Landgraf on Dance

23. February 202623. February 2026

Heavy

“Planida” (“Russian Character”/“Nerve”/“Francesca da Rimini”)
MuzArts
Maly Theatre
Moscow, Russia
February 16, 2026

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

Due to popular demand, MuzArts’ triple bill Planida returned to the Maly Theatre this Monday. I was previously familiar only with the video production. Seeing it live opened new perspectives.
The cast of Pavel Glukhov’s Russian Character was the same; Alexei Putintsev portrayed the tanker, Yegor Dryomov; Elizaveta Kokoreva danced his bride, Katya; Ekaterina Krysanova and Mikhail Lobukhin played Yegor’s parents; and Georgy Gusev and Ivan Sorokin performed the roles of Yegor’s comrades.

Some differences between the video and the live event were immediately noticeable. Yegor’s burning tank seemed to generate a heat so fierce that it radiated into the auditorium. The huge opening in the black backdrop, behind which incandescent light blazed either depicted the tank’s vision slit or gave insight into Yegor’s memories. Often, the fire’s gleam bathed the stage in red. The birds circling above the sea of flames, which I had wrongly believed to be ravens, were birds of prey.

Also different was the staggering force of the music, which was again played live by Moscow’s Youth Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Andrei Kolyasnikov and by accordionist Aidar Gainullin. Its pulse drove the protagonists’ real and inner battles. Gainullin’s spirited Piazzolla-like interludes eased the fraught atmosphere. The singing of the Ippolitov-Ivanov Chamber Choir of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute deepened the impression of a sacred service (with the family’s table serving as an altar). At times, their vocals pierced the soul.

Fooling around with Yegor’s scarf (the only keepsake he had from Katya), his comrades poked fun, but as Sorokin repeatedly snatched the scarf, Yegor’s melancholy intensified. Thinking back to Katya, he relived the sensuality of their romance.
Yegor’s mother wavered between sadness and anger in the video, but in this live version, Krysanova portrayed her as worn out by grief. She and her son were very close, and his disfigured, burnt face made her innermost being cramp. As a grown man, he was too big to be cradled, but she found other ways to comfort him, and he, in turn, cradled her.
Russian Character was hard to digest. Its grave energy weighed down on me long into the evening.

The network of black neurons in the first scene of Anna Shchekleina’s Nerve prompted many in the audience to take photos, though the set wasn’t as perfect as on screen. The lighting revealed that the dancers already wore the costumes for the following scene (skintight, full-body leotards printed with skeletons and muscles of a human body) and made the tube-like axons connected to their heads shimmer red instead of black. Once the neurons had degenerated, skinless, robot-like individuals felt their way through a black, fathomless space—at least that’s how it appeared in the camera lens’s wide-angle shot.

Seen up close, the impression of surreal, forlorn beings was gone. A man’s solo, by comparison, benefited from the proximity between the stage and the auditorium. He struggled to heal the mental damage as though the existence of humanity was at stake. (One can extrapolate how much effort and discipline would be necessary to protect our neurons—and ultimately our nature—these days.)

A new era was heralded the moment a wave washed Ildar Gainutdinov on stage. He resembled an unblemished, savior-like newborn who was to inspire a new, complete harmony. The group adopted it in a sacred process, though at times it lost the connection to the music.

Elizaveta Kokoreva also danced the title role of Yuri Possokhov’s Francesca da Rimini (it must be mentioned that she—as well as Alexei Putintsev—performed leading and quite demanding roles in the Bolshoi Ballet’s Marco Spada the previous evening). Denis Rodkin portrayed Francesca’s lover, Paolo; Igor Tsvirko gave his debut as Francesca’s husband, Giovanni.

To be clear, Kokoreva and Rodkin were spectacular. Their figures’ irrepressible attraction swept them across the stage like leaves in a storm. Breathtaking lifts dotted their frantic pas de deux. Scarcely had they rested before passion overcame them again.
Tormented by insatiable lust, they found no peace.

