Kyiv City Ballet @ Bass Performance Hall
—Review by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs
On Monday evening in Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall, bravery met bravado when the Kyiv City Ballet took the stage. The audience gave them a well-deserved and overwhelming ovation before even a single pirouette was presented.
Their appearance in this country (and their one performance in Texas) resulted from an amazing series of two events. One was the appalling invasion of their homeland, Ukraine, by the rogue Russian Federation. The other was the fact that at the start of the war, the company had just landed in Paris to begin a tour.
Ivan Kozlov, founder and director of the company, made this comment about the situation: “Honestly, I couldn’t believe it would happen….I thought he (Vladimir Putin) was trying to scare us by putting soldiers at the border, that’s it.” ( Quoted by Aurelien Breeden and Marina Harss March 8, 2022 , The New York Times)
Realizing that they probably couldn’t return any time soon, if at all, the shocked dancers reacted the only way they could—they danced, and with a renewed passion. Fortunately for us, Fort Worth was on its resumed U.S. tour.
The program was seriously lacking in details that the pre-performance announcement did little to clarify. However, we did glean that there would be a series of different ballets and that the final two selections would be danced by soloists from our own Texas Ballet Theater.
The program opened with “Tribute to Peace,” the evening’s longest selection. An uncredited painted backdrop gave a modernist view of a city street, presumedly in Kyiv.
The music was perfect for this presentation of wildly different personalities. It was set to pre-recorded selections from Edward Elgar’s “Enigma Variations,” itself a series of musical portraits of his group of friends. The choreography, created by Ivan and Ekaterina Kozlov, presents a series of multiple vignettes. It opens with a love-sick man practicing a proposal of marriage to his seemingly recalcitrant lady.
Other very different couples in various stages of wooing sauntered along. By observing a “random” street scene, the dancers created an idealized and camera-like essay of city life. The dancers (many of whom are in their late teens or early 20s) were all excellent and admirably expressed the different characters.
Next came a very different courtship. A woman in a shockingly bright red dress is enchanted with an unlikely suitor. He summarizes his unbelievably good luck with a “why not” shrug. We meet a “tuff guy” and observe his improving relationship to everyone else. After that, came a heartwarming scenario. We met a series of different and loving couples, including a gay male pairing. A prancing butler offered some welcome comic relief. The scene ended with a stylized wedding.
In the second half, we saw our first tutu, and a nicely spangled effort it was. This series of related scenarios were more like traditional ballet, replete with a “corps de ballet” lining the sides of the stage. It also fit into the overall romantic theme of the evening.
Sergei Rachmaninov’s “Three preludes” for piano were set in a dreamy, almost slow-mo, version of dancers. The first prelude found two dancers on opposite sides of the traditional barre. The second one used downward spotlights visualized by smoke. It was highlighted by some excellent partnering, a skill that is much more difficult than it looks.
Pure testosterone took the stage with some athletic and rowdy boys performing traditional Russian-style folk dancing to the tune Men of Kyiv. It was surprising in a couple of ways. First was the display of boundless energy, flawless dancing and characterizations. Second, they all wore shirts, missing an opportunity to show off a little—though the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian colors seemed to carry more import.
The last two selections featured four outstanding soloists from the Texas Ballet Theater. Working in pairs, they presented two amazing “pas de deux” performances, complete with lusty leaps and a plethora of pirouettes. Perhaps it was not the best idea to present these after the more sedate Kyiv’s offerings. The difference in the audience’s reaction to such a display of bravura bordered on ecstatic.
WEB: kyiv city ballet
