Review: Swan Lake with the State Ballet of Georgia in London
Jonathan Gray sees the State Ballet of Georgia’s production of Swan Lake: “Step by step, moment by moment, act by act, I felt my heart sinking.”
| Title | Swan Lake |
| Company | State Ballet of Georgia |
| Venue | London Coliseum |
| Date | 28-29 August 2024 |
| Reviewer | Jonathan Gray |
I well remember, way back in 1989, a matinée performance of Swan Lake by the Bolshoi Ballet at the London Coliseum. The leads that afternoon were danced by the wonderful Nina Ananiashvili and Alexei Fadeyechev, two of the most distinguished and physically thrilling dancers to have emerged from within the ranks of the Bolshoi during the 1980s. At that time of Perestroika, western audiences were lucky to see them – and other great dancers then based in the former Soviet Union – more regularly than they had done before, and the early 1990s became a period of change and opportunity in ballet. Within a couple of years, Ananiashvili and Fadeyechev were appearing as guest artists with The Royal Ballet.
Thirty-five years and one month later, almost exactly to the day, I watched Swan Lake at the Coliseum again, this time in order to see Ananiashvili and Fadeyechev’s staging of the ballet for the State Ballet of Georgia, which was making its London debut. The company has been directed by Ananiashvili for two decades and performs an extensive repertoire that, as well as the usual classics, includes works by George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, August Bournonville, Jiří Kylián and Alexei Ratmansky. With their extensive experience of Swan Lake, I wanted so much to admire the production conceived by Ananiashvili and Fadeyechev, even though it would almost certainly be based on the less than lovely “Soviet” version of the choreographic text, complete with happy ending, that the Bolshoi has maintained for years. Alas, I was to be disappointed.
With picture-book designs and unattractive costumes by Vyacheslav Okunev, this traditional, old-fashioned production of Swan Lake seldom sprung surprises, and although the programme stated the choreography would be based on that of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, which dates back to 1895, precious little Petipa actually made it onto the stage. It was replaced by run-of-the-mill dances that seemed designed to simply fill out Tchaikovsky’s glorious music. The Act I pas de trois was unrecognisable to that known in London, and nearly all the mime scenes had been cut. Of greatest sadness to me, however, was the coldly efficient presentation of Ivanov’s surviving dances (essentially the first “lakeside” scene), which were staged with little feeling for the choreography’s innate romance and lyricism.
More disappointing, however, was the State Ballet’s almost complete lack of engagement with the characters they were portraying, as well as the rudimentary emotions they expressed, which I found especially surprising when one considers that Ananiashvili and Fadeyechev were such dramatically alert and intelligent artists. Step by step, moment by moment, act by act, I felt my heart sinking.
On opening night, 28 August, the role of Odette/Odile, quite rightly, was given to the Georgian ballerina Nino Samadashvili. She is a restrained artist, and I admired the elegant simplicity with which she performed her dances, but I found her interpretation uninvolving. It was the same for the callow, boyishly slim Siegfried of Ukranian dancer Oleh Lihai, more noticeable for his youthful energy than for any deep insight into the prince’s nature and temperament.
The following evening, two guest artists in the lead roles brought to the ballet far greater theatricality. Chloe Misseldine, a principal with American Ballet Theatre, offered an idiosyncratic take on the role of the Swan Queen. Wearing white-faced, mask-like make-up, she nonetheless projected Odette’s expressions through her eloquent eyes and tender, tremulous yet technically precise dancing, although she was sometimes too inclined to indulge in over-long and unnecessary balances. Misseldine later brought speed, attack and vitality to Odile, and garnered roars of approval from the audience following her dazzling fouettés at the climax of the “Black Swan” pas de deux. Here was a promising account of the role from an impressive young ballerina who will surely find an added depth of interpretation with greater experience and maturity.
Misseldine’s Siegfried, Michal Krčmář of the Finnish National Ballet, is a strong, good-looking yet unflashy dancer who presented the prince as a man connected to the world around him. This Siegfried is courteous, noble and kind, and one who is moved by compassion and ardour for Odette’s plight. Krčmář was a conscientious partner to Misseldine, presenting the ballerina beautifully in their duets, and he danced his solos with clean-cut jumps that soared into space.
What of the remaining performers? It’s over a decade since I last saw the State Ballet of Georgia, and the dancers in London were all new to me. The women are accomplished, with a lovely sense of rounded amplitude to their port de bras (something commented upon especially by my guest on 29 August, a former teacher at The Royal Ballet School), but were less adroit from the waist down. I found the male dancers, on the whole, disappointingly slight, but at least the conductor, Papuna Gvaberidze, led the Orchestra of English National Opera in a full-blooded account of Tchaikovsky’s score.
Nina Ananiashvili is an inspiring artistic director, but I think perhaps Swan Lake was not the best choice of work with which to introduce London to the State Ballet of Georgia. It was a safe choice, with an undoubted eye to the box office, but in the longer term it might have been more effective to present the dancers in a more complimentary repertoire.
Jonathan Gray was editor of Dancing Times from 2008 to 2022.
He studied at The Royal Ballet School, Leicester Polytechnic, and Wimbledon School of Art where he graduated with a BA Hons in Theatre Design. He was on the Curatorial Staff of the Theatre Museum, London, from 1989 to 2005, assisting on a number of dance-related exhibitions, and helping with the recreation of original designs for a number of The Royal Ballet’s productions including Danses concertantes, Daphnis and Chloë, and The Sleeping Beauty.
Jonathan Gray has also contributed to the Financial Times and The Guardian, written programme articles for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and is co-author of the book Unleashing Britain: Theatre gets real 1955-64, published in 2005. He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