Tsvirko’s Giovanni was fine, except that his rage about the adultery didn’t seem berserk enough for murder. The final winner was hell. Its three guardians (Alexei Gainutdinov, Anton Gainutdinov, and Karim Abdullin) oversaw the sinners who, by that time were all flattened by fate.

Links:		Website of the Maly Theatre
		Trailer Planida
Photos:	1.	Pavel Sorokin (Yegor’s comrade), Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov), and Georgy Gusev (Yegor`s comrade); “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026
	2.	Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov), “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026
	3.	Pavel Sorokin (Yegor’s comrade) and Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov), “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026
	4.	Pavel Sorokin and Georgy Gusev (Yegor`s comrades); “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026
	5.	Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov) and Ekaterina Krysanova (Maria Polikarpovna), “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026
	6.	Ekaterina Krysanova (Maria Polikarpovna) and Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov), “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026
	7.	Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov) and Ekaterina Krysanova (Maria Polikarpovna), “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026
	8.	Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov) and ensemble, “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026
	9.	Alexei Putintsev (Yegor Dryomov) and ensemble, “Russian Character” by Pavel Glukhov, MuzArts 2026
	10.	Ensemble, “Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026
	11.	“Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026
	12.	“Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026
	13.	“Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026
	14.	Ildar Gainutdinov, “Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026
	15.	Ensemble, “Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026
	16.	Ildar Gainutdinov and ensemble, “Nerve” by Anna Shchekleina, MuzArts 2026
	17.	Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026
	18.	Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca) and Denis Rodkin (Paolo), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026
	19.	Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca) and Denis Rodkin (Paolo), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026
	20.	Denis Rodkin (Paolo), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026
	21.	Denis Rodkin (Paolo) and Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026
	22.	Igor Tsvirko (Giovanni), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026
	23.	Igor Tsvirko (Giovanni), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026
	24.	Igor Tsvirko (Giovanni) and Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca), “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026
	25.	Igor Tsvirko (Giovanni), Denis Rodkin (Paolo), and Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca); “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026
	26.	Alexei Gainutdinov, Anton Gainutdinov, and Karim Abdullin (Guardians of Hell), Igor Tsvirko (Giovanni), Denis Rodkin (Paolo), and Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca); “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026
	27.	Alexei Gainutdinov, Anton Gainutdinov, and Karim Abdullin (Guardians of Hell), Denis Rodkin (Paolo), and Elizaveta Kokoreva (Francesca); “Francesca da Rimini” by Yuri Possokhov, MuzArts 2026
		photos Russian Character and Nerve © MuzArts/Batyr Annadurdiev photos Francesca da Rimini © MuzArts/Irina Abdullaeva
Editing:		Kayla Kauffman

I.Abdullaeva

22. February 202623. February 2026

“I’m a supporter of talented people”

“Marco Spada”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre (Historic Stage)
Moscow, Russia
February 15, 2026

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

The Bolshoi Ballet has two choreographies by Pierre Lacotte (1932-2023) in its repertory: his recreation of Petipa’s La Fille du Pharaon (which he entrusted to no other company) and Marco Spada, a 1857 ballet d’action for the Paris Opéra by Joseph Mazilier to music by Daniel Auber, which was lost except for a few sketches and reviews. In 1981, Lacotte choreographed and staged it from scratch for the Teatro Dell’Opera di Roma with Rudolf Nureyev in the title role. Despite being peripatetic, Nureyev was so eager to participate in the production that he signed a contract on the tablecloth during a restaurant outing with Lacotte. “I, Rudolf Nureyev, guarantee that for the duration of a month I will attend daily rehearsals in Rome for the ballet Marco Spada,” he wrote.

