Close of the XXIX Music Festival Stars of the White Nights
Marking ten years in the arts at the Mariinsky Theatre
Kimin Kim is a star of Mariinsky ballet. The Principal is famous around the world by his outstanding technique and incomparable jumps. Successful in classical repertoire and the soviet ballet heritage, Kim is not afraid of modern and contemporary pieces. His repertoire contains the leading parts in the most important ballets like La Bayadère, Don Quixote, The Sleeping Beauty as well as Le Parc, Le Jeune homme et la mort etc.
The evening started with the amazingly beautiful Act II of La Bayadère where charming and fascinatingly graceful in each her movement Olesya Novikova (Gamzatti) and always bright and noble in this ballet Kimin Kim (Solor) were shining in Grand Pas. Also the audience had a chance to admire the perfect in his dancing geometry Golden Idol performed by Vasily Tkachenko.
In my opinion the part of the legendary La Bayadère looked very powerful in the first act of the artistic evening and was undoubtely a success, making a special atmosphere of the gala.
The Divertissement of the second act was opened by Maria Khoreva and Kimin Kim in soft Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. In a tender duo both demonstrated their technical skills and romantic mood of the piece.
In Solo by Hans van Manen Philipp Stepin, Yaroslav Baibordin, Maxim Zenin were absolutely gorgeous. I would like to notice the accuracy of Yaroslav Baybordin and also the corps plastique and very beautiful hands of Maxim Zenin who has very classical ballet figure, slim with long legs, but easily and elegantly deals with the athletic contemporary dance. It´s very pity that there are no more this ballet in Mariinsky, but let´s hope some special occassion like this evening will be able to give the public an opportunity to see it again.
Yevgenia Savkina and Nail Enikeev made fire on stage in bright Panaderos dance from the ballet Raymonda. Cheerful and passionate Panaderos was a good “brigde” between two contemporary works – Solo and Sadness by Youngjun Shin to the music by Brett Anderson. Kimin Kim performed this short piece desperately, flying above the stage and astonishing audience by his lightness.
Anastasia Matvienko and Semyon Chudin (Bolsoi Theatre) performed Grand Pas Classique accurately and elegantly in each element. Chudin demonstrated to Saint Peterburg’s spectators his best qualities in variation and as a reliable and noble partner.
L’Abandon Pas de Deux from Le Parc by Angelin Preljocaj has became iconic since the ballet was created in 1994. One and only Viktoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim, the music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the most famous ballet flying kiss, all this made the final of Divertissement unforgettable.
The III Act The Legend of Love, one of the most celebrated works by Yuri Grigorovich created in 1961, is still one of the most mysterious and stylish ballets of Soviet epoch. The design made by Simon Virsaladze amazes audience and the atmosphere seems hypnotizing. The trio of Viktoria Tereshkina (Mekhmeneh Bahnu), Kimin Kim (Ferkhad) and Ekaterina Osmolkina (Shyrin) performed this story about love and self-sacrifice, I’m not afraid of the word, ideally. Two stunning ballerinas of great technique and acting talent made the final of Kimin Kim’s show spectacular.
Concluding, I would like to say that all the artistic galas of July gave the audience the chances to see the best dancers (not all unfortunately, but the most of them), the pride of Mariinsky Ballet on stage in such short period. Let’s congratulate Kimin Kim with his 10 years of working in Saint Petersburg and wait for the new amazing performances of the highest class dancers of the company.
Text: Julia Sumzina
Photos: Mikhail Vilchuk, Mariinsky Theatre