La fille mal gardée

Sergey Vikharev managed to establish a connection between centuries, inherently showing dancing techniques and style in their development. He managed to get the troupe not just spill the waves of inspiration into the audience but he also managed to reach the interpenetration of dancing and acting. <...> And one more exciting feature of the performance – it’s very rhythmic. It’s not a simple one-two-three to the applause of the fouette connoisseurs but a sophisticated eurhythmy begotten by the sensuality and bringing it back into the world.

... La Fille mal gardée is a contemporary dynamic ballet, but it inconspicuously envelopes the public with the scent of antiquity. The directors offered a sophisticated spectator, an inspiring game of passeism: a rustic French village by Gershenzon and Vikharev comes as an interior inside of a ballet class. <...> For an experienced ballet lover this imitation of the classics is the most exciting feature of the modern-day La Fille mal gardée. While novice will be no less inspired by the spectacular scenography and stylish costumes that remind both French paintings and Soviet films about the old France. And the drive with which the performers master the peculiarities of St. Petersburg and Copenhagen academism is also notable.

La Fille mal gardée staged in Ekaterinburg had shown big potential of the ballet reconstruction that we couldn’t even expect while watching the first brilliant performances of Vikharev in the Mariinsky Theatre. <...> it’s postmodernism which is not radically aggressive but light, brilliant, ironic and cheerful just like La Fille mal gardée itself – an immortal comic ballet. But this postmodernist move is turned inside out: it does not reform the usual ties, it is playing — but not with meanings and anti-meanings, but simply playing, carefree and happy.

The ‘Golden Mask’ festival offered the audience a ballet performance, in many ways very Parisian. It is full of French humour, French elegance, French splendour; it also shows the subtleties of the so-called French ballet school. <...> The basis of modern French school is clearly shown – the preserved original wit of the choreography and the sharp point shoes of modern dancers.