02/07/2018

Parade of stars. From classics to modern times

Flura Musina

Ballet critic

The final Gala was a meeting point not only for dancers of different schools, styles and directions, but also for different countries, supplementing geography of the festival, announced in the performances of groups. Artists from Russia (Moscow), Portugal, Holland, Germany and Kazakhstan showed the best examples of ballet art and contemporary dance.

The bright multicolor palette of the festival was completed with new colors: discordant, ragged rhythms of modern dance by Itzik Galili and Mauro Bigonzetti shaded the slender academic arrangements of Marius Petipa; flight variations of Winonaun competed with the duet of frolicking ancient Greek gods of Jules Perrot; passionate compositions by Ricardo Amarante picked up and continued the theme of love duets by Kenneth MacMillan; and immortal final chord of the famous pas de deux from "Don Quixote" put the final emotional point on the highest note!

The composition of participants also pleased - all having an excellent school, with a solid experience of participation in competitions and work in different teams. The modern generation of ballet dancers, set for success and victory since school, uses every opportunity to gain new experience. Therefore it is not surprising that many artists, had time to work in different companies, participate in several competitions and dance a variety of repertoires.

In this respect, a ballet couple from the Stuttgart Ballet is indicative: Maria Eichwald and Friedemann Vogel are undoubted favorites of the evening. The winner of international competitions in Lausanne, Luxembourg and Toronto, the winner of the Positano prize named after Leonid Myasin in "Best Dancer of 2012" nomination, Friedemann Vogel was an invited soloist in the ballet companies of La Scala, Mariinsky, Berlin theaters, Finnish and English national ballet. Maria Eichwald, prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet, graduate of Almaty Ballet School named after Seleznev, lives and works in Germany since 1994. The winner of "Miss Expressiveness" award at the international festival "Dance Open", she was the leading soloist of the Bavarian theater and the Cuban National Ballet, with the troupe of which toured all over the world. Solid professional baggage, sharp skills, excellent technique of the artists allowed them to create two completely different images in the concert program to show a wide range of their capabilities. Friedemann Vogel, perhaps, did not need to be reincarnated in the French nobleman of the 18th century in the duet from "Manon" ballet.

Natural nobility of appearance and behavior on the stage left no doubt - yes, it's the gentleman de Grieux. Add the magnificent technique, elongated proportions of the legs, passion and impetuosity of the enamored youth, which were so organically combined with the tenderness, light coquetry of the carefree Manon - Maria Eichwald. The ballerina, for whom time seems to have stopped, remains in magnificent technical shape, only the skill and depth of the acting play are added. They plunged the audience into the world of the shrill performance of Macmillan in a short time of the duet. And finally, they conquered hearts of the audience, flashing in the second compartment with the same impeccable possession of modern technique. A fragment from performance of the Israeli choreographer “Mona Lisa” showed almost unlimited possibilities of dancers, fascinated with the uneasy Forsyte-style choreography of Itzik Galili, whom critics call "the master of architecture of bodies in time and space".

Modern acts in the concert alternated with classical pas de deux. The audience had to constantly switch over, which was not easy for perception. In every epoch, time flows differently, and the speed of perception also changes. But, nevertheless, the harmony of academic classics was met with great enthusiasm by the audience. Petipa's masterpieces, such as the pas de deux from "Talisman" and "Harlequinade" ballets, performed with great taste and sense of style by leading soloists of the “Astana Opera” Madina Basbayeva and Yerkin Rakhmetullaev caused a flurry of applause.

Yerkin Rakhmetullayev hovered on stage in the part of God of the Wind; weightless, like a chiseled porcelain figurine, the indisputable prima of the “Astana Opera” theater Madina Basbayeva shone with sharpened poses, finished phrases, coping with all the pitfalls easily and without stress, of such an easy at first glance Petipa’s choreography. But professionals know what is behind this seeming ease.

Astana Ballet Theater was represented in the concert by fragments from the ballets of Ricardo Amarante "Love. Fear. Loss" and "A Fuego Lento". The metropolitan public well knows the stylish ballets, thanks to extensive tours of the theater, they were applauded in many countries around the world. Love, loss and fear, burning on the slow fire of passion, leave no one indifferent. This time it happened the same. It was the premiere for Riza Kanatkyzy, the leading soloist of the theater "Astana Ballet", whose repertoire has dozens of roles. In these parties she danced for the first time. The duet of Farkhad Buriyev and Riza Kanatkyzy turned out to be incredibly beautiful, the message of love and passion laid in the production found its visual external embodiment.

