Sleeping Beauty

Published Wednesday 30 January 2008 at 14:40 by Natalie Anglesey

Ellen Kent has presented some excellent touring productions in the past, but the gremlins were out in force for the Chisinau National Ballet’s production of Sleeping Beauty.

The basic ingredients were there with Petipa’s charming choreography set to Tchaikovsky’s lyrical score, but the scenery looked tired, leaving barely enough room for the dance of the fairies.

The corps de ballet looked under-rehearsed and one dancer, obviously unwell, kept bumping into people until she finally fell on stage. The wedding guests, from a local stage school, wore ill-fitting costumes but no hats to cover their pony tails, giving an amateur feel to the whole production.

The saving grace was a strong Lilac Fairy danced by Natalia Korotkova and, in the title role, a fine performance from Kristina Terentieva, winner of the Vienna Grand Prix last year. She danced Princess Aurora beautifully with the lightness of a 16-year-old, yet showing the maturity and poise of a woman in the challenging lifts and romantic pas de deux.

Partnered superbly by her husband, Alexei Terentiev, as Prince Desire, they were in a class apart, but they were obviously used to dancing on larger stages as both ended up in the wings at the end of their solo performances.

Apart from the deserved reception for the principals, discerning balletomanes responded with such sparse applause, there was barely enough to get the performers off stage. Sadly, not Chisinau National Ballet’s finest hour.