"We are happy to come back to Covent Garden after eighteen years of absence," Bolshoi Managing Director Anatoli Iksanov told a London press conference Monday. The Bolshoi Ballet first appeared in London in 1963 and its latest tour took place in 1999, when it performed at the Coliseum theater.
According to Iksanov, development of cooperation with leading music theaters of the West is one of the Bolshoi's priorities these days. Bolshoi performers often appear at major opera and ballet venues in Western Europe while European counterparts perform at the Bolshoi, he said.
This makes it possible for audiences to get a fuller picture of what is going on in classical and modern ballet around the world, he added.
Speaking of the Bolshoi dancers to perform at the Royal Opera House this time round, Artistic Director Alexei Ratmansky mentioned Galina Stepanenko and Nadezhda Gracheva, both had appeared before British audiences before. He also called attention to Maria Alexandrova and Sergei Filin, who star in "Don Quixote." "Unfortunately, Nikolai Tsiskaridze has not been able to come to London as he is still recovering from an injury," Ratmansky explained. He also singled out Svetlana Zakharova, who had started out in St. Petersburg, but has now moved to Moscow. This ballerina will appear in three of the Bolshoi's five ballets on the program.
We hope this tour season will be a fabulous success, organizer Lilia Hochhauser told the preview press conference. In her opinion, the secret behind the Bolshoi's triumph is that it doesn't just exploit its glorious heritage, but tries to be fresh and modern.
