State Ballet of Georgia’s Swan Lake: a former Bolshoi star lends charm to an uneven evening

The company, on their first time performing in London, proved their ambition but this production fizzled more than it sizzled

To present Swan Lake, the most famous of ballets, is always something of a statement of ambition, of intent. Perhaps this is particularly true of State Ballet of Georgia’s run at the London Coliseum: the company’s first time performing in the capital in its 175-year history. With the current absence of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky – who were regular visitors to London before the invasion of Ukraine – the company has stepped in to fill the gap.
For artistic director, Georgian-born former prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvili, it’s a work close to her heart. It was the first ballet she performed in the Bolshoi Theatre – she received a 30-minute ovation for her Odette-Odile on tour in Hamburg – and her last significant role with American Ballet Theatre. In 2004, she returned home to direct the then-ailing company based at Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre, and her tireless efforts have revived its international reputation.
This 11-date run of London performances, during which Tchaikovsky’s emotive score is played by the English National Opera Orchestra under the baton of Papuna Gvaberidze, feels symbolically important.
In this restaging by Ananiashvili and her former Bolshoi colleague Alexei Fadeyechev, which follows the original choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, we open in a park outside Prince Siegfried’s palace on the eve of his coming-of-age birthday. There’s a bucolic charm to Vyacheslav Okunev’s set and costume designs, which are less lavishly regal than other productions. The feathery branches hanging low, frame the action and call to mind a programme note that informs us that dense forest covered Tbilisi at its founding.  
As Prince Siegfried, Oleg Ligai is a tall, long-limbed dancer, whose airy jumps make him seem to float momentarily before landing. Yet the sweetness of his Siegfried borders, at times, on vacancy; there are moments when we can almost see him thinking through the dancing, rather than moving instinctively.
Things come to life, however, in Act II’s lakeside scene, when he meets his Swan Queen. Opening night’s Odette-Odile, Nino Samadashvili beautifully captures the anguished sense of yearning that the role of the cursed princess demands. She peers up at Siegfried from her pleading bow, with eyes full of longing, and moves through the arc of the scene, from her initial terror to eventual trust, with conviction and tender, graceful dancing; her arms, in particular, are exquisite. The pair are at their most compelling during the lakeside pas de deux, framed by the corps of swans.
Unfortunately, there are also moments of untidiness, particularly in the Dance of the Big Swans. The trimmed work, at two hours 15 minutes, chips along swiftly, but there are times when the dancing feels rushed and others when a stronger sense of menace is called for, particularly in Marcelo Soares’s interpretation of the sorcerer Baron Von Rothbart.
His entrance with his daughter, Odile, to the ball at the palace is too quickly outshone by the crowd-pleasing Spanish dance. The lively number, which sees Tata Jashi and Ana Modebadze dip into backbends and tap the floor with their fans, is something of a scene-stealer. Elsewhere, the light, lively dancing of Tomone Kagawa also caught the eye.
For Samadashvili, Odette’s lyricism is a better fit than the glittering ferocity of her deceitful counterpart. Act III’s Black Swan pas deux lacks something in intensity and, though she rallies to tackle those famous fouettés, this climatic scene seems to fizzle rather than sizzle.
Swan Lake’s conclusion is always tricky – and here it ends happily, with the lovers united at last. Perhaps one shouldn’t spoil the ending, but then the plot isn’t the reason to see the ballet, and there is some delightful dancing in this charming, if not flawless, production.
Until Sept 8; londoncoliseum.org