St. Petersburg’s version of “Swan Lake” ballet presented in Moscow

The sixth Moscow Easter festival is continuing. Its artistic director, who directs the Mariinsky Theatre, Valerie Gergieff, has celebrated his birthday, and has brought his theatre's version of Swan Lake to the capital.

The ballet was written by prominent Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky in the 19th century, and today it is one of the world's most famous works.

This current version, performed by the Mariinsky Theatre company, is believed to be the artistic face of the renowned stage. Many dance companies around the world present their own production of “Swan lake”. Some of them, the Bolshoi Theatre for example, perform a tragic version of the ballet. But as for the Mariinsky Theatre performance, the good totally defeats evil.

One of the theatre's most celebrated ballerinas Uliana Lopatkina performs the main part of Odetta. She has been dancing this part for 13 years and she remembers that her first appearance in this role was an immediate success.

“My colleagues marked this performance as the best debut, and I also received an award for it,” she said.

Part of this success is achieved thanks to the theatre's tradition of passing the skills of dancing from one generation to another. Ms Lopatkina's tutor gave her the strict technique needed for dance, which the Mariinsky Theatre tutor Ninel Kurgapkina herself was taught by the Mariinsky Theatre dancers from past centuries: “Hands, head and the whole body should turn into wings! If a dancer manages to achieve this condition, the performance is a success.”