From 24 September to 4 October the Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra will be presenting performances of Raymonda and Cinderella in California on the western coast of the USA. The approaching tour has been organised by the Ardani Artists production company with which the Mariinsky Theatre has collaborated for many years. On the eve of the American tour Ardani Artists’ president Sergei Danilian answered several questions.
– You have been working with ballet for several years. What do American audiences go to see – the Mariinsky “brand”, specific performers or specific productions?
– I remember the troubling period of the rebranding of the “Kirov” as the “Mariinsky Ballet” – many extraordinary things happened! The rebranding was assisted by the titanic efforts of Valery Gergiev, Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, first and foremost through regular tours by the Mariinsky Orchestra, which was also known as the Kirov Orchestra, then later through tours by the opera and ballet companies. Of course, over the past fifteen or twenty years those who remember the “Kirov” have grown up, even if they haven’t grown old, and attracting new audiences is an exacting process in any of the performing arts. And there have been several generation changes of performers in the Mariinsky Ballet, too. I have been lucky that when actively collaborating with the Mariinsky Theatre the ballet playbill listed such names as Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, Svetlana Zakharova, Igor Zelensky, Farukh Ruzimatov, Andrian Fadeyev and Leonid Sarafanov to name but a few. The participation of these dancers of the ballet company in tours to North America has always been very important for me. They are recognised and loved, their art formed an image of the new Mariinsky Ballet. It is hard to say what works best today, I think it’s a combination of everything – the names, the brand, the repertoire. The Mariinsky Ballet has always been outstanding. I don’t know any company that dances the classical repertoire better than the Mariinsky Ballet.
– The Mariinsky Ballet often tours to America. How would you describe the dynamics of American audiences’ interest in what the Mariinsky Ballet is doing? Do political situations affect interest in tours?
– I can say that the political situation has absolutely no effect on performances by Russian dancers, and certainly not on performances by the Mariinsky Ballet. I would say it’s even the reverse, arguably culture remains the one solid bridge between our countries and serves as a reminder of our peoples. The problem is that over at least the last fifteen years the concept of “touring” has taken on a different meaning and the tasks have changed. If, in the past, tours were basically a source of income then today tours have more of a function to do with image. Many dance companies (not to be compared with the Mariinsky Theatre) today tour only to remind people that they exist! And to show what they survive on today. Interest in performances by the Mariinsky Ballet is generally linked with what created its glory – the classical legacy. For me today, the best classical ballets are in the Mariinsky Theatre’s repertoire and over the past fifteen years of our collaboration in North America we have produced almost everything of which the theatre can be proud. The theatre’s repertoire is unique!
– When did your collaboration with the Mariinsky Theatre begin? For you, as a producer, was the first project more of a risk than the current one?
– We’ve been working with the Mariinsky Theatre for twenty years, fifteen of which have involved tours to cities in Canada and the USA. Of course, the first major tour was a great risk. For example, on the day of a performance in Los Angeles there was some accident and the electricity surrounding the entire theatre territory was shut down, including at the hotel where the company was staying. The lifts weren’t working, neither were the lavatories or the air conditioning, the theatre was closed even to the performers, and the audience began to return their tickets without speaking to me first. We had to take an immediate decision. The performance was changed to the next day, and that was a Monday, thank goodness that day we didn’t have to fly anywhere but just get the bus to a suburb of Los Angeles. But then we didn’t yet know that our adventures were only beginning: because of forest fires around Costa Mesa the local airport was closed down, and that was from where we were to fly to the next city with a transfer in Phoenix. The ash was coming down in the air and falling on us, there was this strange sensation of ashy rain. We had to make an administrative decision and take an overnight trip on buses from Costa Mesa to the airport in Phoenix in order to make the connecting flight and arrive in Detroit. And we travelled through the night through burning forests... In 2006 we held a Mariinsky Theatre festival featuring the opera and ballet companies, two orchestras and the chorus as well as the Academy of Young Singers: six hundred performers, eighteen performances over twenty-one days! That festival happened as part of the opening of the new concert hall in Costa Mesa where the current autumn tour is opening.
– Why were Raymonda and Cinderella chosen for this tour?
– Costa Mesa is a special place on the cultural map of America. The Segerstrom Center bears the name of its recently deceased founder Henry Segerstrom, a unique man and philanthropist who left behind him a staggering centre for the performing arts. The Mariinsky Theatre performs there regularly, and over the years, as I have already said, we have staged almost all of the theatre’s classical repertoire, but we have never had Raymonda, it’s a ballet that is not well known in America. But our task is to show not just what audiences know well but also to show them what should be interesting.
With regard to Cinderella the choice of this production is linked first and foremost to the fact that today in the USA Alexei Ratmansky is known for his work with the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Recently Cinderella was staged to great acclaim in New York, and it was immediately decided to ask this production be taken on tour. The more so as in Berkley and Los Angeles the title role will be performed by Diana Vishneva, whose name is well-known to fans of the Mariinsky Ballet. I am delighted that the tour will also feature such equally well-known names as those of Viktoria Tereshkina and Vladimir Shklyarov as well as representatives of the next generation of lead soloists, among them Oxana Skorik, Timur Askerov, Kristina Shapran, Anastasia Matvienko, Konstantin Zverev and others whose talents will charm the hearts of American audiences.
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