Lifar’s Grand Pas
The gala concert featured laureates and diploma holders, young soloists of the Kyiv Opera, and students of the Kyiv Choreography College and Ukrainian Dance Academy (foreign celebrities were unable to change their individual schedules).
“A Kyiv victory has become a jumping-off place for many dancers,” stressed Yury Stanishevsky, president of the Ukrainian Dance Academy. “For instance, Natalia Kalynychenko now is prima ballerina in Dusseldorf. Another of our golden medallists, Olena Horbach, works in Dresden, and Iryna Dvorovenko at the Metropolitan Opera. Denys Matviyenko is a soloist at the Kyiv Opera and Mariyinsky Theater (incidentally, his appearance in Adam’s Le Corsaire was the most spectacular show of the current festival. Not only the audience but even Denys’s colleagues in the wings shouted “Bravo!” — Author). Ivan Putrov was dancing solo at Covent Garden. Another bright star is Viktor Ishchuk. He still studies at the Ukrainian Dance Academy, but he is already a soloist dancing classical repertory at the Kyiv Opera. Kristina Shyshpor is only 16 and has to study for three more years to obtain her certificate, but she is already dancing solo on our nation’s main stage. Renowned Grand Opera dancer, artistic director, and general director of the Berlin State Opera, Vladimir Malakhov, highly appreciated his young partner Yana Salenko’s potential after their recent concerts in Mexico.
The Seventh Festival’s gala concert was opened with Petr Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. The principal roles were performed by third generation Kyiv Lifar laureates, soloists at the National Opera Andriy Hura (a recent graduate of the Munich Ballet Academy) and Natalia Lazebnikova (laureate of the Second Lifar Contest). Romeo and Juliet is considered one of the masterpieces of twentieth century dance. In 1949, Serge Lifar staged this ballet at the Grand Opera where he had been working as chief choreographer for over three decades. In 2000, the performance was staged in Kyiv by Grand Opera choreographers who had been Lifar’s pupils, Christian Vlassi and Attilio Labise, with the theater’s artistic director Viktor Yaremenko as rehearsal director. The first to perform the parts of Romeo and Juliet were Natalia Kalynychenko and Yevhen Kolesnyk. Then the parts were performed by Nadiya Honchar and Serhiy Yehorov.
As a choreographer, Serge Lifar produced over 120 ballets and divertissements in operas. Restoring his best ballets in his native land is among the goals of the contest organizers. They have already obtained consent from Elisabeth Platelle (prima ballerina at the Grand Opera who danced solo in Lalo’s Suite en Blanc, famous Lifar’s production) to reproduce this ballet gem on the Kyiv stage. One of the Suite ’s variations was performed at the concert by Volodymyr Tristan.
As Mr. Stanishevsky put it, the Lifar contest will be held in Kyiv next year on the dancer’s centennial, with the jury headed by famous choreographer Yury Grigorovich. Lifar’s widow, Countess Lillan Ahlefeldt, has also promised to attend.
