Stunning images of Bolshoi ballerina Svetlana Zakharova dressed as Coco Chanel (costumes by the Chanel Creative Studio) whetted the appetite for her latest how, Modanse. Though the souvenir programme had yet more spectacular photographs of Chanel and Zakharova, prices for the booklet as well as the seats were off-putting. 

 

The one-act ballet, Gabrielle Chanel, took up the second half of the programme.  According to accounts of that biographical ballet, the structure of the Chanel tribute is similar: a flashback, projections of films and photographs, disparate scenes from the subject’s life and an assurance at the end that the legend will live on.

 

 

Programme

COME UN RESPIRO
Choreography by Mauro Bigonzetti
Music by Georg Friedrich Händel

GABRIELLE CHANEL
Costumes by CHANEL
Choreography by Yuri Possokhov
Music by Ilya Demutsky

 

 

People’s Artist of Russia, laureate of the Russian state prize, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, étoile of La Scala, Svetlana Zakharova was born in Lutsk (Ukraine). At the age of 10 she entered the Kiev Choreography School. Having spend six years in the class of Valeria Sulegina, she took part in the international young dancers contest “Vaganova Prix” in Saint Petersburg, where she was the youngest ballet dancer.

 

Having received her official ‘prima’ status at the age of 18, Svetlana continued her work for the Mariinsky Theater expanding her repertoire with classical and modern pieces: “The Sleeping Beauty”, “Swan Lake”, “Bayadère”, “Don Quixote”, - as well as premieres by George Balanchine. Zakharova successfully performed the pas des deux by Tchaikovsky and starred in “Apollo”, “Serenade”, “The Symphony in C” and “Diamonds in Jewels”. Zakharova also met with the great choreographer John Neumeier. In his ballet “Now and then” the young ballet dancer was presented as an ultra-modern artist, capable of mastering styles and genres of dance beyond the art of classical ballet.