Ballerina Svetlana Zakharova died and was resurrected in Sochi

She came up with a special program for an arts festival in the southern capital

On February 24, a ballet was given at the Winter Theater. Yes, not a simple one, but designed by Svetlana Zakharova herself, the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater, who today is called the symbol of Russian ballet. Svetlana Zakharova compiled her program for the 17th Winter Arts Festival in Sochi from classical and modern dance. As the MK ballerina admitted, this story came about almost by accident – from the preferences and wishes of the colleagues invited to her. However, the result was a symbolic performance, stitched together from miniatures about love and struggle.

The evening at the Winter Theater was opened by Elizaveta Kokoreva and Daniil Potaptsev, who danced the Pas de deux from the early 19th-century ballet La Sylphide. This is a romantic story with a tragic ending: in pursuit of a ghostly dream, which is personified by the air spirit Sylphide, young James loses both his earthly bride and the enchantress visible only to him. Elizaveta Kokoreva performed her role so airily (her hands seemed to live on their own, turning into butterflies) that she set the tone for the evening from the very beginning. An unbearable lightness of existence swept through the hall.

Svetlana Zakharova herself appeared next, along with Artemy Belyakov. The couple was brilliant – in the truest sense of the word. They performed an adagio from the ballet Jewels to the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky (choreographed by George Balanchine), which is considered the first abstract ballet in history. The artists here are dressed like diamonds – they are dazzling in the spotlight. This breathtaking appeal is the whole point of the ballet, because when staging it in New York in 1967, Balanchine was thinking about the past – about Soviet Russia, which he left in 1924, and about Europe, from where he left for the United States during the difficult times of the Great Depression. Reading before us is a beautiful sadness – a memory of happiness, which years later shines even more powerfully with a precious light.

The next sketch takes us to ancient Rome, where, against the backdrop of the struggle for freedom, Spartacus finds his love, Phrygia, and then abandons her for the sake of an idea. Margarita Shreiner and Alexey Putintsev performed the adagio from the ballet “Spartacus” (choreography by Yuri Grigorovich) very technically. Not a dance – but pure nerve.

The most poignant point of the first act was an excerpt from the ballet “Man” to the music of Maurice Ravel, performed by modern dancer Alexander Mogilev. The first rock ballet in Soviet history was written by Alexander Gradsky based on the famous work of Kipling. Mogilev chose the very moment when, having grown up among animals, Mowgli realizes that he is a Man. Before us is pain, tossing, thoughts. Awareness of human nature is in the eternal search for oneself and the meaning of all things. The action takes place against a bright red background that gives you goosebumps. In the finale, after a technical ballet mixed with breakdancing, the dancer falls into darkness, as if falling into an abyss.

This tension is relieved by the adagio from the ballet “The Nutcracker” to the music of Tchaikovsky, performed by Ekaterina Krysanova and Vladislav Lantrasov. And at the end of the first act, Zakharova appears again – in the form of a dying swan. The choreographic miniature staged by Mikhail Fokin to the music of Camille Saint-Saëns in 1907 for Anna Pavlova became a textbook. A swan lives its entire life in two and a half minutes. The Russian version differs from the French: according to Saint-Saëns, the swan does not die, but according to Fokine, it humbly folds its wings before its inevitable death.

The second part of the program is also built on contrast. It began with a fiery excerpt from the ballet “Carmen”, performed by Elizaveta Kokoreva and Daniil Potaptsev, and continued with “Revelation” – a dramatic miniature staged by Japanese choreographer Motoko Hiroyama to music from the film “Schindler’s List”. Here Svetlana Zakharova’s partner is a chair, with which she, as if with herself, conducts an intense dialogue with her body. We know well what it’s about from the film, the slogan of which is a quote from the Talmud: “He who saves one life saves the whole world.”

The evening continued with a Pas de deux from the ballet “Flames of Paris” (choreography by Vasily Vaiernen), where again, as in “Spartacus,” we find ourselves witnessing a love story against the backdrop of an uprising, but now not in Rome, but in France at the end of the 18th century. Next is a poignant sketch to the music of Rachmaninov, which Ekaterina Krysanova and Vladislav Lantratov performed in costumes the color of a dying fire. And another performance by Alexander Mogilev, who performed a miniature based on his own choreography. He called it “Imagine, Sasha.” This is a dialogue with yourself – about the meaning of life. The alterego is a toy mechanical cat that can also dance. In the finale, a violet beam illuminates his figure, which mockingly moves its hips, as if giving an answer to the questions asked in “Man” and “Revelation”. A lot happens in the human head and only there. That which makes us writhe, thrash and chase after something incomprehensible. Die and be born again every day, as the artists of Zakharova’s gala concert did. However, the ending is consoling. Before us again is Svetlana Zakharova with her partner Artemy Belyakov – in miniature “The History of Tango” to the music of Astor Piazzolla. This is a monument to beauty, dance, rhythm, movement, which continues always and in spite of everything.