The Russian prima ballerina Uliana Lopatkina presents the cream of world ballet art in the “Grand Ballet Gala 2008″ project in Moscow. For two nights, on 11 and 12 November, Moscow audiences will see ballet stars from companies in Moscow, St Petersburg, London, Paris, Milan, Boston, and New York. Uliana Lopatkina, the world’s “first lady of ballet” and holder of a variety of honorary titles and prizes, is dedicating tonight’s performance to the celebrated French choreographer Roland Petit, who turns 85 in January. A jubilee tour timed for the anniversary is now on in Europe. The two concert programs in Moscow will embrace the entire range of choreographic art from classical to avant-garde and will start with contemporary ballet. Roland Petit is the only foreign choreographer who was awarded with the Russian National Prize for the ballet Pikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades) at the Moscow Bolshoi. M Petit declared, “Russia is my special love”.
Uliana Lopatkina told a news conference before the concert that Russia means a lot to the great master. “When I told him about a jubilee concert in Russia, he agreed with pleasure. He spoke so fondly about his last visit to Moscow”. Uliana Lopatkina herself is performing a one-act ballet, Youth and Death, to music by Johann Sebastian Bach, a number that marked the start of her cooperation with the great choreographer, and a comic dance set to the choreography of Roland Petit to music of the Bee-Gees from Saturday Night Fever. On seeing Ms Lopatkina surprised at the suggestion of using music of the Bee-Gees, Roland Petit said, “You are astonished? You have never presented any of the compositions of the Bee-Gees? I shall do this with pleasure, because I love a joke!” Ms Lopatkina said, “Roland was so pleased with our joint work, that now he insists that this light improvised number, a gag, really, to be on all the jubilee programmes”.
The second night of the “Grand Ballet Gala 2008″ is entitled, The Great Classical Pas de Deux. It will feature ballet starts, Uliana Lopatkina included, dancing the most popular duets, the most authentic masterpieces of classical choreography.
11 November 2008
Natalia Viktorova
Voice of Russia World Service
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=89078&cid=24&p=11.11.2008 (in Russian)
