Mariinksy Ballet graces BAM with ‘Chopin: Dances for Piano’
The Mariinsky Ballet performed three different interpretations of Frédéric Chopin’s music last week at a show at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) titled Chopin: Dances for Piano. The two-and-a-half-century-old ballet company, from St. Petersburg, Russia, is renowned as one of the world’s finest, and its performance was an accordingly skillful portrayal of the Polish composer’s romantic piano pieces.
The first of the trio, “Chopiniana,” was created in-house at Mariinsky in 1908, by Michel Fokine. At the time, Fokine was in his late 20s, and had already been teaching at the ballet school associated with Mariinsky (then known as the Imperial Russia Ballet) for six years. It is one of his best known works, and hints at Fokine’s affinity for classical Greek and Egyptian art.
Backed up by an unamplified piano — as were the other pieces — Mariinsky’s modern-day performance of Fokine’s 1908 work was a trip back to a time when Classical romantic themes touched nearly all forms of art, literature and architecture. The set, which could have been the backdrop for any number of early 19th century romantic paintings, was brought to life by a cast of white clad slyphs, who in turn framed several female soloists and a young poet wearing white and back country garb.