Continue reading ““I’m a supporter of talented people””

15. February 202622. February 2026

Traumata

“Planida” (“Russian Character”/“Nerve”/“Francesca da Rimini”)
MuzArts
Maly Theatre/Alexandrinsky Theatre
Moscow/St. Petersburg, Russia
September/November 2025 (video)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

Tomorrow, MuzArts’ triple bill Planida returns to Moscow’s Maly Theatre where it premiered in September 2025. It combines two old pieces—Nerve by Anna Shchekleina and Francesca da Rimini by Yuri Possokhov—along with Russian Character, a then-new creation by Pavel Glukhov. As in previous productions, dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet will be on stage. Thanks to MuzArts’ executive producer, Daria Faezova, I was able to watch videos of the program recorded at the Maly Theatre and St. Petersburg’s Alexandrinsky Theatre. Continue reading “Traumata”

11. January 202615. February 2026

Live Life to the Fullest

“Zorba the Greek”
Tartar State Academic Ballet
Jalil Opera and Ballet Tartar State Academic Theatre
Kazan, Russia
November 2025 (video)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

“A man needs a little madness or never dares to cut his ropes and be free,” urged Zorba the buttoned-up aristocrat Basil, in Michael Cacoyannis’s 1964 film Zorba the Greek. The film is based on Nikos Kazantzakis’s 1946 novel Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas, won three Academy Awards, and featured Anthony Quinn as Zorba and Alan Bates as Basil. Zorba, an earthy and boisterous peasant, had this kind of madness and, on their venture to Crete, instilled it in Basil as well.
In addition to the film, the novel inspired a musical, radio play, telemovie, and ballet, which was choreographed by Lorca Massine (Léonide Massine’s son), includes music by Mikis Theodorakis, and premiered at the Arena di Verona in 1988. Vladimir Vasiliev and Gheorghe Iancu danced the leading roles. Continue reading “Live Life to the Fullest”

4. January 202611. January 2026

Believe in Miracles

“The Nutcracker. Waiting for a Miracle”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
December 29, 2025 (documentary)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

Of the many special moments in Yuri Grigorovich’s The Nutcracker, there’s one you shouldn’t miss: when the Christmas tree is growing, and Marie’s transformation takes place. Then you need to make a wish. At least, that’s the insiders’ tip from the Bolshoi Ballet’s artists involved in the production.

Grigorovich’s The Nutcracker premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1966 and was performed for the eight hundredth time earlier in December. Perhaps that’s why the Russian Channel One broadcast a one-hour documentary about The Nutcracker at the end of December. The film outlines the plot, provides insight into the music, set, and costumes, and looks at sixty years of performance history, during which nothing changed. Numerous coaches and ballet masters guarantee that Grigorovich’s legacy is preserved and kept alive. Continue reading “Believe in Miracles”

27. December 20254. January 2026

Flimsy

“Marie Antoinette”
Vienna State Ballet & Volksoper Wien
Volksoper Wien
Vienna, Austria
December 20, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Thierry Malandain’s Marie Antoinette was the Vienna State Ballet’s second premiere under Alessandra Ferri’s directorship. The one-act piece, created for the Malandain Ballet Biarritz, received its premiere in 2019 at the Palace of Versailles’s Opéra Royal. Its stage was inaugurated in 1770 during Marie Antoinette’s lavish wedding to Louis Auguste, heir to the throne.
Marie Antoinette follows the life of the then only fourteen-year-old Dauphine of France until her execution by guillotine in 1793. That’s twenty-three years of life (nineteen of which Marie Antoinette was Queen consort) to narrate. But Malandain tells little, and the ninety minutes of Marie Antoinette dragged on. Continue reading “Flimsy”

25. December 202527. December 2025

Doing the Company Proud

“Gala pour les 50 ans de l’Académie Princess Grace”
L’Académie Princesse Grace
Salle Prince Pierre, Grimaldi Forum
Monte Carlo, Monaco
December 19, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo has much to celebrate this season: the company’s fortieth anniversary and the associated Academy Princess Grace’s fiftieth anniversary. The company will host a gala in July 2026, and the Academy’s gala took place last Friday. It combined a “best of” selection of works performed by the Academy during the past sixteen years. Princess Caroline of Hanover, president of Les Ballet de Monte-Carlo, attended the gala.

