Alena Kovaleva – Landgraf on Dance

“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”

“Raymonda”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
April 6, 2023

“Raymonda” is a foundation of Russian ballet repertoire, but is rarely performed in Europe. After his flight to the west, Nureyev staged several versions of the work for western companies, staying faithful to Petipa’s 1898 original. The few European choreographers who’ve tackled the piece – among them Pontus Lidberg for the Royal Swedish Ballet in 2014 and Rachel Beaujean for the Dutch National Ballet in 2022 – adjusted Lydia Pashkova’s libretto to match western tastes. The only Petipa/Pashkova-based Russian production I saw was Konstantin Sergeyev’s from 1948, presented by the Maryinsky Ballet on their 2014 tour to Baden-Baden. That production felt alien in Baden-Baden’s modern Festspielhaus, reinforcing the reputation of “Raymonda” as dusty and outdated. In last year’s review of Tamara Rojo’s “Raymonda” for the English National Ballet, London critic Jenny Gilbert went so far as to call Raymonda an “ineffectual heroine” (implying that the numerous renowned ballerinas who’ve taken on that leading role in the last 125 years were foolish in doing so) and the plot “offensively silly.” She also claimed that Russian “ballet culture has a higher tolerance of such [silly] things.” After watching the Bolshoi Ballet’s “Raymonda”, I’m inclined to think that the western perspective misses what “Raymonda” is actually about. Continue reading “Well kept”