Igor Zelensky and the Stars of International Ballet
Lowry, Salford ***
Igor Zelensky may have purloined one or two of the Kirov's dancers for this night of ballet's greatest hits, but one absence was immediately apparent: the orchestra. The show opened with Balanchine's Apollo, with Stravinsky's score piped through two conspicuous amplifiers. Although this did little to diminish the audience's enjoyment, it did make for awkward pauses, some errant timing and rather tinny acoustics.
Zelensky's strong-jawed Apollo presided over the muses as they cavorted around him on eager tip-toes. Yulia Makhalina's Terpsichore deftly nuanced her complicity with the god through her bold, mature movements, while Zelensky's daunting pirouettes signalled an exemplary technique that, strangely, is not quite animated beyond his majestic presence.
Although devoid of sets - the performers relied simply on occasional props and imaginative lighting - there was no shortage of glittering costumes. Dressed in a silver-studded waistcoat, Thomas Edur, currently with the English National Ballet, danced the Sleeping Beauty pas de deux with Svetlana Ivanova, who was resplendent in a pink tutu and tiara.
More relaxed than the previous pairing, they had some fun as Edur's leaps and turns competed with Ivanova's amusing range of theatrical gestures, from disdainful hand-flicking to flirtatious hips. The middle act of Balanchine's Jewels, Rubies, was another dazzling affair, even though the irrepressibly quick Andrian Fadeyev seemed to be slightly out of time with Irina Golub, whose facial expressions and hands-on-hips petulance were a delight.
Zelensky returned for the Don Quixote pas de deux, and immediately re-established himself with more tight, smooth leaps and pirouettes. One of his own compositions formed the finale, danced to a Japanese percussion score that at times sounded like rock'n'roll. An ensemble piece, the four girls, four boys, all in black, engaged in boisterous shadowplay. Young Fadeyev was again exhilarating, while Zelensky let out a despairing yell as he finally leapt into the wings.
