Round Dances (premiere)

Rodion Shchedrin did not compose a ballet entitled Round Dances. This evocative dance title belongs instead to his Concerto for Orchestra No. 4, written to a Japanese commission for a work “in the Russian spirit”. In this music Vyacheslav Samodurov perceived movement itself. “The music unfolds along a winding path – constantly revealing itself as something other than what it first seems. Its romanticism is deceptive; its apparent lyricism, rhythmic clarity and harmonic balance all conceal another side,” the choreographer notes. Responding to the concerto’s energy, the refinement of its texture and its intricate rhythmic organisation, Samodurov created round dances for the Mariinsky Theatre’s corps de ballet and five soloists.