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Culture Theatre

Swan Lake

SWAN LAKE choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, revised and staged by Konstantin Sergeyev. Presented by the Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre at the Sony Centre (1 Front East). Runs to March 6, Saturday 8 pm, matinees Saturday-Sunday 2 pm. $60-$225. 416-872-2262, sonycentre.ca. See listing. Rating: NNNN

Talk about kickin’ it old school. In their first Toronto appearance since 1992, Russia’s famed Kirov Ballet have brought one of the cornerstones of the classical repertoire to the Sony Centre.

No ballet lover should miss this production, which – ignoring the handful of cellphones that went off during the performance I attended – practically transports you back to the ballet’s premiere more than a century ago.

It takes only a few minutes of suspending disbelief to immerse yourself in the tale of Prince Siegfried (Danila Korsuntsev at the March 2 performance), who falls in love with the bewitched white swan, Odette (Uliana Lopatkina), only to be deceived by her black swan countepart, Odile (again Lopatkina), in the second act.

For movie lovers, it’s essentially the same story that helped win Natalie Portman her Oscar, only without the sprouting feathers, bloody toenails or girl-on-girl action.

What the Kirov offers instead of contemporary resonance is absolute technical precision and faithfulness to the material. There’s nothing dusty about their traditional approach. When the company’s corps de ballet enters as swans in the second act, preceded by a very cool visual effect in Igor Ivanov’s sumptuous, naturalistic set, it’s like witnessing harmony in motion, the dancers moving in perfect, symmetrical bliss.

Amidst them, Lopatkina’s Odette seems to float on air, her willowy arms, occasional shiver and hard stare (when she first meets Siegfried) suggesting an actual swan. The couple’s pas de deux is the picture of romantic elegance, Odette delicately folding herself into the prince’s arms with innocence and gradual awakening.

Lopatkina’s transformation into Act 3’s Odile is just as remarkable, her sweeping entrance bold and impulsive, her upward chin suggesting arrogance and confident sensuality. In this context, her bravura sequence of fouette turns – one of the most difficult feats for any ballerina – makes complete dramatic sense, a display of crass exhibitionism meant to seduce Siegfried. Lopatkina executes the repeated movements with jaw-dropping skill, and Korsuntsev matches her with a series of impressive leaps that captures his character’s joy.

It’s in the third act, too, that conductor Pavel Bubelnikov gets the most exciting sounds from the otherwise thin-sounding Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, controlling the brisk tempi and then shifting moods and colours for the Spanish, Neapolitan and Hungarian dances, evocatively danced by the gorgeously-costumed company.

The brief final act features the company’s revised (happy) ending which doesn’t make much dramatic sense, but when it’s so impeccably performed you won’t mind.

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