Swan Lake - Varna International Ballet
Swan Lake is a mouth-watering spectacle. This production becomes the complete dance experience.
Norwich Theatre
Fuelled by the success and the praises heaped on them during last year's debut UK tour, Varna International Ballet return to Norwich this week. With a punishing schedule that sees 35 dancers and a 20-strong orchestra visit 21 provincial venues as part of their 2024 Season, the programme this year features three classic ballets, each performed for one night only.
Friday night at Norwich Theatre Royal was sold out for what, arguably, is the greatest romantic ballet of all time – Swan Lake. After a number of recent high profile versions, including Matthew Bourne's iconic New Adventures production; and with Darren Aronofsky's award-winning 'Black Swan', starring Natalie Portman, raising the ballet's profile even further, Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake' has come a long way since its first performance in Moscow in March 1877.
Which is exactly why Artistic Director, Daniela Dimova, decided to take 'Swan Lake' right back to its musical origins, charging Sergei Bobrov with researching and returning the original score and dramaturgy of that original Bolshoi performance. And what an amazing re-creation it is.
Starring Sicilian dancer Mara Salvaggio as white swan / black swan Odette / Odile, and Giovanni Pompeii as Prince Siegfried, the 22 dancers and 20 musicians (under the direction of conductor Peter Tuleshkov) had the audience enchanted from start to finish. The dancing was absolutely on-point, quite extraordinary for such a young international troupe, everyone perfectly synchronised and with up to sixteen dancers on stage at one time. The highlights for me obviously came in Act 2, with the exquisitely performed Danse des Petits Cygnes, and with Salvaggio's perfectly executed 32 fouettes.
With lighting cleverly contrasting the monochromicity of the swans and the rainbow brilliance of the remaining costumes, Swan Lake is a mouth-watering spectacle. And, with an orchestra from whom you could, literally, hear every single instrument, this production becomes the complete dance experience.
My only grumble would be the video backdrop, which really didn't work for me. It is a sensible, cost-saving alternative, perhaps, for the castle grounds and the main hall, but those moving CGI swans and the waves on the lake are way too distracting - resembling a computer screensaver more than a magical lakescape. And, also, that smoke cannon. Although only used twice, it almost obscured the dancers on each occasion. But these are just minor criticisms.
If you missed out last night, there will not be another performance of Swan Lake this time around, unless you can travel to one of the 7 remaining venues on the tour. However, as I write this, I understand that there may be a handful of tickets remaining for tonight's performance of The Nutcracker at Norwich Theatre Royal.
I said it last year, and I will say it again. Varna International Ballet's corp of young dancers are all potential stars of the future, and what they have achieved under Daniela Dimova's direction is quite extraordinary. Please come back to Norwich Theatre Royal very soon.
