The Miami Herald

Friday, June 27, 1986

 

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TV-Radio

 

Kirov comes to television

 

By LAURIE HORN

Herald Dance Critic

 

      The Kirov Ballet’s recent historic tour of the United States and Canada makes it onto the airwaves at 8 p.m. Saturday on WPBT-Channel 2.   Introduced by no less than President Reagan, the Kirov’s full-length Swan Lake was taped during a performance at Wolf Trap Farm Park outside of Washington, D.C.

     The starring roles are danced by Olga Chenchikova, the latest star to emerge from the Perm School of Ballet; and matinee idol Konstantin Zaklinsky.  But ballet connoisseurs may be more interested in the second-act corps de ballet, still a marvel of exactitude. The soft jumps and muscular build of the 22-year-old Alexander Lunev with Irena Chistiakova and Jeanna Aiupova in the first act pas de trois provide some of the most notable dancing in the evening.

      Producer/director Phillip Byrd of Maryland Public Television has done a fine job of videotaping this massive production, which offers a constant array of choices between the wide camera angles necessary to show all 24 swans, for example, and tightly framed closeups fo the lead couple performing in thepas de deux.  Most of Byrd’s choices are excellent: For example, he shows the center couple and half the swans in one second-act frame in order to comment on the musical interplay between the swan chorus and the soloists, then brings his camera back to a high angle while the corps alone is moving.

      The videotape also includes a little interview with Kirov artistic director Oleg Vinogradov and a nifty backstage montage prior to the first curtain.