For their fall visit to Petersburg, the Bolshoi Ballet decided to bring the entertaining Soviet comedy “The Bright Stream,” an atypical production based heavily on pantomime, story line and comic relief, with contemporary dancing vignettes interspersed that include bizarre onstage machinations — a dog, bicycle, and oversized vegetables during the peasant harvest are a few of its features.
The Saturday evening performance (11th of October) featured top names from the Bolshoi: Eleonora Sevenard as the classical ballet dancer with Denis Rodkin as Peter the agronomist, and Daria Kokhlova as Zina with Vladislav Lantratov as the classical dancer, in four of the main roles. Stemming from 1935 in Leningrad, the production is difficult to follow for those who didn’t grow up in the Soviet Union. Stylistically it’s a recognizable ode to Soviet life with harvesting peasants and Boris Messerer’s typical dress for 1930s individuals. Choreographically it has moments of Grigorovich-flavored danses en masse, especially for the men, but the style is more folk than classical. This is the type of ballet you can bring a child to for a short two-hour performance and leave with smiles. It just doesn’t provide the philosophical or literary pull of the standard classical repertoire.
Without a doubt these professionals can bring vibrancy and intrigue to just about anything they do, and that was the case in this performance. From Rodkin’s casual yet suave presence, to Kokhlova’s efforts to “learn” classical ballet from Sevenard in the onstage dance lesson (she finally manages a series of fouettes), the characters portrayed onstage came to life. The depth of their pantomime acting talents is put to the test here, where at least half of the production relies on the acting that carries the lighthearted story forward. Dance-wise, nuggets of genius are buried here and there, such as the section when Anastasia Vinokur, a well-known character actor, walks en pointe in tennis shoes with a parasol; or when the “classical dancer” (performed by Lantratov) dresses as a Sylph in pointe shoes and imitates steps from two classical ballets (Giselle and La Syphide). The humor is overdone and obvious but effective.
Having won the British Critic’s Circle prize and a Russian “Golden Mask” award, the “Bright Stream” is light, comic entertainment for those without deep knowledge of the classical lexicon. But one won’t find deep meaning or soulful emotion in this lighthearted production — it’s “fun” and for some, that may be enough.
Photo (c) Natasha Razina 2025 for the Mariinsky Theatre