The Imperial Russian Ballet Company will return to Australia in September with a new compilation production – A Russian Triple Bill.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The three act Triple Bill features Sleeping Beauty, Les Sylphides and Carmen.and will be at the Albury Entertainment Centre on Saturday, September 22.
“The three pieces are so very different,” principal dancer Anna Pashkova says through an interpreter.
“They show different time periods and show different costumes. We will have two intermissions and a full change of the stage, they will be on an absolutely different stage.
“So for people who never saw ballet or don’t know much about ballet it’s a good opportunity to see different types of performances, different female characters … there’s the romantic Les Sylphides or strong and independent passionate Carmen or the romantic Sleeping Beauty.”
Regional Academy of Performing Arts (RAPA) students will share the stage with the Russian dancers during the first act, Princess Aurora’s wedding from Sleeping Beauty.
Pashkova is the lead dancer in act 3’s Carmen.
“There will be there absolutely different pieces. First it will be Sleeping Beauty where we have kids from the local ballet school on stage with the professional dancers,” she says.
“The second act is Les Sylphides, it’s very romantic. A very beautiful performance, what mostly people expect from classical Russian ballet, and the third piece is Carmen.”
The Imperial Russian Ballet Company was formed in 1994 and they have been touring the world ever since, in 2017 they performed A Festival of Russian Ballet.
Pashkova, who started dancing professionally as a five-year-old, has been with the Imperial Russian Ballet Company for the past 16 years.
Ms Pashkova is known for being able to perform a variety of roles and says the life of a full-time touring dancer requires full-time commitment.
“It is really hard work, sometimes doing two shows a day,” she says.
For people who never saw ballet ... it’s a good opportunity to see different types of performances
- Anna Pashkova
“The main secret is the inner strength, the concentration. The body initially should have a big reserve of energy because dancing is really hard, it is a lot of exercise.
“We have four hours of rehearsals before the performance then three hours of performance to keep in shape.”
