Ballet gala

PROGRAMME:
I. PAS DE QUATRE
Music by Cesare Pugni
Choreography by Anton Dolin
Performed by Diana Vishneva, Olga Smirnova, Kristina Shapran, Anastasia Lukina

II. “PAQUITA” GRAND PAS
Music by Ludwig Minkus
Choreography by Marius Petipa (1881)
Reconstruction and staging of Marius Petipa's choreography: Yuri Burlaka
Costume design by Irina Press
Performed by Maria Khoreva, Vladimir Shklyarov
Variations: Maria Bulanova, Daria Ionova, Anastasia Lukina, Anastasia Nuikina, Anastasia Smirnova (Mikhailovsky Theatre), Zlata Yalinich

III. THE OLD MAN AND ME
Music by J.J. Cale, Igor Stravinsky, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Choreography by Hans van Manen
Production: Mea Venema
Set and Costume designs by Keso Dekker
Lighting design by Joob Caboort
Performed by Diana Vishneva and Vladimir Malakhov
Performed to recorded music

IV. MARGUERITE AND ARMAND
Music by Franz Liszt (Piano Sonata in B Minor)
Orchestrated by Dudley Simpson
Choreography by Frederick Ashton
Production Coach at the Mariinsky Theatre: Grant Coyle
Set Designs and Costumes: Cecil Beaton
Original Lighting Concept: John B. Read
Performed by Diana Vishneva and Timur Askerov
Piano: Philipp Kopachevsky

The Mariinsky Orchestra
Conductor: Arseny Shuplyakov

On the stage, Lyudmila Valentinovna Kovaleva appeared as Princess Florine, the Queen of the Dryads, Myrtha and Syuimbike, and in the famous Pas de Quatre she dazzled with elegance and ease as Lucile Grahn. Having ended her stage career at the Kirov Theatre, she moved into teaching and for over forty years has taught at the Vaganova Ballet Academy, with each year's graduating class launching the stage careers of brilliant new dancers. As she once gifted the young Aurora tenderness and playfulness as the Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, so now in her class does Lyudmila Kovaleva give her students the most important qualities needed for the profession – classical training, the freedom to exist in varied and differing plastique styles and, most importantly, through her dedication to art and her belief in her students she inspires them to love their work.

Kovaleva’s students today appear with the world’s greatest ballet companies. Many of them, having long since graduated from school and gone on to win international renown and star status, continue to come to Lyudmila Kovaleva for advice. Diana Vishneva was the first whose success made people speak of Kovaleva’s staggering talent as a teacher. The graduates of her class regularly emerge to become such brightly shining stars as Ekaterina Borchenko, Olga Esina, Olga Smirnova, Kristina Shapran, Anastasia Lukina and Maria Khoreva. For this evening, Lyudmila Valentinovna Kovaleva's students will be dancing in honour of their teacher and coach. Olga Makarova