Marking 110 years since the birth of Konstantin Sergeyev – The Sleeping Beauty at the MARIINSKY ballet festival

On 14 March the Mariinsky Theatre will be dedicating a performance of the ballet The Sleeping Beauty to Konstantin Mikhailovich Sergeyev, People’s Artist of the USSR, to mark one hundred and ten years since his birth. The anniversary performance will feature the participation of Lauren Cuthbertson, principal dancer of Great Britain’s Royal Ballet, (Princess Aurora) and Mariinsky Theatre dancers Xander Parish (Prince Désiré) and Anastasia Kolegova (the Lilac Fairy).

Konstantin Sergeyev was not just an outstanding dancer, but also a legendary and vital figure of Leningrad ballet, a symbol of an entire era. His unsurpassed Romeo paired with the magnificent Ulanova as Juliet and the finest prince in Soviet ballet together with the dazzling Dudinskaya, he had his own inimitable creative voice. His heroes were poetic and performed with a sense of nobility, his dance overwhelming and virtuoso in quality, his roles psychologically convincing and the images deeply emotional.

All of Konstantin Sergeyev’s activities were connected with Leningrad-St Petersburg ballet. For more than thirty years he danced at the Kirov Theatre (today the Mariinsky), and he went on to direct the Kirov Ballet and later the Leningrad School of Dance. He also taught and inspired an almost holy awe among his young students with his elegance and mien.

At the end of the 40s and in the early 50s Sergeyev produced his own versions of ballets in the classical legacy – Raymonda, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty – and he staged several original ballets. While retaining the composition and choreographic essence of the originals, at the same time Sergeyev was also offering versions that more closely met the demands and tastes of the mid-20^th century, cutting the pantomime scenes, intensifying the dance with new technical elements and subjecting the plot to the psychological and narrative logic as it was understood at that period. These versions remain in the repertoire even now and it is thanks to them that we know Petipa’s ballets today.