March 30 – April 9 2017
Every spring the Mariinsky Theater welcomes its guest to the International Ballet Festival. This time, in keeping with tradition, it will open with a premiere of the ballet “Paquita” on March 30th. This ballet was created in Paris in the middle of the 19thcentury, and was performed in St Petersburg just one year later. It was later revived in 1881 by the great choreographer Marius Petipa. Modern choreographer Yuri Smekalov has been working on a adoptation of a new ballet using his own libretto, whilst the famous Grand pas from Act III of “Paquita” will be performed according to Marius Petipa’s choreography.
The ballet company of the Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre is traditionally invited to participate and will be presenting its premiere from last season – Swan Lake. The playbill of the Mariinsky Ballet Festival also features such great ballet titles as Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadère, Don Quixote and Jewels.
This year, the Creative Workshop of Young Choreographers broadened its membership to become an international project – its participants, in addition to the Russians Vladimir Varnava, Maxim Petrov, Ilya Zhivoi and Olga Vasilieva, will include the Brazilian Guilherme Maciel and the American Garrett Smith. The repertoire performances and the final gala concert will see Mariinsky Theatre dancers appear on-stage with Olga Smirnova, Lucia Lacarra, Marlon Dino, Semyon Chudin, Daniel Camargo and Cesar Corrales.
The Festival offers a great opportunity to combine your trip to St. Petersburg with a wonderful ballet evening! We would be pleased to recommend you a tour program and book tickets for the Mariinsky theatre.
