Of Numbers and Nationality
“Le Corsaire”
The Mariinsky Ballet
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
April 11, 2019
Eighty-one dancers are listed by Russia’s Mariinsky Ballet in its current Kennedy Center program. That does not include the children who supplement in the grand, Act 3 divertissement of “Le Corsaire”. These junior dancers are local, from two ballet schools – the DC Kirov Academy and The Washington School of Ballet. Of the company’s regular dancers, 44 appear to be female and 37 male. The majority, unsurprisingly, likely are Russian but by no means all. At this performance, the title role of the chief pirate Conrad was danced by Xander Parish, whose initial training and performing took place in his native Britain at the Royal Ballet. How did Parish fit in with his current colleagues and compare with Timur Askerov, opening night’s space devouring Conrad, who is a Russian from Baku in Azerbaijan?
Tall in build and imposing in manner, Parish fit the size dimensions of the Conrad role. This pirate was a big man who moved on a heroic scale. It seemed that Parish preferred a dignified pace even when expressing Conrad’s anger. Haste suited him less. His strength was such that he could hoist even a tall woman with ease, and his principal partner at this performance was the awesome Yekaterina Chebykina. As the Medora, this regal blonde whipped her turns with astonishing vigor. I want to see Chebykina in a Balanchine role. In the part of her bosom friend Gulnara was the dark haired and eager Marina Shirinkina.
Ali, the slave loyal to Conrad, is a role that doesn’t suit Askerov as well as the Conrad part did two evenings earlier. Still, he didn’t stint on the choreography’s torso bends and flow whether launching himself into the air or casting himself onto the floor. Philipp Stepin clearly showed the sharpness of slave dealer Lankedem and Yuri Smekalov reprised Birbanto’s pulsating treachery from Tuesday. And, also as on opening night, there was clarity and distinct individuality in at the dancing of the three Odalisques – Daria Ionova, Anastasia Nuikina and May Nagahisa. To the symphonic harmony of the corps women’s garland dance, the DC student dancers added spice.
Parish isn’t the only Mariinsky dancer who is not Russian and not trained at the company’s affiliated Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg. Kimin Kim is from Korea. May Nagahisa studied in Monte Carlo. Brazil’s Victor Caixeta, of the men’s corps, is a Berlin graduate. Quite a few of the Mariinsky’s Russians were schooled in “the provinces”. Most of these later arrivals, like Parish, have adapted well to the Mariinsky Ballet’s mellow and measured pliancy. Kim, to my eyes, is the one dancer who looks and moves with an exotic difference. Note: Maria Bulanova replaced May Nagahisa as one of the three Odalisques at that performance.
copyright 2019 by George Jackson
