REVIEW: The National Ballet of Odessa's Swan Lake at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie

THE NATIONAL BALLET THEATRE OF ODESSA BRINGS BALLET MASTERPIECES “SWAN LAKE” AND “ROMEO & JULIET” TO CHICAGOLAND THIS JANUARY

Guest Review: 
by Catherine Hellmann

“Everything is beautiful at the ballet. Raise your arms, and someone’s always there.”--A Chorus Line

The National Ballet Theatre of Odessa presented the ballet masterpiece Swan Lake at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie on January 21. Featuring 55 of Ukraine’s top performers, Swan Lake has familiar, sensual music by composer Prokofiev. The storyline “follows a young prince as he tries to free the beautiful swan maiden from an evil spell.” 

According to the press release, “Swan Lake is a ballet performed in four acts, with one intermission. The script is based on the scenario by Vladimir

Begichev and Vasiliy Geltser, directed by Elena Baranovskaya, and

choreographed by Marius Petipa, Alexander Gorsky, Lev Ivanov, Konstantin

Sergeyev and Yuri Grigorovich.” 

The dancing was incredible and made me feel like I should run home and do five hours of Pilates. Even the way ballet dancers walkoffstage puts me to shame; they are simply so elegant and graceful. I trip just walking to my car…

The costumes were gorgeous. What’s not to like about incredibly fit men in tight white tights?? (Oh, the women were lovely, too..) 

All of the dancers were extraordinary, but the lead ballerina was divine.

 

When I was a kid, my beloved uncle George, a Franciscan priest, used to take me to the Cincinnati Ballet. We had a bachelor relative who had extra money and was a big sponsor of the company and passed free tickets on to Fr. George. I loved those outings, even though George was so intellectually formidable then. 

My teenage daughter had never been to a ballet before, and she loved it. I was so tickled to pass the family tradition on to a new generation. 

Catherine Hellmann is a teacher, writer, and theater junkie. She has tried to inspire urban and rural middle schoolers for over twenty years. A mother of three, she is thrilled to once again claim Chicago as home.  

Acclaimed Ukrainian Ballet Company To Perform “Romeo & Juliet” at Harris Theater for Music and Dance, January 19, 2020 and “Swan Lake” at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, January 21, 2020

The National Ballet Theatre of Odessa, is proud to announce two performances coming to Chicagoland in January 2020.  Featuring 55 of Ukraine’s top performers, “Romeo & Juliet” will be performed at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St. in Chicago, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020 at 3 p.m., and “Swan Lake” will be performed at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.. “Romeo & Juliet” tickets are $55 - $85 , and are available by calling the box office at 312-334-7777 or through www.harristheaterchicago.org. “Swan Lake” tickets are $38 - $68 and are available by calling 847-673-6300 or by visiting www.northshorecenter.org. 

“Romeo & Juliet” is a ballet performed in two acts, set to the music of composer Sergei Prokofiev, choreographed by Michael Lavrovsky, directed by Elena Baranovskaya and produced by Garri Sevoian. The fullscale production is based on the WIlliam Shakespeare’s tragedy of the two doomed young lovers. The principal dancers are Olena Dobrianska as “Juliet” and Sergii Dotsenko as “Romeo.” 

REVIEW: The National Ballet Theatre of Odessa's Romeo and Juliet at Harris Theater

THE NATIONAL BALLET THEATRE OF ODESSA BRINGS BALLET MASTERPIECES “SWAN LAKE” AND “ROMEO & JULIET” TO CHICAGOLAND THIS JANUARY

Guest Review: 
by Flo Mano

The National Ballet of Odessa, is recognized as one of the most prestigious institutions of classical ballet and boasts an extremely varied repertoire, carrying the honor and the task to preserve the precious heritage of the great Russian ballets.

‘Romeo and Juliet’ was performed at Chicago's Harris Theater this past Sunday, with 55 of Ukraine's most talented and brightest ballet stars, presenting the most passionate and romantic love story of our time. With the music of Sergei Prokofiev, composed in 1935, this ballet is based on William Shakespeare's timeless tale of tragic love. This ballet has been conquering the hearts of viewers around the world. This full-length, lavish production included costumes and sets brought from the Ukraine.

The main disappointment lies in Mikhail Lavrovsky's choreography, which is mostly monotonous. The various characters swaying and flailing their arms isn't enticing. The contrast was stark between dancers' high emotion and threadbare moves, even if performed nicely by high-level dancers. 

Olena Dobrianska, as the beautiful, princess Juliet and Sergeii Dotsenko, as the handsome, towering Romeo were visually striking. Yet, Lavrovsky's various duets for the couple lacked originality, often structurally a repetitious pattern of the two dancers starting widely apart, racing together and embracing, racing back apart, and then repeating the movement, with a few dramatic lifts. These frailties are all the more obvious given the soaring qualities of Sergei Prokofiev's great score, one of the most hypnotic in all of ballet. 

There are some virtues. The sword fighting and stage combat was strategically on point with theatrical and artistic blocking. The dancers are also attractive and sharp. The cast is buoyant and energetic, though most of the secondary players are given little to do. 

While Lavrovsky fails to deliver in key scenes, he deserves credit for tinkering with the ensemble dancing, injecting echoes of brisk, lively folk dance into the crowd festivities and crafting an especially eerie spectral corps of mourners.

Since 2017, the Artistic Director of The National Ballet Theatre of Odessa, Ukraine is the People’s Artist of Ukraine, Elena Baranovskaya. Production is by Garri Sevoian.

The ballet company consists of the best performers, all graduates of prestigious Ukrainian and Russian choreography schools. Many talented artists have danced with the Odessa National Opera Company in its different periods and many of them have been soloists in major international companies.

Flo Mano is a CPS elementary teacher/librarian, hairdresser, and theater/film fanatic who catches hundreds of Chicago shows annually. She volunteers at numerous film venues and theaters.

THE NATIONAL BALLET THEATRE OF ODESSA BRINGS BALLET MASTERPIECES “SWAN LAKE” AND “ROMEO & JULIET” TO CHICAGOLAND THIS JANUARY

Acclaimed Ukrainian Ballet Company To Perform “Romeo & Juliet” at Harris Theater for Music and Dance, January 19, 2020 and “Swan Lake” at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, January 21, 2020

The National Ballet Theatre of Odessa, is proud to announce two performances coming to Chicagoland in January 2020.  Featuring 55 of Ukraine’s top performers, “Romeo & Juliet” will be performed at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph St. in Chicago, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020 at 3 p.m., and “Swan Lake” will be performed at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.. “Romeo & Juliet” tickets are $55 - $85 , and are available by calling the box office at 312-334-7777 or through www.harristheaterchicago.org. “Swan Lake” tickets are $38 - $68 and are available by calling 847-673-6300 or by visiting www.northshorecenter.org. 

“Romeo & Juliet” is a ballet performed in two acts, set to the music of composer Sergei Prokofiev, choreographed by Michael Lavrovsky, directed by Elena Baranovskaya and produced by Garri Sevoian. The fullscale production is based on the WIlliam Shakespeare’s tragedy of the two doomed young lovers. The principal dancers are Olena Dobrianska as “Juliet” and Sergii Dotsenko as “Romeo.”