St. Petersburg Ballet Brings "Carmen" to Mason

By Broadside Staff Writer Sarah Buchanan
Photo by Broadside Photographer Randy Urick

Last Friday night, the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre surprised audiences with an edgy, new rendition of the classic ballet Carmen, in the Center for the Arts.

Their miniature two-act version was an intense, emotional ride that focused on Don Jose and his murderous love for Carmen.

In the pre-performance discussion, Yuri Petukhov, Artistic Director of the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre, mentioned that “all choreographers have tried to find a different approach” to Carmen.

His rendition was not told in a linear way. In continuing and expanding the work of the founder of the company Leonid Jacobson, “the story moves along almost like drawers.” Indeed, the ballet was made up of little scenes, each adding an extra layer to the setting of Seville, Spain and Don Jose’s obsession with Carmen.

Petukhov’s version of Carmen also has a harder edge. Costumes, designed by Yanis Chamalidi, consisted of red dresses with skirts cut up in ribbons and ripped bodices.

Don Jose wore black pants and changed in and out of a black fishnet shirt. Michaela, Don Jose’s innocent fiancée, is the only one who wore a white dress and pointe shoes.

The other women wore black modified pointe shoes that doubled as both pointes and a pair of ankle boots with low heels.

The set was minimal but very effective. Black curtains moved in and out to frame a red scrim and clear plastic tubes shaped in a ‘v’ came down from the ceiling to act as a halo for Don Jose’s victims. Lights were red for Carmen, and blue for Michaela, contrasting the seductive and innocent qualities between the two women.

The choreography was electric. The women of Seville were sexual and independent while the men were strong, agile and completely under the women’s spell. Carmen danced with a bossy attitude.

Her movements indicated a coy, playful boredom when she wasn’t in the midst of teasing a man by tapping her fan on his butt or between the legs.

Don Jose’s motif was that of a soldier, but quickly broke down into leaps of jealous torment or falls to the ground, slapping the earth in guilty agony of his deeds.

Michaela moved gracefully with more traditional ballet choreography. Escamillo was an audience favorite. As the toreador, he was somewhat of a rock star in the ballet.
He danced pompously, slicking back his hair and sticking out his chest, with occasional silly moments where his fallibility shined through.

The dancers of the St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre had an amazing faculty. Every one of them had extensions to their ears and could perform virtuosic tricks while still adhering to their characters and the quick, emotional changes they had to portray.

Petukhov illuminated each thought of every character through movement. He also twisted dancers through and around each other in interesting partnered combinations.

However, there were times it seemed that he was taking advantage of their faculty too much.

The choreography had a tendency to become quite leggy with repetitive, competition-like arm gestures that quickly became uninteresting to watch.

Overall, Petukhov’s rendition of Carmen was an intense and hard-edged experience.

My heart went out to Michaela; I laughed at Escamillo and felt Don José’s twisted horror at each murder. The little drawer scenes were at times funny and, in contrast, serious and dark.

The costumes helped tell the story and lent an atmosphere, along with the set, to the overall feel of the ballet. I was immersed in the show, until the end with Don Jose lying face down in the middle of the stage, when a deep voice over the speakers said, “Don Jose, your time is over, leave the stage now.”

The fourth wall was broken, the audience laughed, and each soloist improvised a fun bow while the audience clapped in rhythm to the music.