The Mariinsky – the past, present and future of ballet

The Mariinsky Ballet’s three-week tour to London has come to a close.

People are still talking of the St Petersburg productions and British critics are already eagerly awaiting the return of Mariinsky Theatre dancers. “Showing young stars, and old legends; ruffling feathers, and being predictable; winning new audiences, and helping old fans fall in love all over again – that was the Mariinsky in London in 2014. Now, when are they coming back?” wrote the internet portal The Arts Desk.
Stressing the significance of the recent tour, the portal referred to the fact that “the Mariinsky have to stand for the state of Russian cultural politics, the past, present and future of ballet, and their presence in town becomes as consuming as the Olympics to dance fans, who become temporarily conversant with the names of Mariinsky second soloists in the manner of football fans mugging up on Costa Rican goalkeepers during the World Cup.”
The final note of the tour programme came with Alexei Ratmansky’s Cinderella. The reviewer for The Arts Desk commented on the choice of this production to bring the tour to a conclusion, stating that “it was good to end the season with the Ratmansky – a vision of the new work (like it or loathe it) a company needs to go into the future.”
Most of all, the critic of The Telegraph was impressed by Diana Vishneva as Cinderella: “Vishneva, whose grave incandescence perfectly echoes Prokofiev and who communicates emotion without fear or restraint, is nothing short of a goddess.” The critic also wrote of how “Zverev has the pure lines of a dancer trained in the Vaganova Ballet Academy style.” Meanwhile, the reviewer for The Independent was impressed by the dancers’ duet – “Vishneva and Konstantin Zverev make an enchanting pair of lovers, both tender and vulnerable.”
The Arts Desk wrote of the “fabulous performances from Nadezhda Batoeva and Vladimir Shklyarov as Cinderella and the prince. Young Batoeva, still only a second soloist, is a quietly exciting dancer: she has a soubrette’s quickness in the feet, a pliant, graceful upper body in lyrical passages, and an expressive, likeable face. There’s not much character development over the course of the evening in her shy, eager, dreamy Cinderella, but she’s easily appealing and charismatic enough to get the audience rooting for her. Shklyarov has already won hearts on this tour, and with reason: he’s a fine dancer, a chivalrous partner and a versatile actor.” Summing up the results of the three-week marathon – which put the current potential of the Mariinsky Ballet on prominent display – the critic for The Telegraph stated that “Diana Vishneva, together with Uliana Lopatkina and the British dancer Xander Parish, were the stars of this season, embodying ballet at its timeless best.” The reviewer of The Arts Desk commented on “rising stars” Kimin Kim, Alexander Sergeyev and Vasily Tkachenko, advising that they are more of the “boys to watch.”