Gabriela Komleva dazzled at the Kirov Theatre with her brilliant classical dance technique. Vera Krasovskaya, an indisputable authority on professional ballet critique in Leningrad, once referred to the ballerina as a “guardian of the canons” of the purity of the St Petersburg school. Komleva – a pupil of Vera Kostrovitskaya, an outstanding teacher of the Vaganova method – was always remarkable for her precision of form and supreme musicality. Her virtuoso technique, refined sense of style and freedom in dance opened the door for Komleva to depict highly diverse classical images. The ballerina succeeded in giving refined instrumentalism myriad shades and colours: in The Sleeping Beauty she shone with youth in the measured steps of the role of Aurora, in the triumphant cantilena of the choreography of La Bayadère she presented a loving Nikia and, in Don Quixote, her sharp battements and whirlwinds of pirouettes helped the dancer create quite an image as the jealous and playful Kitri.
In this ballet, Komleva’s Spanish temperament was praised by the countrymen of the female protagonist. “The ballerina Komleva imperiously grips one with her dynamism and she carefully builds contrasts, creating a convincingly integral character, full of life. This is dance fireworks, a confirmation of the fullness of life, a hymn to happiness,” wrote one Spanish critic about Komleva’s Kitri.
But her reputation as a classical ballerina is just one side to the dancer’s skill. From the very beginning of her creative career, Gabriela Komleva worked frequently and enthusiastically with contemporary choreographers. The roles of the Woman Who Lost Her Beloved in Shore of Hope and the Girl in Leningrad Symphony (both ballets by Igor Belsky) which Komleva created form part of the “gold reserves” of the Soviet performing arts. The ballerina demonstrated her taste for contemporary choreography, appearing in works by Georgy Alexidze and imbuing the plastique of Mekhmeneh Bahnu in Yuri Grigorovich’s The Legend of Love with pure drama. Neither was she afraid of experimental works by Boris Eifman or Dmitry Bryantsev, while in the eccentric individuality of Leonid Yakobson’s opus Cowboy she displayed her gift for comedy.
Today Gabriela Komleva is passing on her rich and varied stage experience to young dancers. Her perfect grasp of the St Petersburg style and her understanding of its foundations and specific nature have allowed her to stage classical masterpieces at various theatres throughout the world. And many foreign ballerinas who come to appear in Mariinsky Theatre productions master the subtle qualities of St Petersburg ballet under the guidance of Gabriela Komleva.
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