Review of EIFMAN BALLET ST. PETERSBURG, Anna Karenina, Premiere in St. Petersburg, Russia Conservatory Theatre, April 2 2005.  By David Conway, posted April 7.  Excerpt from an article contrasting Anna Karenina with a performance by other artists. 

I had greater hopes – and they were fulfilled – of Eifman's version of Anna Karenina. Eifman is one of the lone wolves of ballet; having worked with all the major Russian ballet companies he set up his own troupe in 1977. It has no permanent base (yet) in Russia; indeed during its first decade it was clearly hoped by the powers that were that Eifman, who is held by many pundits to defile the purity of Russian ballet traditions, would leave the country. It thus spends much of its time abroad – this production of Karenina will be touring the US later this year. 

Karenina, which focuses entirely on the central emotional triangle of the novel, pulls no emotional punches. By using the work of Tchaikovsky – including extracts from the symphonies, the Serenade for Strings, and the fantasy-overture 'Romeo and Juliet' - Eifman takes a calculated risk. This intense and passionate music is well-known and inevitably already carries many evocations for the listener. 

But the dramatic force and invention of the choreography, and its superb realisation by Eifman's company, carries all before it. Unlike the music chosen for Manon, that for Karenina has clearly been specifically and boldly selected to intensify the impact of the piece. There is the added bonus of the incomparable grace and defiance of gravity which seems the birthright of Russian dancers. They are, in this department, as far above the Royal Ballet as the Royal Ballet are above me (and that is a long, long, way). 

There is no doubt from the micro-second first exchange of glances between Vronsky (the very dashing Yury Smekalov) and Anna (the striking Maria Abashova) that we are locked into an intense tragedy, which unfolds in a series of dramatically compelling scenes, including some unforgettable solos for Eifman's lead dancer Albert Galchanin, conveying the suffering of Karenin. 

The corps de ballet give immaculate support, notably in scenes conveying Vronsky's raucous barrack companions and in the final tableau. The details of this I shall not give away in the hope that this production will come to the UK and that you will go and see it. I have suspicion that the ballet critics may howl, but you will undoubtedly be as dazzled and appreciative as the expert audience was here in St. Petersburg. 
-- David Conway, April 7, 2005.