Waking Up The Ballet

Some things endure, like fairy tales, the ballet and the Russian people. Throughout centuries of brutal Czarist and Soviet rule, numerous wars, regular famines and political upheavals, the Russians have turned to vodka and classical ballet as a solace and as a source of considerable national pride.

When the Imperial Russian Ballet Company returns to these shores to tour their full-scale production of Sleeping Beauty, all of that tradition and pride will be on display. Indeed, there is nothing more Russian than the ballet (vodka notwithstanding).

For the founder of the Imperial Russian Ballet, Gediminas Taranda, it comes as no surprise that his compatriots continue to be enamoured of classical ballet. “Classical ballet is part of our national tradition in Russia going back over 200 years. Apart from that, Russian people love to dance and that's why so many of them put their children into ballet school.”

Whereas in Australia we have sport, in Russia they have ballet. “The main reason is that for Russian people life never used to be very good,” Taranda expands. “It was very tough conditions and they used to go to the ballet in the evening to protect themselves from reality.”

So entrenched in the Russian psyche is the ballet that despite its obviously aristocratic aesthetic, the former Soviet régime held it in the same regard as cinema and space travel. However, after the fall of the CCCP in 1991 and the liberalisation of the economy, life for Russia's cossetted ballet community got a lot tougher.

“About eight or ten years ago it wasn't a good time for the ballet,” Taranda recalls, “but now it's coming back and all around Russia. Even in the smaller cities, audiences are returning… Most importantly in all of this is that the government has started to support the ballet again.”

Back in 1994 when Taranda stepped away from his career as a Bolshoi soloist to create the Imperial Russian Ballet Company he could have been excused for thinking that he had taken a huge risk. However his tenacity, talent and extensive networks ensured that both his and IRBC's star rose rapidly. The Sleeping Beauty tour will be the company's fourth in this country.

“I am very impressed with Australian audiences,” Taranda declares. “There are lots of ballet lovers down there, which surprised me because usually it's Europe and Russia that love ballet. It's probably because of the Australian Ballet, who for the last 50 years or so have been a very famous company.”

In 2012 those antipodean ballet fans will get to feast their senses on one of the genre's defining classics, the Tchaikovsky-scored, two-hour-plus spectacle that is Sleeping Beauty. Although the dance community is busy embracing contemporary and 'street' forms, the technical, narrative and musical traditions of classical ballet remain popular with audiences.

For 51-year-old Gediminas Taranda, nothing compares to the sheer joy of the ballet. (Well, almost.) When asked what keeps him fresh and inspired, he laughs heartily. “In the morning, in the studio, it's like a very good breakfast – and I love breakfast. Then in rehearsal it's like drinking fantastic wine and afterwards, in the performance, it's like a fantastic celebration for me. I live my life in the ballet, in celebration. I can't understand how I could live without it.”

WHAT: Sleeping Beauty

WHEN & WHERE: Saturday 20 October and Sunday 21, The Arts Centre, Gold Coast and Monday 22 October to Wednesday 24, Brisbane Concert Hall