The legs of seven girls flew high to George Gershwin’s I’ve got Rhythm, and the joy and confidence in their faces, as well as the freedom, dash, and buoyancy of their movements, left no doubt that this would be a pleasant evening. Michel Rahn’s 2011 neoclassical choreography of almost the same title, We’ve Got Rhythm!, looked Balanchine-esque and employed a large group of male and female students. Continue reading “Doing the Company Proud”

22. December 202525. December 2025

“A Splendor for the Eyes”

“The Sleeping Beauty”
The Australian Ballet
Sydney Opera House/Joan Sutherland Theatre
Sydney, Australia
December 16, 2025 (live stream)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

According to the Australian Ballet’s artistic director, David Hallberg, The Sleeping Beauty is “a splendor for the eyes.” The production, which originated ten years ago under the directorship of Hallberg’s predecessor, David McAllister (who also contributed choreography based on Petipa’s original), is more; it is food for the soul.

As if zooming in on the painting of a distant palace projected on the curtain, the first scene showed the royal writing cabinet, where the whimsical Catalabutte (Jarryd Madden) omitted Carabosse from the list of invitees to Princess Aurora’s christening party. The curve of the painting’s frame recurred in the shape of the banisters that led down to the royal hall. Jon Buswell’s lighting increased the impression of paintings in motion. Continue reading ““A Splendor for the Eyes””

12. December 202512. February 2026

Lasting Icons

“Two Annas”
MuzArts
Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre
St. Petersburg, Russia
December 2025 (video)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

The production company MuzArts, founded in 2014 to showcase the Bolshoi Ballet’s prima ballerina, Svetlana Zakharova, has grown into a vital force of Russia’s ballet scene. Their recent production, Two Annas, was supported by the Diaghilev P.S. International Festival of Arts, a prominent, intercultural, cross-genre event that has been held in St. Petersburg since 2009. Two Annas premiered at St. Petersburg’s Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theatre this February and received its Moscow premiere at the Maly Theatre. Thanks to the MuzArts’s director, Yuri Baranov, I was able to watch a video of the production. Continue reading “Lasting Icons”

2. December 202512. December 2025

Adventurous

“Peter Pan”
Vienna State Ballet & Volksoper Wien
Volksoper Wien
Vienna, Austria
November 22, 2025

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2025 by Ilona Landgraf

Vienna’s Volksoper buzzed with excitement shortly before the performance of Vesna Orlić’s dance adaptation of Peter Pan. The great many children in the auditorium fell into eager silence when a rousing fanfare opened the ballet.

Orlić, leading ballet master of the Volksoper ensemble, began choreographing in 2006. For her 2019 Peter Pan, she was justifiably awarded Austria’s music theater prize. The production, which is based on James Matthew Barrie’s 1911 novel Peter and Wendy (known as Peter Pan), is witty, gripping, and great entertainment for the young and the old. I don’t know why the company’s former artistic director, Martin Schläpfer, shelved it. His successor, Alessandra Ferri, instantly decided on a revival. Continue reading “Adventurous”

26. November 20252. December 2025

Mockery

“Die Fledermaus” (“The Bat”)
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
November 21, 2025

For Johann Strauss II’s bicentennial, the Vienna State Ballet revived Roland Petit’s 1979 ballet adaptation of Strauss’s famous operetta, Die Fledermaus (The Bat). It’s accompanied by a “best of” selection of compositions by Johann Strauss II, his father, Johann Strauss I, and his brother, Josef. The score’s oomph and gaiety are infectious. Strauss’ music, particularly the Viennese waltzes (of which Die Fledermaus has plenty), is part of the DNA of the Vienna State Opera’s orchestra, and under Luciano Di Martino’s baton, it fizzed like champagne. Melodies rose boisterously to a tipping point, balanced provocatively on the edge, and rippled down with relish as if on a rollercoaster ride. Continue reading “Mockery”

14. November 202526. November 2025

Applied Faith

“Romeo and Juliet”
Hungarian National Ballet
Hungarian State Opera
Budapest, Hungary
November 8-9, 2025 (evening performance and matinee)

Most ballet companies have a version of Romeo and Juliet. The Hungarian National Ballet’s version, by László Seregi (1929-2012), has been on the program regularly since its premiere in 1985. A crowd puller, the opera house was sold out at both performances I watched.

