The 2017 Paquita created by Yuri Smekalov with Yury Burlaka is now in it’s 8th season on the Mariinsky stage, and the three-act dancing extravaganza combines everything from gypsy and Spanish character dancing to one of the most classical Grand Pas in the classical repertoire. Last month, the four-performance run featured a number of debuts and showed the troupe in top form.
Petersburg audiences typically crowd in to see several Mariinsky dancers, and Renata Shakirova, one of the troupe’s youngest primas, is one of them. She performed the leading role of Paquita alongside Timur Askerov on April 26th.
This ballet’s overly long libretto is slightly confusing, shifting from a wealthy upper class Spanish mansion, to a gypsy camp replete with a smoking campfire and wild dancing, with a “horse” that gets lassooed by the newly appointed gypsy, Andres, and finally to the wedding of Andres and Paquita. Much of the corps de ballet dancing en masse is done in character style, while the soloists perform frequent saut de basques, and pique turns that open into arabesque with Spanish port de bras that decorate the choreography throughout.