7 minute read
Russian Ballet comes to Liverpool 14&15 Jamaican Art Festival
Snow Maiden takes centre stage in heart-warming performance
Liverpool Empire has been transformed into an enchanted land of frost to welcome the Russian state ballet of Siberia performing ‘The Snow Maiden’.
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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.
However, 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.
Another 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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Photos and words: SASKIA FRYER
Jamaica’s making the most of cultural heritage
Anew exhibition brings a colourful and vibrant depiction of post-independence Jamaican art and culture to Liverpool.
Jamaica Making: The Theresa Roberts Arts Collection features at the Victoria Gallery & Museum where they have put together more than 30 pieces of art which have been given to the gallery by Jamaican businesswoman, Theresa Roberts. The exhibition has been curated by Dr Emma Roberts, Associate Dean for Global Engagement at the Liverpool School of Art & Design and it comes at the right time as the country celebrates its 60th anniversary of independence.
It’s one of the first Jamaican arts exhibitions in the Northwest and features artists, both new and old, in this exhibition to teach the world of the artistic talent in Jamaica.
Her aim was to create a homely feel with the artwork being set up in a smaller room and on different walls so the public could move around and experience the way Theresa Roberts had all the artwork displayed in her house.
Dr Roberts told MNL how this exhibition came to fruition. She said: “I was asked by John Moores University to take some students to Jamaica in 2018 where we were based at the Edna Manley College of Arts.
“We had a cultural experience where students were learning a lot about the art and making it themselves.
There were amazing art galleries there and I realised how I knew absolutely nothing about the history there.”
After having an eye-opening experience in Kingston, Jamaica learning about the impact of colonizers on the country, Dr Roberts returned to the UK and met Jamaican born artist, Edward Lucie Smith.
This interaction led to her gaining the contact of Theresa Roberts where she found Theresa had a vast collection of Jamaican art where she allowed her to have access to all of it and use for this exhibition.
Many of the pieces that Dr Roberts chose, show a range of history and political views of different artists in Jamaica.
A common theme was female nudity being depicted through the art as a way of the artists reclaiming the female physique to not be objectified and seen as a sexual object, but rather admired for how it’s formed.
Dr Roberts also wanted the public to learn about the challenges which Jamaica still face, as it is a country which has an issue of gangs, rape, and violence.
She said: “There is a real aim of the exhibition, mainly to change stereotypes of Jamaica.
“Before I went there myself, I thought of it as a typical honeymoon destination, a place for all-inclusive holidays but I didn’t think it would be so cultured and have such a complex history.
“My main aim is for people to learn about Jamaica’s politics, history, the way that people think and the way that people may be worried about the patriarchal society.”
Theresa Roberts was also adamant in sharing Jamaican art more widely to support young Jamaican artists.
Out of all the artwork displayed at the venue, there is one which stands out to Dr Roberts, it’s by artist Michael Hayden Elliott called Hole in the Wall.
This sculpture is supposed to reflect Jamaica’s violent history, with one side of the image showing before colonial occupation and the other side showing the image after colonizers took over.
Dr Robert’s said: “It’s showing us how Jamaica has been subject to all the colonial history. The indigenous people were the native Taino who were wiped out by colonizers who wanted to take over.
“We’re seeing a hole in the wall as a portal back to the 1600’s just as colonizers arrived, on the other side we see contemporary Jamaica but still they can never erase the time that’s happened between the two.”
Throughout her time in Jamaica, she noticed how there were many walls with holes in them, as many people in the country are in poverty, so the only way they could make money was by stealing bricks from the walls.
They would then sell the bricks to people who needed the material for building houses.
She said: “It reminds us how some Jamaicans are still suffering from the colonial past.”
As well as curating the exhibition, she has also put education programmes in place to teach both young children and adults of Jamaica’s history, with the Liverpool Caribbean Centre also getting involved.
You can also view one of the artists in residence, Desanna Watson’s 74-foot art installation which is being displayed at the Exhibition Research Lab in the John Lennon Building. Desanna is with LJMU until March 9 2022 giving talks and teaching others of the history of art in Jamaica.
• You can view this exhibition until July 9 2022 for free at the Victoria Gallery & Museum. Address: Ashton St, Liverpool
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