LA VALSE (Balanchine/Mariinsky Ballet)

Here is my staging (2004) of this Balanchine masterpiece for the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg. I’m not sure when this was filmed but the ballerina, Ulyana Lopatkina didn’t come to many rehearsals so I wasn’t able to really work with her. Many musical things and nuances are missing here and in general the tempo is off. Nothing one can do when you’re gone and not able to keep it correct. In general the Russian co’s tend to slow down Balanchine. Other dancers her right during the curtain call is Andrei Merkuriev, to her left (her partner) Vladimir Shishov. Other soloists: Natalia Sologub, Sofia Gumerova, Yulia Kasenkova, Vasiliy Shcherbakov, Maxim Zyuzin