Igor Gorelkin – Landgraf on Dance

“Cinderella”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
September 05, 2026 (Historic Stage)

by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf

Of the two Cinderellas that premiered last May on major Russian stages in celebration of Sergei Prokofiev’s 135th birthday anniversary, I saw Nadezha Kalinina’s version for the Kazan Ballet a few weeks later on video. With some delay, I got to know Vyacheslav Lopatin’s Cinderella for the Bolshoi Ballet last Saturday during the new season’s opening matinee. Lopatin, principal of the company and fledgling ballet master, had never choreographed before. Giving his debut with no less than a full-blown production was due to the artistic director’s, Makhar Vaziev’s, encouragement and support. The outcome isn’t (and realistically couldn’t be) mind-boggling, but it is respectable.

Continue reading “First Time”

“The Sleeping Beauty”
Bolshoi Ballet
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
September 07, 2024 (live stream)

The Bolshoi Ballet opened its 249th season with a revival of Yuri Grigorovich’s The Sleeping Beauty, which has been absent from the stage for four years. Because of the thorough change of décor, the production was announced as a premiere. It swapped the opulent (and often criticized) sets and costumes that Ezio Frigerio and Franca Squarciapino designed for the 2011 revival (celebrating the reopening of the theater’s Historic Stage after six years of refurbishment) for the restrained décor that Simon Virsaladze (1909–1989) created for Grigorovich’s second version of the ballet in 1973. The subdued hues and aquarelle-ish style of its courtly surroundings direct the gaze toward the colorful costumes (recalling French court fashion from King Louis XIII’s to the Sun King, Louis XIV’s, reign), beautiful flower garlands and bouquets at Aurora’s birthday party, and, most importantly, the dancers and their performances. Raising the curtain didn’t elicit oohs and aahs from the audience as, for example, Jürgen Rose’s décor for Marcia Haydée’s Sleeping Beauty regularly has done on Western stages. Continue reading “An Opening Salute”