Bolshoi Ballet's Spartacus

Going along with the Kennedy Center's focus on Russian art this week, I went to see Spartacus by Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet.

While I haven't seen many ballet performances lately and it was my first time to see a gladiator-type ballet stage, I must say, this was spectacular!

The overall taste was very progressive in terms of the coreography and costume which was somewhat erotic, while the storyline and of course the ballet dancers were traditional and simply excellent.

The coreography by Yuri Grigorovich was not just modern, but went beyond that. The hands were sometimes thrust in the air never to reach an ordinary ballet pose, and legs kicked fro and back to stop in mid-air. Yet, every move was just true art.

I have never seen so many dramatic lifts by the main pair dancers, almost in the manner of, and as if to make up for the recent Olympics drama of Russia losing their 48 years of gold medal in pair figure skating.

One striking thing about the costume, and I'm sure many in the audience secretly thought of was the red spandax for Spartacus towards the end of the first curtain. From the front it was completely 80s leotard, and from the back it was conspicuously thong.

I was also in awe (in a different way) of the back dancers' costume that looked like Gustav Klimt's goddess dresses. When the dancers were holding a kind of sage looking leaf in their hands and dancing in unison, it looked truly devine.

The storyline was an old one of a brave warrior getting captured and enslaved, taking a revenge on the capturer but letting him go when he gets a chance to kill him, and in the end dies a martyr.

Finally, above anything else, the most impressive was Spartacus's high jumps. One small leap by the 21-year old Ruben Muradyan would out-air anyone else on the stage! It was as if he's in another dimension and gets extra air time by default.

This ballet was not what I had imagined from the brochure and definitely a must-see.

Photo credits: Voice of Dance, Spartacus