Quite a different expression of almost the same feelings and relationship between man and woman, was embodied in the performance of a dance couple from Portugal. Phillipa de Castro and Carlos Pinillos, soloists of the National Ballet of Portugal, presented two modern productions by choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti "Cantata" and "Passo Cantinuo" at the festival. Both of them explore gender relations "man-woman"; and both are set and performed in the technique of contemporary, which the dancers perform masterfully.

After the arabesque classical variations aspirant to the top, modern dance, feeding on earth energy and sensing the floor with bare feet of dancers, introduced a new stream into the heated atmosphere of the auditorium. It's a pity, that the ramp shared the spectators and artists. Contact in modern dance is a necessary thing, it's not without reason that the dance of Carlos Pinillos is noted by critics as a mixture of clean technology and piercing contact with the public. But the contact of the artists with the audience still happened, despite the orchestra pit that separates them - a barrage of applause serves as a proof of this, the public did not let the actors leave the stage for a long time. Well, who else doubts, will the viewer understand contemporary art? I think it's just a matter of quality of an artistic product.

And apparently for this very reason, the ballet master's experience of famous dancer Ivan Vasiliev, "Amadeus"choreographic performance did not find such a hot response from the audience. Trying to joke on the theme of Rococo and the composer-genius did not work, perhaps because of the indistinctness of the idea and plastic text, or maybe because the idol of many ballet fans, shining for a while on stages of Russian and American theaters, is now not in enough good ballet shape? And it was very noticeable when the dancer performed the pas de deux from the "Flame of Paris", which is so fond of showing off at competitions by the owners of large jumps and swift spins. The situation, to some extent, was saved by the fragile and technically strong Anastasia Stashkevich, a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia. But, in general, the impression of the brilliant dancer once performed, whose photographs decorated posters of this festival, can be described in one word - disappointment. Terpsichore, despite its airiness, has a heavy temper, and does not forgive negligence in relation to the profession...

However, the impression was immediately corrected by Bakhtiyar Adamzhan and Maya Makhateli, so technically impeccably and enthusiastically performed the classical pas de deux of Diana and Acteon from the ballet "Esmeralda" at the beginning of the evening, and blew up the hall with brilliant performance of the famous pas de deux from the ballet "Don Quixote" in the finale of the evening. The leading soloist of "Astana Opera" theater, the owner of the Grand prix of international ballet competitions in New York, Istanbul, Astana, and the first prizes at competitions in Moscow, Seoul, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk, Bakhtiyar Adamzhan, despite the heavy load of popularity, still easily flies in a rapid gesture on the stage, soaks up into the air slightly hanging there, so gently lands in a beautiful pose, enjoys the accuracy of movement and quite a bit, moderately plays pranks, decorating double and triple pirouettes with unexpected positions of hands and feet.

While many stars of the Gala concert were familiar to the public on previous festivals and competitions, the prima ballerina of the Dutch National Ballet Maya Makhateli became a pleasant discovery for Astana, the famous prima is performing for the first time in Kazakhstan. The impeccable technique of the ballerina, beauty of the lines, big step, high leap and special charm and grace made her performance unforgettable. And thirty-two fouettes in the finale of "Don Quixote", complicated by double rotations (the highest technical chic!), were executed by the ballerina from one point, as if glued to the tablet of the stage with magic glue!

In a word, it was a real parade of stars, and grateful spectators made a noisy ovation, causing artists to come on stage again and again. The starry rain of brilliant confetti traditionally showered the stage, the curtain slowly closed and the public continued to discuss the features and merits of each of the artists for a long time.

The II International Festival of Ballet Art "Eurasian Dance Festival", organized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan within the framework of the program "Rukhani Zhanhiru" and dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Astana, has ended, leaving behind the warmest and most enthusiastic memories and hope for future meetings with the most diverse forms of fine dance art.

The festival is over. Long live the festival!