Kirov Ballet & Orchestra
of the Mariinsky Theatre
The Sleeping Beauty
The Mariinsky Ballet

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St. Petersburg ballet is the collective result of the work of many years and many people within he walls of the Mariinsky Theatre. But "collective" does not mean "nameless". St. Petersburg ballet is almost as old as the city itself, and these centuries are made up of different epochs, each having its own name — the name of a choreographer. And each choreographer had his own artists - loved by him and idolized by the public; those to whom he granted glory, and those whose names made his own shine brighter. The history of St. Petersburg ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre is rich in such names and such people. Their magical chorus, the sound of their many tongues — this is the "noise of culture" to which we now listen with rapt attention. They, these people, speaking in different languages, were like those who built the Tower of Babel; but unlike the biblical builders, they were not daring to reach up to heaven, and were able to complete their tower in spite of the myriad languages they spoke. They didn't dare, because classical ballet is n uncompromising, severe art, which will neither tolerate nor forgive illusions, including illusions of pride. Its banners cry "Work, work, work". Here and now. Each day is a test of professional strength. In the morning and afternoon, this test is conducted by the mirrors in the rehearsal room. In the evening, during the performance, it is conducted by the audience. The great 20th century choreographer George Balanchine was not speaking idly when he spoke of "peasant-like persistence". Dancers cultivate their bodies like the soil, and God knows how much a choreographer must wander all around the rehearsal room against the background of the music, back and forth, left and right, before "seedlings" of movements emerge. In the nineteenth century, St. Petersburg ballet mainly spoke French. Only from time to time did a temperament smattering of Italian intrude: ballerinas would come from Milan, driving the public and their Russian counterparts mad with ecstasy. On the whole, however, the century was split between the French choreographers Charles-Louis Didelot, Jules Perrot, Arthur Saint-Leon and Marius Petipa. Their Mecca was Paris, their tastes were cultivated by the Academy of Dance — the Grand Opera. St. Petersburg was the place where the harsh rules of alien order receded, the rigid French school of dance being softened by the rhythmical Russian language and these chorographers settles at the theatre for a lengthy period, almost as if they were at home. "This is paradise!" exclaimed the young Petipa when he first came out of the Russian theatre director's office. Perhaps life in the theatre would be cruel and ignoble, but where in fact was it otherwise? St. Petersburg made one settle one's account in full. St. Petersburg made people subordinate to it, used them up and left them without pity. But in exchange it gave something that none of these people would have traded for anything: artistic self-realization. And at that time the extended, perfect lines of the corps de ballet were akin to the strict network of St. Petersburg's streets and avenues. The stage area could stretch itself out, expansively, like the city itself on St. Isaac's Square, Senate Square, Palace Square and the Field of Mars. And the ballerinas' fluid adagios replicated the horizontal lines of the granite embankments. "Ballet Petersburg", the "St. Petersburg of ballet" was born - the same intangible, but indisputable phenomenon of cultural geography as the "St. Petersburg of Dostoevsky". And just as the "St. Petersburg of Dostoevsky" took shape in the form of Crime and Punishment or White Nights, so the "St. Petersburg of ballet" was represented by The Sleeping Beauty, Raymonda and La Bayadere.

In the 20th century, ballet spoke only in Russian. The first Russian choreographers wielded great artistic influence. The century began with Michel Fokine's modernistic revolution, and the 1920's saw the explosive burst of Fyodor Lopukhov's avant-garde. Later, high-level politics helped to suppress this influence: the country was fenced off from the world by the Iron Curtain. This was a death knell for many arts. But Leningrad ballet was able to maintain its high artistic standards, having become the focus of spiritual life for people of the time and even a unique kind of cultural Fronde. Petipa's ballets, the "gold reserves" of Russian choreography, remained as a source of nourishment for the greatest Soviet chorographers of pre-war Leningrad — Leonid Lavrovsky, Vasily Vainonen and Vakhtang Chabukiani. The grandiose dramatic ballets or pre-war Leningrad — Romeo and Juliet, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Laurencia and Flames of Paris — would not have been possible without 19th century ballet. Promoted by Soviet choreographers, only "psychological realism" was new. It had the effect of a magic spell for a whole generation of dancers — one of the most brilliant generations in the entire history of Russian ballet. The refined artistry, performing skill, rhythmyic acuity and acting talents of Galina Ulanova, Tatiana Vecheslova, Alla Shelest, Konstantin Sergeyev, Boris Shavrov and the multitude of second and third rank dancers...The whole company of the then Kirov Theatre was striking, from the ballerinas down to the last line of the corps de ballet, at the same time, first class virtuoso dancers such as Natalia Dubinskaya, Feya Balabina, serve the glory of the most important Russian temple of classical dance.

The "new wave" of ballet evolved from the dispute, but to a still greater degree from the dialogue with the dramatic ballets of the late 1950's and the early 1960's. The leading figures of the "new wave" were the young choreographers Yuri Grigorivich and Igor Belsky and the dancers Alla Ospenko, Irina Kolpakova, Gabriela Komleva, Yuri Solovev, Alexander Gribov and Anatol Gridin. The "fathers" were referred to as a "dramatic ballet" and the rebellious "children" as "symphonic ballet", but the combined tradition of succession preserved its power over both. And thus Leningrad ballet was able to remain itself throughout the 20th century.

At the end of the 20th century, it learned to speak in English. After all, English is the language of international communication. Leningrad ballet once more started calling itself St. Petersburg ballet, but this time it went forth into the world. It started to perform works by 20th century Western choreographers such as Jerome Robbins, Kenneth MacMillan, Roland Petit, Anthony Tudor and John Neumeier which had previously been inaccessible, neglected during the years of forced Soviet isolation. But the main development is connected with the Russian-American choreographer George Balanchine: today, the repertoire of the Mariinsky Theatre contains almost as many ballets by Balanchine as by Petipa. So that ends that question.

Balanchine left Petrograd in the early 1920's, having experiences the luxuriant and barren, final flowering of the imperial ballet. His many wanderings ultimately took him to America, where he translated into "ballet-English" the rhythm and language of the Russian school, born from the French. Russian, French, American — the three leading schools, the three main ballet styles of the 19th and 20th centuries, are very clearly represented at the Mariinsky Theatre. They are its most important treasure and the main stimulus to move forward.

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