Magnetic Mariinsky

The Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra's performances of "Le Corsaire", "Divertissements" and "Firebird" in Bangkok's International Festival of Dance and Music this past week are a reminder that the city is lucky enough to be included on the same summer tour of this company as New York and London. Our congratulations and thanks go to the festival's organiser, International Cultural Promotions.

Yuri Fateev, Mariinsky's deputy director and ballet master, who's been with the company for almost three decades, says that what has enabled this 228-year-old company to maintain their excellence are "old-school tradition and historical repertoire".

Works like "Swan Lake", "La Bayadere" and "Sleeping Beauty" were all created for the first time at the theatre in St Petersburg. Apart from focusing on the building of the theatre venue, Fateev says, the Russian royal family who supported the company from the beginning also founded a ballet school.

So it's no surprise then that Mariinsky has never been short of great dancers - Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky in the early 20th century, followed by Marina Semyonova and Alexei Yermolaev, and then Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Fateev says that when he auditions new dancers for the company, "First of all, they have to be real artists - from the inside, not just for their dance techniques. When they're on stage, they have to be special; we call this a 'magnetic' quality.

"And of course, they must have great techniques acquired from their training in the school, and the physical attributes.

"When they join the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, the teachers also visualise and think how these young dancers will look when they grow up. It's very important to have a very nice line and body shape - long neck, small head, long arms and fingers and tiny legs, which will give the illusion of ease in their dancing. This is because most Russian ballets are romantic ballets in which we want to see a ballerina who can appear like she's flying and then disappearing into the air."

The company also spends time on characterisation for different roles in different ballets. In rehearsals, on average, a dancer will spend five days perfecting her movements and another two on acting skills.

One young star is a perfect example of this. Alina Somova, as Kitri in "Don Quixote" last weekend in Singapore, as Medora in "Le Corsaire" here last Wednesday and in Tchaikovsky's "Pas de Deux" the next evening, drew the loudest applause. She's won the Golden Mask award for her performance as the Tsar-Maiden in "The Little Humpbacked Horse".

Performing two different roles in three days is highly demanding. "This is my ninth season with the company, and it takes less time for me to switch from one character to another than it did at the beginning, when it took a month. It's a matter of experience."

Her favourite roles are Juliet and Giselle because of their dramatic quality - she'll perform Giselle next month at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg.

As for her magnetic quality, she says, "I think you need to be born with it. You may be doing perfectly, technically speaking, on the stage, but nothing's going on there. But if you have this magnetic quality, then you'll get responses from the audience."

Many world-renowned choreographers have worked for the Mariinsky, among them Marius Petipa, Michel Fokine, George Balanchine and Alexei Ratmansky, whose two works "Anna Karenina" and "The Little Humpbacked Horse" they performed at the Lincoln Centre Festival in July.

"We decided that this time we'd present the other side of the Mariinsky. We worked with Ratmansky for the first time in 1998, when nobody knew him, and I think we introduced him to the world and now he's working everywhere. He's created these versions of 'Anna Karenina' and 'The Little Humpbacked Horse' for our dancers in these last three years.

"We have to keep a good balance between the classical and modern ballets because the Mariinsky Theatre is known for classical music, opera and ballet, and we're the home of Marius Petipa.

"But at the same time we have to look forward to the future, working with new choreographers and giving our dancers some fresh air. Last season, we staged a modern ballet by French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj and it was great experience for the company. The piece only had 21 roles and all dancers in our 200-member company wanted to be in it. We also had another French choreographer Benjamin Millepied create a new work for us. I can see how dancers are hungry for new choreography."

And that brings up an important question: why do we only get to see them perform classical works when they're in Asia?

Fateev says, "I think this is a question for the local promoters in Asia who may be worried about ticket sales."

This situation may improve soon though as the company's Asia representative recently watched and was impressed by the company's Balanchine-Robbins triple-bill evening at the Royal Opera House in London and plans to bring it to this region, not withstanding the risk with ticket sales. Let's hope that Bangkok is included in that plan.

In the meantime, Somova has this advice for young ballet dancers, many of whom have become her fans, "To do what they do totally and to fully give yourself to the art; otherwise, nothing will come out."

Special thanks to Jenjira van der Linden, the festival's executive director, for all assistance.

QUINTESSENTIAL QUIXOTE

The Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra performs "Don Quixote" tonight at 7:30pm and tomorrow at 2:30pm at the Thailand Cultural Centre.

Tickets are Bt1,000 to Bt4,500 at the door or from Thaiticketmaster.

Visit www.BangkokFestivals.|com and www.Mariinsky.ru.