NATIONAL THEATRE AND DANCE CENTRE CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARIES NEXT WEEK.

 By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted June 1, 2022)

There will be classical celebrations throughout the weekend of June 11^th and 12^th when two of the country’s leading cultural institutions will be celebrating anniversaries at the Kenya National Theatre.

Kicking off the National Theatre’s Seventieth Birthday on Saturday, the 11^th with a cocktail party hosted by Kenya’s leading singer-songwriter Eric Wainaina, the headliner of the weekend will be two classical ballet pieces performed by 32 senior ballerinas from the Dance Centre Kenya.

“We will be performing “Kingdom of the Shades” from the ballet, ‘La Bayadere’ [translated as The Temple Dancer] and Act III of ‘Sleeping Beauty: Aurora’s Wedding’,” says DCK’s founder and artistic director Cooper Rust.

Recalling that DCK ballerinas originally performed ‘Kingdom of the Shades’ in March 2015, just three months after the Dance Centre was opened, Cooper notes the strides that DCK has made in that seven-year period.

“Traditionally, “Kingdom of the Shades” is danced with 32 ballerinas in white tutus, pointe shoes, and a full-length grand pas de deux,” Cooper tells The Weekender a few days before the show.

“When we did our first performance, we only had 16 dancers, in flat ballet shoes, in only leotards, outside, and no pas de deux. Just seven years later we are proud to have the proper number of ballerinas, in the right kind of shoes, in the right kind of costumes, performing on the national stage,” she adds.

Seven years back, both excerpts from the two ballets were performed out of doors, in the front yard of Purdy Arms in Karen. But now, DCK ballerinas will be celebrating both seven years of the Centre’s growing literally by leaps and bounds, while also celebrating Kenya National Theatre’s 70^th Anniversary.

And as a kind of anniversary gift to the Theatre, the DCK performances will be raising funds for a whole new lighting system for KNT.

‘La Bayadere’ or ‘The Temple Dancer’ was first choreographed by the Frenchman Marius Petipa and set to the music composed by Ludwig Minkus in the mid-19^th century. It was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1877.

Apparently, “Kingdom of the Shades” was quickly selected as the most exquisite performance of the whole ballet. For that reason, over the years, “Kingdom” has been performed in grandiose style separately from the entire ballet which in its entirety has four acts and seven tableaux, but none as beautiful as the “Kingdom of the Shades” which is said to be one of the most celebrated works of all classical ballet.

“Aurora’s Wedding” in Act III of the ballet, “Sleeping Beauty” is also considered one of the most elegant portions of the ballet. And like ‘La Bayadere’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was also first choreographed by Marius Petipa but performed to music composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It was first performed in 1890 in the Mariinsky theatre also in St. Petersburg just a few months after Tchaikovsky completed the music for this, his second ballet. Since then, the ballet wasn’t performed in Western Europe until 1921 when it came to London in a shortened form. It wasn’t until 1937 that the complete ballet was restaged in the United States and performed by the Philadelphia Ballet at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But since then, it has been performed often in the US and the rest of the world.

The story of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was actually written for ballet by Marius Petipa and Ivan Vsevolozsky, based on a 1697 fairy tale by Charles Perrault. The fantasy was originally set in the era of Louis XIV which delighted Tchaikovsky who wrote both ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ for the children of his sister Alexandra.

The ’sleeping beauty’ who is also known as Princess Aurora will be played by Liana Eising while the Lilac Fairy will be played by Lavinder Orisa, who will soon be heading off to study at the English National Ballet School. She is DCK’s second student to attend the prestigious Ballet School. The first was Joel Kioko who, following his graduation from ENBS, has gone on to become a member of the influential Alvin Ailey Dance Company in Chicago, USA.

Meanwhile, the ‘temple dancer’ in the Kingdom of the Shades will be played by Catherine Abilla. Her partner on stage will be George Okoth.

The beauty of watching DCK ballet performances is not just seeing youth dancing gloriously with precision, lyricism, and grace. It is also knowing that dance is offering them untold opportunities to achieve amazing things with their lives.

Tickets available at Kenya BUZZ.