Seregi’s name is well known to Hungarian ballet lovers. Initially trained as a folk dancer, he joined the opera’s corps de ballet when it was short on artists during the 1956 revolution. In 1977, he became the company’s director but, feeling burdened by his duties, suffered from an enduring artistic crisis. Continue reading “Applied Faith”

27. October 202514. November 2025

Reborn

“Callirhoe”
Vienna State Ballet
Vienna State Opera
Vienna, Austria
October 19, 2025 (live stream)

The title of Martin Schläpfer’s farewell choreography, Pathétique, summarized the condition of the Vienna State Ballet he left behind after five years as its artistic director. His successor, Alessandra Ferri, restructured the company. Some dancers left, and others joined, some of whom were returnees. Last weekend, she presented the first premiere under her reign, Alexei Ratmansky’s Callirhoe (which he choreographed for ABT in 2020 under the title Of Love and Rage). It felt like the rebirth of the company. I cannot remember when I last saw the Vienna State Ballet perform with such force. Congratulations! Continue reading “Reborn”

21. October 202527. October 2025

Watered Down

“Le Corsaire”
Korean National Ballet
Forum Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg, Germany
October 18, 2025

Last weekend, the Korean National Ballet presented Le Corsaire at the Forum Ludwigsburg. The tour stopped at Suejin Kang’s, the company’s artistic director, former home in the Stuttgart region, where she is a cherished former principal of Stuttgart Ballet. The senior guard of Stuttgart’s ballet circle therefore flocked to the performance as if it were a family gathering.

The Koreans’ Le Corsaire premiered in 2020 and is by Jungbin Song, a soloist of the company who began choreographing in 2016. He kept some of Petipa’s signature choreography (such as the tender pas de deux of Medora and Conrad in Act II; the pas de trois of Medora, Conrad, and Ali; and the Grand Pas de Trois des Odalisques) but rewrote the plot significantly. Continue reading “Watered Down”

5. August 202525. August 2025

The Art of Embarrassing Oneself

“Stravinsky in Paris” (“Farewell in Paris”/“Le Sacre du Printemps”)
State Ballet of the Gärtnerplatztheater, Munich
Forum Ludwigsburg
Ludwigsburg, Germany
July 30, 2025

Since 1932, the city of Ludwigsburg in Baden-Württemberg has hosted an annual summer festival featuring various cultural genres. Many events are held at the Ludwigsburg Palace, a vast complex that served as the Duke of Württemberg’s residence after its completion in 1733. Munich’s State Ballet of the Gärtnerplatztheater, whose Stravinsky in Paris marked the festival’s final dance event, performed at the Ludwigsburg Forum near the palace. Last October, the Gärtnerplatztheater showed Troja (“Troy”) by the Greek-born Andonis Foniadakis on its tour to Ludwigsburg. Its display of sexist abuse was annoying. As the press praised Stravinsky in Paris as a “confetti rocket,” I was curious about its “sophisticated dance and music.”
Stravinsky in Paris, a co-production of the Gärtenerplatztheater and the Ludwigsburg Festival, recently premiered in Munich. The double bill combines Jeroen Verbruggen’s Farewell in Paris and Marco Goecke’s Le Sacre du Printemps.
The nonchalant steps of the straw-hatted men who opened Farewell to Paris seemed inspired by a blend of Broadway style and Parisian savoir vivre. In their pale pink of their blazers and pants, they seemed to belong in a little girl’s dream (costumes by Emmanuel Maria). Continue reading “The Art of Embarrassing Oneself”