Imperial Island Return of Russians

The cheery voice of Gediminas Taranda, the artistic director of The Imperial Russian Ballet, greets me over the telephone. The Russian accent is a warming one and reminds me of the Russian students I taught in the past.

He is ecstatic about returning to Tassie after sell out performances in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

He wants to know about how the weather is in Tassie and I tell him as we move out of winter things are improving. ‘Please’ he says ‘let it be warm’.

I encourage him it will, or should be a couple of weeks from now when the Imperial Russian Ballet will bring their version of ‘Swan Lake’ to Tasmania.

‘Swan Lake’ is very Russian in that it finds its origins in the folktales of Russia, in the image of the swan and it’s attribute of faithfulness and is called by Lopukhov ‘essentially Russian’.

It is fitting then that this much loved production should be performed by this company.

Gediminas is impressed by the knowledge and appreciation of classical ballet he observed in Tasmania on previous visits and recounts to me stories of meeting patrons after the performance over a glass of wine to discuss the production. Also he recalls a married couple that attended marvelling at the romance of ‘Sleeping Beauty’.

Another feature of The Imperial Russian Ballet’s interpretation of ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ was that it included some of the fairy-tale characters considered superfluous and omitted by some other productions as well as those included. Characters like ‘Puss in Boots’, ‘‘Red Riding Hood’, ‘the wolf’ and ‘Cinderella’ and The White Cat all took part. That production included 140 costumes!

I ask Gediminas what his favourite ballet is and like a parent he is loath to make a choice, although he does agree that ‘Swan Lake’ has probably the best music and choreography of all ballets. This version sticks with the happy ending because as Gediminas says it is Swan Lake not ‘Anna Karenina’!

Gediminas is not only the artistic director of the Imperial Russian Ballet. His skills have also been utilised as an Olympic coach for a number of years, in Athens, Beijing and London. For his work in this capacity in bridging the disciplines of sport and arts he was awarded an Olympic medal in Vancouver.

Gediminas talks about the celebrations at the Russian house at the London games with music and orchestra. During the Olympics Gediminas worked with gymnasts, judo competitiors and boxers among others

‘Swan Lake’ performs in Hobart at the Theatre Royal on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th September and in Launceston at the Princess Theatre on Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th September, 2012.
Paula Xiberras