Bolshoi's return delights audiences

The Bolshoi Ballet has returned to the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing after a five-year hiatus. From Tuesday to Sunday, four performances of the classic ballet Don Quixote and two gala shows are being staged at the national center. The symphony orchestra of the National Ballet of China will perform with the Bolshoi Ballet, under the baton of conductor Pavel Klinichev.

"We arrived yesterday and we immediately started rehearsals. It feels great to be back," said Makhar Vaziev, artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, on Monday, one day before the company's first performance at the national center.

"The warm feedback of the Chinese audience impressed us very much when we performed here last time. We know that ballet has a large fan base in China and it's particularly important to perform for Chinese audiences with the long friendship between China and Russia," says Vaziev. "Ballet is a classic art form and highly valued in Russia. It is an art form, which evolves and changes. We want to display the changes of the past five years, especially our young, talented dancers.

"It is a great experience to have an audience that enjoys and appreciates ballet. The applause was much warmer than we expected," he adds.

Principal dancers, including Elizaveta Kokoreva, Denis Rodkin, Igor Tsvirko and Eleonora Sevenard, are among the star-studded cast for the performances at the national center.

According to Vaziev, the Bolshoi Ballet has performed in China multiple times. In 2001, the company staged the classic, Swan Lake, in Shanghai and Beijing. In 2006, artists of the opera and ballet troupes, and the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre gave two concerts in Beijing, marking the opening of the Year of Russia in China.

In 2010, the Bolshoi Ballet performed at the National Centre for the Performing Arts for the first time, with ballet productions: The Pharaoh's Daughter, a ballet choreographed by Marius Petipa, to the music of Cesare Pugni, and Don Quixote with music by Ludwig Minkus and choreography by Petipa.

In 2018, the Bolshoi Ballet gave three performances of Le Corsaire, composed by Adolphe Adam and choreographed by Petipa, and The Flames of Paris, with choreography by Vasily Vainonen and music by Boris Asafyev, at the national center.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the ballet troupe brought galas featuring 11 excerpts of "some of the most brilliant pieces from the Bolshoi Ballet's repertoire which have been performed for centuries", the artistic director says, such as the pas de deux from the ballet The Talisman, the pas de deux from the ballet Swan Lake, and Adagio from the ballet Spartacus.

From Friday to Sunday, it will also stage Don Quixote, which Vaziev calls the company's "name card".

"Don Quixote is a special performance for Moscow," the Bolshoi Ballet's official website writes. "It is the only great classical ballet that was not transferred from Paris or St Petersburg, but originated here. Don Quixote was repeatedly re-created, revived and restored at the Bolshoi Theatre. …Don Quixote has served as a 'runway' for great ballet careers for over a century and is perfectly polished for this purpose."

The history of the ballet piece goes back to 1869 when choreographer Petipa remembered his eventful youth in Moscow. He traveled around the world in search of happiness and Spain became one of his havens. He put his love for the Spanish dances into the ballet Don Quixote, which gained the status of a classic. In 1900, Alexandr Gorsky, a young dancer and teacher, was sent to Moscow to re-create Don Quixote. He transformed Don Quixote into an arena of self-expression for many generations of dancers and choreographers to come.

"When I performed at the NCPA back in 2018, I was a very young dancer, who joined the company in 2017.This time, I am back as the principal dancer," says ballerina Eleonora Sevenard, who got her promotion early this year. "It's very exciting to show my personal transition from a dancer to a principal dancer. I also worked with dancers of the company to learn and perform Don Quixote with more sophisticated movements. I want to fully display what I have learned and gained during the past five years."

It is also the first time that Elizaveta Kokoreva, who was promoted to the position of principal dancer at the company in April this year, performs at the national center in Beijing. "Everything is new to me, especially the grand building of the NCPA," Kokoreva says.

Vaziev notes that the connection between ballet artists from China and Russia is special. "The bond is deep," he says.

In 1959, when the National Ballet of China was established, ballet artists and experts from the former Soviet Union helped train the first group of Chinese ballet dancers.

"Now, Chinese ballet companies and ballet dancers have gained international acclaim," says Vaziev. "They've developed their own artistic styles by integrating elements of Chinese culture into ballet choreography. We hope to work with them on more new projects."