The joy of dance Class Concert by Mikhailovsky Ballet Review
MICHAEL “Misha” Messerer is sending seismic tremors through St Petersburg, birth place of the Russian Revolution. After six years with the Mikhailovsky Ballet of which he is now director, the neighbouring Maryiinsky company, dubbed the cradle of classical ballet, is nervously looking to its laurels.
This man has inspired an artistic flowering within his 130 dancers, approximately one third of his rival’s, that adds a fresh dimension to what is popularly viewed as a traditional art form.
And nothing in their repertoire illustrates it more than Class Concert, a one acter building a workaday ballet lesson into a full blooded romp of excellence. The piece opens with 10-year-olds from the Vaganova Academy, which produced Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev. Little boys and girls, eye-poppingly perfect, quickly work through to adolescence when company dancers filter in and take over serious stuff like partnering and big solos.
The stage is stripped bare, a breathless expanse of space washed in pale watery blues and creams. The kids look adorably overshadowed and vulnerable as they dance gravely to the grandeur of Shostakovich, Lyadov and Glazunov.
Little boys in crimson trunks hold hands with the girls until, without you scarcely noticing it, Anastasia Soboleva and Victor Lebedev in grown up blue practice clothes, take centre stage in a dreamy duet full of youthful promise. Each section is precisely timed, with never an opportunity to tire of these dancers, and the links between first tentative steps and adult virtuosity is skilfully presented.
And by now Messerer’s gift for conjuring the human being out of a highly trained physique is making sense of the whole thing. Nikita Nazarov does 32 entrechats six, a monotonous and exhausting jump I still recall with a wince, but something about his relaxed grin transformed the ordeal into entertainment.
Ekaterina Borchenko lost control during her fouettees, those mad spins on one leg, but pulled back with an exhilarating look of triumph while acrobatic Ivan Vassiliev was strictly part of the whole, not a novelty.
The grand finale of dancers from 10 to 30 years old, crystallises the joy of dance. But these are recognisable people, not machines, celebrating in front of you, telling you how the blistering reality of years of hard work can actually be terrific. Messerer must be doing something right.
Class Concert by the Mikhailovsky Ballet at theMikhailovsky Theatre, St Petersburg (mikhailovsky.ru/en/)
