The Commons Theatre audience was brought to its feet multiple times on March 7 during the sold out Saint Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theatre performance of Swan Lake.
As part of its 20 day Canadian journey from Ottawa to Halifax, the troupe landed in front of a full crowd Saturday evening to perform Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s famous composition, Swan Lake. The cast of over 50 executed the original choreography of Marius Petipa under guidance of artistic director, Andrian Fadeev.
Alla Bocharova, 27, danced as Odette and Odile, the white and black swan. Although she did not speak English, she told an interpreter before the performance that she was excited to visit Canada for the first time.
Fellow star of the show, Artem Pykhachov, 35, danced as Prince Siegfried. Pykhachov spoke little English but knew how to compliment Canada and speak of performing.
“Oh, (I’m) not scared. The stage is like my home,” said Pykhachov before the show in an interview with the Times.
Swan Lake is a love story that ends in the demise of Princess Odette, a woman who is cursed to be a swan, and Prince Siegfried, a virgin prince who could have broken Odette’s eternal sentence if he was not tricked by the evil genius Rothbart.
“I can relate to the style of dance,” said Kimberly Dubuc McCarthy, a media and communications student. “I enjoyed every minute of it.”
McCarthy formerly danced for 15 years and took ballet in Liskeard, Ont. She felt particularly connected to the show.
“The show was definitely a worthwhile experience,” she said. “I’ve never seen something like that in real life and I thought it was entertaining and amazing. They expressed (the story) pretty well to understand what was going on.”
Saint Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theatre executed Mariinsky (Kirov) Ballet, the truest ballet form to the original Swan Lake was performed with.