Bless World Ballet for touring country, preaching the ballet gospel with 'Swan Lake'

World Ballet Company from Los Angeles performed a gorgeous "Swan Lake" on Wednesday night at Proctors in Schenectady.

World Ballet Company might not be one of America's elite ensembles that balletomanes revere, but maybe it should be.
 
This excellent company, based in Los Angeles and directed by Sasha Gorskaya and Gulya Hartwick, is doing what Anna Pavlova and the Ballets Russes once did. It is leaping across the nation, showing audience in big cities and small that ballet has the power to speak a universal language that cuts across political divides and arrows directly into the heart.

And like these earlier artists who jeted through the vast and varied American landscape, World Ballet, hopefully, can help stop the desperate hemorrhaging of the ballet audience. Thus, I would like to thank World Ballet Company for taking the road trip, to breezily preach the ballet gospel, and in some way, revive its slowing breath.
 
Among the company’s stops was Proctors Theatre in Schenectady on Wednesday night in which this mid-size company performed ballet’s most beloved classic – Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.”  And while the company, that has many Slavic names attached indulged in some very Russian traditions, World Ballet enchanted with a gorgeous rendering. Set and costumes by Sergey Novikov were lush and vibrant. And better still, the dancing was top shelf. I was impressed.
 
The Russian inclination in the program showed up in the many bows the dancers take every time they have a solo or duet, which can become tedious and break the romantic haze of “Swan Lake.” The other was the ending. The Soviets censored the original tragic ending for the lovers – Prince Siegfried and Odette -- in which they drown themselves in the lake. Soviets officials demanded an upbeat ending, in which evil in the form of Rothbart is vanquished and the lovers prevail.
 
That is the ending that World Ballet stages. And that’s fine with me because there is enough to cry about these days. No one needs to see the bereft lovers commit suicide.
 
That aside, the two leads in the production: Darya Medovskaya as Odette and Arsenty Lazarev as Siegfried were marvelous. Medovskaya, a fine technician, delicately balanced the vulnerable Odette and fiery Odile with a bit of aloofness to both. Lazarev played the earnest lover, clutching his chest and in hysterics when he discovered Rothbart and Odile’s deception.
 
I can only lament that Lazarev did not have much of an opportunity to dance, the real tragedy of “Swan Lake,” until the second Act. And then he’s sprung like an arrow from a taut archer’s bow.
 
Also of note was Konstantine Geronik as the court jester. His antics – and tireless bouncing straight into the air, often in splits – kept the eyes open during the rather long and sometimes ho-hum opening scenes at the palace.
 
Despite the slow start, which is always a problem for this ballet, thus the reason George Balanchine scrapped the opening scene all together, World Ballet Company’s “Swan Lake” shimmered with beauty. All one can say is let's hope it glides on and inspires some love.