The ballet festival meets the press

Two hours before the start of the first festival performance media representatives met acting head of the Mariinsky Ballet Company Yuri Fateyev, production choreographer of Roland Petit’s ballet Le Jeune Homme et la Mort Luigi Bonino and guest dancers Teresa Reichlen, Daniel Ulbricht and Matthew Golding.

Yuri Fateyev welcomed the journalists and presented the press-conference participants. This year the festival premiere was Roland Petit’s legendary ballet Le Jeune Homme et la Mort from 1946, and critics focussed particular attention on this event. As Fateyev said, “the most important thing is that the ballet has been revived in its original form. This goes for the choreography as well as the costumes and the sets. There are many parallels in this ballet with black and white film – after all, it was created after Jean Cocteau’s mime drama. I specially showed our dancers Cocteau’s film 1950 film Orphée featuring Jean Marais and María Casares to help them get into the spirit of the age. I would also like to highlight the work of Luigi Bonino who has been highly demanding about the details.”

Luigi Bonino stressed that “this ballet is always hard to rehearse.” “To start with we worked without music, learning the rhythm. I always begin with the rhythm so that it becomes part of the dancer’s nature, his body. That’s hard, and it was unusual for the dancer’s to rehearse without music.” Bonino also underlined the fact that today Le Jeune Homme et la Mort is regarded as a living contemporary work, although it was created half a century ago: “It was staged for Jean Babilée, a brilliant dancer who was almost feline in her plastique and energy.” “Today’s premiere was a continuation of that tradition for me – an incredibly important stage. Because my task is to bring Petit’s idea to the audience – and more importantly to the cast – and he dreamed of his original version of the ballet being performed at the Mariinsky Theatre.

Leading New York City Ballet soloists Teresa Reichlen and Daniel Ulbricht shared their impressions of their visit to the Mariinsky Theatre with the journalists prior to their evening performance of George Balanchine’s ballet Prodigal Son. Reichlen expressed her delight at her “good fortune to be in Balanchine’s native theatre and soak up the atmosphere that surrounded the great choreographer.” The ballerina also noted that “St Petersburg audiences are different from those in New York as they are much more passionate about art and being engaged.” Daniel Ulbricht saw his visit as a symbol of fate – he was born in St Petersburg, Florida (USA) and for that reason he has often been thought to be a Russian.

Principal Dancer with the Netherlands’ Nationale Ballet Matthew Golding spoke of his vision of the role of Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake which he will be performing at the Festival on 23 March. Last week the dancer performed as Siegfried in Van Dantzig’s version, “presenting the image in a simple and grounded manner,” while at the Mariinsky Theatre “in a classical interpretation of the choreography for Siegfried he was a true prince.” For Golding this was “an opportunity to learn new choreography” for which he was particularly grateful to his “wonderful partner” Alina Somova as Odette-Odile and the brilliant coaches Tatiana Terekhova and Igor Petrov who are, he believes, professionally in a league of their own.