being long -- I'm sorry!)

I agree -- I think the blonde in question is Elena Sheshina, and the tall redhead is Kondaurova.

I went to the Thursday night performance and it looked as though the house was close to full, at least at the orhcestra level...and there were multiple calls for each piece, so it appeared as though others in the audience were enjoying the performance as much as I was.

I love Forsythe's work, so my opinions of the performance may be a bit biased, but overall, it was very pleasing to see such strong and talented dancers performing his choreography. Steptext starts with the house lights still up, which is great for several reasons -- it forces latecomers to hustle to their seats -- and is so different. Of course, throughout the piece the house lights are coming up and down, which serves to blur the distinction between the stage and audience (which is something that Forsythe also does in a different way, by having conventionally silent dancers -- in a historically silent art form -- speak or vocalize.) My boyfriend came with me, and while he thought that the choreography for Steptext was interesting, he thought that the visual elements (the lights and music mostly) were distracting. I didn't particularly enjoy Nadejda Gonchar -- thought she was too stiff and not right for Forsythe movement -- but one of the three men was incredible! I have no idea who he is -- he has sort of shaggy dark hair and performed a solo about 2/3 of the way through -- but his landings were so quiet and his connection of each individual movement was amazing. I could watch him for hours.

Approximate Sonata -- loved the beginning and the end -- Forsythe likes to play with some of the ritual and formality of a "dance performance" in a way that I (as a dancer) enjoy...seeing the work that goes into a performance, seeing someone doing something so "un-dancerlike" suddenly morph into performing virtuosic movement...but what's struck me throughout all of Forsythe's pieces is his respect for the dancers he works with and the ways in which he includes them in creating movement, so it seems a bit odd that he would consciously label one couple as "too" anything; however, I can say that I did enjoy each successive couple more than the previous one, so maybe there is something going on there.

Vertiginous Thrill -- hadn't ever seen it before and was very excited to see it -- I also loved it, and especially Obraztsova. She looked like she was having so much fun performing (and it does look like a very fun piece to dance in), as opposed to the other two who didn't express any of the joy that Obraztsova did. I'm surprised the small brunette wasn't the announced replacement dancer -- her timing was consistently off and she had some pretty bad turning sequences throughout the piece (it looked like she needed more rehearsal.) The men of course were incredible.

And -- In the Middle -- one of my favorite ballets! -- made me want to get up and start dancing in the theatre. The Kirov dancers really attacked this one; you could feel the emphasis and the power they put into the stops and starts of the movement, the accents, the energy, the presence...Kondaurova was enchanting, as was the small dark-haired lead (Pavlenko?), but no one on stage had the presence of Kondaurova. Even when she was in the back and simply shifting positions during the more "sculptural" section where there's a male solo in the front, your eye was drawn to her. I think the difference between Kondaurova in this piece and Gonchar in the first is the committment to movement; it's easy to see when a dancer feels unsure (for whatever reason) about the movement they're performing -- it's also equally easy to appreciate when a dancer is completely committed to the movement and is fully invested in the performance.

(PS -- my boyfriend [not a dancer, or even a dance-goer before he met me!] really liked the last two pieces...wasn't so sure about the first two. The last two are a bit more audience-friendly, IMO.)

I think it's great that the Kirov is performing Forsythe; we drove 6 hours to see the performance and it was worth it. It didn't seem "dated" or "wrong" on them -- it just looked like good dancers expanding their rep and taking a risk (which I thank them for) by not performing the classical ballets that they're known for...and not all were perfect, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be performing this type of work.

That was a wonderful review, nmdancer, full of descriptive detail of three works I've never seen. Please don't apologize for length, and feel free to write as much as you'd like.



I hope someone can identify this dancer for you.

Yes, from someone else who was there your post was very descriptive, please keep posting! I think the dancer you admired was Anton Pimonov - he caught my eye, too! My identification is tentative - I've never seen him before but he also danced in Appx Sonata (3rd pdd with Selina), so that's his name if the program listings can be trusted!

Thanks for these insights. I especially appreciate reading about performances from the point of view of articulate dancers llike you.

I wonder whether this is because dancers empathize with the their colleagues on stage so much and can "feel" the dancing in ways the rest of us cannot. When you said you felt like getting up and "dancing in the theater," I experienced envy -- possibly because you actually COULD.

Thanks, Helene! I wish I could post more frequently, but I live so far away from most performance venues



Yes!! I think that's him!! I did some google image (re)searching (haha) and the images that appear agree with my memory.




Doesn't it look like so much fun?? (I wish I could dance as well as the Kirov dancers!) Thom Willems' score for that piece is so compelling.

Forsythe's choreography is based in ballet technique but expands on basic vocabulary and extends the range of movements that can be generated using conventional ballet steps (and that well-known prosthetic device -- the pointe shoe!) If you listen to Forsythe explain how he creates movement (there are a few CD-ROMs out there with him demonstrating various principles of this philosophy; it seems to be more of an explanation of the more contemporary work he's created) it's based on creating a line or a shape, and then seeing how many permutations of that line or shape can be made -- either literally by the dancer's body or more figuratively by the movement itself -- and then combining those elements with movement generated by other shapes or lines...I think it's a lot of fun to do, though his work certainly fits some bodies better than others. I would argue that it works quite nicely with Kirov bodies.

However, one thing I noticed that the Kirov dancers really didn't do well (almost uniformly) was running on and off stage appropriately. It looked a bit odd to have a dancer run onstage as though she were wearing a tutu and tiara, stop, and then start a movement sequence with no seeming similarity to classical ballet steps. I think what was missing was the sense of "groundedness" (if you will) that you usually find in modern dance and very rarely in classical ballet -- perhaps this element was overlooked in the rehearsal process.

Bart, your point about how dancers may empathize with those on stage is very interesting (this is off-topic but I promise to keep it short!) I did a research project once about how dancers and "non-dancers" (though I think of everyone as a "dancer", the difference is in training!) watch performances differently, and there are definite differences in what is being looked at...though I would bet that even untrained dancers can empathize to a degree with those on stage, especially if someone looks particularly nervous or joyful. I was always told during my training that the audience can sense if you're not dancing with the music or are unsure of what you're doing, but that they probably won't know if you don't complete a triple pirouette perfectly...as long as you keep smiling, haha.

I hope I'll be able to post more in the future!

nysusan,

Yana Serebryakova is a blonde, and she did dance Sheherazade pas de deux w/ Zelensky at YAGP gala. But she wears a brunette wig for the Sheherazade piece.

Thanks pj. When I took a good look at her photo on the Mariinsky website I realized that it was the same face. It's confusing sometimes since dancers often wear wigs, or just look different with different hairdos and the Kirov so rarely announce casting changes.

I guess Zelensky must be very tall, cause she looked really petite with him, and really tall in the Forsythe!