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Snow Maiden takes centre stage in heart-warming performance
L
iverpool Empire has been transformed into an enchanted land of frost to welcome the Russian state ballet of Siberia performing ‘The Snow Maiden’. Although the transformation was for one night only, the audience was left mesmerised and speechless. Formed in 1981, The Russian state ballet of Siberia is currently touring across the UK with a full company of professional ballet dancers as well as immensely skilled musicians. The company seek to transport their audience into a fairy-tale land with five magical theatre classics including Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake and Snow Maiden. The Snow Maiden is a Russian folk tale of a mystical figure who emerges from the land of snow and frost and roams the human world yearning to be part of it and searching for romance. But when she slowly starts catching feelings and encounters human contact and emotions her frozen magical heart starts to gradually
melt. After she’s found love and finally undergoes her emotional transformation, she simply just melts under the hot sun. The stage is decorated with a snow-covered landscape with switching backgrounds of colourful, rural Russian villages. The joyful locals are preparing for the arrival of spring where an entitled merchant chooses a wife for himself out of a line-up of elegant villagers.
H
owever, he then heartlessly leaves her for the mysterious snow maiden. The ballerina who was playing the bride-to-be of the arrogant merchant who betrayed her danced with graceful sadness, but what stood out to me the most was her facial expressions. Her portrayal of heartache by the way she danced was exceptionally touching for me and although the snow girl ballerina was the main dancer, the heartbroken villager stood out to me the most. Sergei Bobrov’s choreography itself of the show wasn’t as spectacular
as I expected it to be considering the Russian ballet company’s reputation. However, they successfully managed to convey the emotion of every act to the audience through their physiognomy.
A
nother significant thing that stood out to me was the costumes the ballerinas were wearing which displayed the stereotypical ‘Slavic’ feel. Every dress and costume were different, what I took notice of is that every villager girl was wearing different colour ribbons in their hair which brought the performance of preparing for the arrival of spring more to life. The bright colours had connotations of flowers and nature which contrasted with the land of snow and demonstrated the drastic difference between the ordinary village people and the supernatural snow girl.
It is clear that ‘The Snow Maiden’ isn’t as elegant as some better-known ballets. It doesn’t possess the theatrical energy of productions such as ‘The Nutcracker’ nor the gracefulness and poignancy of ‘Swan Lake’. But it does have a lot of potential and overall, I would describe it as a ballet for those who are just slowly dipping their toes into the world of ballet performances and for people who struggle to understand the storylines, ‘The Snow Maiden’ is easy to appreciate. Fellow audience member Georgia Thompson, 36, from Liverpool, said: “I thought the leading dancers were absolutely excellent and although this wasn’t among the greatest of ballets, the acting skills of the dancers made the performance a lot more engaging and every emotion was beautifully portrayed”.
Review by RADVILE SAKENAITE
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