✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Dance

Review: Abay Kazakh State Ballet Theatre

On 17 Nov 19, 19:30 Dur.: 1 hour 50 mins inc one interval.

The second ballet company from Kazakhstan to hit London in as many months, the Abay Kazakh State Ballet Theatre, brought a double bill of classic crowd pleasers to the Coliseum

By Teresa Guerreiro on 18/11/2019

35 CW readers are interested
Abay Kazakh Sate Ballet Theatre, Scheherazade, Saule Rakhmedova and Farhad Biuriev
Abay Kazakh Sate Ballet Theatre, Scheherazade, Saule Rakhmedova and Farhad Biuriev
Review: Abay Kazakh State Ballet Theatre Review: Abay Kazakh State Ballet Theatre Teresa Guerreiro
Not much is known in this country about Kazakhstan, a vast and sparsely populated Central Asian republic that was once part of the Soviet Union, but is now mostly subsumed in Western consciousness as ‘one of the -stans'.


This is why Kazakhstan has decided to launch a ‘cultural assault globally’, in the words of Erian Idrissov, Kazakh Ambassador to the UK in a brief address to a packed London Coliseum, introducing the Abay Kazakh State Ballet Theatre.


Based in the former capital of Almaty, the Abay Kazakh State Ballet Theatre has a repertoire including a range of classic and specially commissioned ballets. For its first visit to the UK, though, the company brought two contrasting crowd pleasers: Chopiniana and Schéhérazade.


Set to music by Chopin and also known as Les Sylphides, Chopiniana, originally choreographed by Mikhail Fokine (and tweaked here by artistic director Gulzhan Tutkibaeva) is a plotless moonlit ballet where a poet meets and dances with a group of forest sylphs. A quintessentially Romantic work, it can look dreamy and glorious when properly executed, or conversely a little silly and old-fashioned.



Dinara Yessentaeva in Chopiniana. Photo: Nikolay Postnikov
In this performance it alternated between the two, the dreamy quality seriously eroded by too bright lighting. The corps de ballet of 20 women in ethereal white skirts and little glittery wings, was generally well drilled, though occasional wobbly arabesques and not quite turned out feet belied what must be the company’s Russian training.


The three female soloists acquitted themselves well, Arisa Hashimoto’s floating jumps particularly impressive in the G Flat Waltz. As the poet, Rahim Dairov was a solid partner, but less impressive in his solo work.


Chopin’s music, in an old and fuzzy recording, was just this side of a nerve-shredding racket.


Rimsky-Korsakov’s music fared no better in the second piece of the night, Schéhérazade. Set in a Western man’s fantasy of an Eastern harem, curtain up brought an instant disappointment: Léon Bakst’s glorious original designs – sumptuous silk and satin curtains and cushions, and crucially an ornate golden gate – are entirely absent, replaced here by a dark-hued backcloth representing part of a tent, with a few cushions lined up on both sides of the stage.


The storyline is simple: Zaman (Nurlan Baibusinov) convinces his brother, the Sultan of Shahriyar (Nelson Peña), that his favourite, Zobeida (Malika Elchibayeva), is unfaithful. They set a trap by pretending to go on a hunt. Zobeida persuades the Chief Eunuch (Ulan Badenov) to open the gate and let in a group of virile slaves, includind Zobeida’s own favourite, the Golden Slave (Azamat Askarov). An orgy follows. The Sultan returns and the tragic end is predictable…


All this you should be able to work out from the original detailed mime; but unfortunately Abay Kazakh resident choreographer Toni Candeloro interfered with Fokine’s original choreography, and all but abolished the original interaction between the brothers. Add to this a truly wooden and inexpressive Peña as the Sultan and the narrative is seriously compromised.


Elchibayeva as Zobeida is much the best thing in this ballet. Beautiful in her turquoise harem pants and feathered, bejewelled headdress, she is sinuous and technically accomplished, if not exactly sexy, and there isn’t much chemistry between her and a Golden Slave whose acting is often reminiscent of early silent movies.


Still, cultural offensives are to be welcomed for the opportunities they afford both sides to acquaint themselves with, and learn from, each other. We now know more about ballet in Kazakhstan than we did two months ago; let’s hope the Kazakh dancers have had the chance to see and ponder the work of their Western counterparts.


by Teresa Guerreiro

What Review: Abay Kazakh State Ballet Theatre
Where London Coliseum, St Martin's Lane, , London , WC2N 4ES | MAP
Nearest tube Charing Cross (underground)
When On 17 Nov 19, 19:30 Dur.: 1 hour 50 mins inc one interval.
Price £10-£75 (+booking fee)
Website Click here to book



Free for Members
Up to £150
Abay Kazakh Sate Ballet Theatre, Scheherazade, Saule Rakhmedova and Farhad Biuriev
Booking closed
17 of November 2019

Scheherazade | Chopiniana Ballet

See all tickets

Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 27–29 January
Things to do in London this weekend: 27–29 January
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2023
Culture After Dark: The Best Museum Late Night Openings
Culture After Dark: the best museum late-night openings

Editor's Picks

BRB, Momoko Hirata as Giselle, photo Bella Kotak
Birmingham Royal Ballet, Giselle review
William Bracewell as Romeo with Artists of The Royal Ballet in Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words
Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words, BBC iPlayer
Antoinette Brooks-Daw, Javier Torres, Mlindi Kulashe with dancers of Northern Ballet in The Kingdom of Back, photo Emma Kauldhar
Northern Ballet Triple Bill review
The Sleeping Beauty, Yasmine Naghdi as Aurora, Matthew Ball as Florimund (c) ROH Bill Cooper 2017
The Royal Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty review
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • The Alchemist, Covent Garden

    Renowned for its molecular mixology, placing theatre and immersive experiences at its core, The Alchemist opens its second London branch in Covent Garden

    Read more...
    Map
  • Coco Ichibanya

    The first European branch of Japan's biggest curry house chain dishes out Japanese curries with adventurous toppings and plenty of options to customise your meal.

    Read more...
    Book Map
  • Frenchie Covent Garden

    Restaurant and wine bar Frenchie has been credited with redesigning the Parisian way of eating. Its simple, generous yet precise dishes are heavily influenced by chef cum owner Gregory Marchand's classical training in Nantes.

    Book Map
35

Abay Kazakh State Ballet Theatre

Coliseum

Chopiniana

Les Sylphides

Schéhérazade

Mikhail Fokine

Tony Candeloro

Chopin

Rimsky-Korsakov



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×