Flight

Published Monday 25 February 2008 at 16:10 by Gavin Roebuck

Introduced by his son Andris this Ensemble Productions gala, in memory of Bolshoi star Maris Liepa, opened with film footage of Liepa’s rôles followed by daughter Ilze’s moving tribute danced barefoot to Khachaturian’s adagio from Spartacus.

Tamara Rojo with Federico Bonelli performed the pas de deux from Esmerelda. Dazzling in a gorgeous green and black tutu, Rojo amazed with long held balances and flirted with the audience while Bonelli showed his light bouncy jump and elegant line. Vladimir Derevianko danced with lyrical precision Uwe Scholtz’s The Firebird, then Ilze Liepa reappeared to dance a duet from Michael Shannon’s Mme Bovary with Mark Peretokin that combined passion with drama, followed by Sergei Polunin, covered in gold paint, in the Bronze Idol solo from Bayadère.

Svetlana Zakharova’s Dying Swan had less emotion than usual, the first half ending with Marianela Nuñez with Thiago Soares thrilling the audience in the duet from Corsaire.

In Roland Petit’s Pique Dame Ilze Liepa showed she inherited her father’s talent for expression. Maria Alexandrova and Sergei Filin were glorious in Pharaoh’s Daughter. Cojacaru and Johan Kobburg danced the letter pas de deux from Onegin with some fumbled partnering followed by a low key performance from In The Middle Somewhat Elevated by Agnès Letestu and Jose Martinez. Sarah Lamb and David Makhateli, dancing better than ever, performed the balcony pas de deux from Lavrosky’s Romeo and Juliet. Zakharova gave a powerful performance of Revelation and the finale fireworks were the pas de deux from Don Quixote, with thrilling young Bolshoi stars Natalia Osipova and Leonid Sarafanov.