KEY POINTS:
PERFORMANCE
What: Ballet Kiev
Where and when: Aotea Centre, Sat April 26 (Swan Lake); Sun April 27 (The Sleeping Beauty)
While the rest of the world takes liberties great and small with the classical ballet repertoire - an all-male Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet as gangsta rap, The Nutcracker a la ER - the Ukraine's Ballet Kiev is intent on preserving the old, conserving the original.
"We have," says a proud Viktor Ishchuk, principal dancer with Ballet Kiev, "the closest possible choreography to that created by Petipa and Tchaikovsky when they worked together to create the great traditional Russian ballets.:
And why change what is already perfect? he replies, when asked about his opinion of the Western urge to find a new angle, create a contemporary slant.
Then, perhaps aware of his role as advance publicity spokesman for his famous company, and not wanting to tread on any divergent Western toes, adds "well, perfect for me".
Ishchuk stars in Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, in the Ballet Kiev productions at the Aotea Centre this weekend.
The couple are among the latest luminaries to emerge from the Kiev's long tradition of producing famous dancers, all demonstrating the results of its intense training and emphasis on precision and purity of style. Domracheva was Gold Medallist in the International Ballet Competition in Florida last year; Ishchuk was Gold Medallist in the 2005 competition in Moscow.
The prize equates, in the ballet world, to an Olympic gold. First step is to pass an examination, then from 1000 dancers a special commission chooses 100 to compete. After three rounds of dancing a jury awards the final medals.
Success, says Ishchuk, does depend on your natural ability but mostly it is the result of intense and concentrated hard work. Yet at 8 years of age, he was a most reluctant student of dance.
"I wanted to play football, do boxing and kickboxing. Being a dancer was my mother's dream. I didn't like it all, at first. But when she said the dance would help my football, improve my co-ordination and physique, I said okay. And once I tried it, I loved it."
After 10 years' training Ishchuk graduated from the Kiev Dance Academy in 2001, and was accepted into the Kiev Ballet immediately, aged 18, one of 150 dancers, 52 of which are on the tour. The company has a huge repertoire of 30 classical works plus contemporary and modern ballets. As a leading artist Ishchuk performs in both, but prefers the classics.
And at 24, life in a large and mobile ballet company is perfect.
