LONDON CELEBRATED THE LEGENDARY ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, and her fellow Russian protégé Liudmila Konovalova stole the thunder at a West End gala tribute featuring some of the world’s biggest ballet stars.
They were honoring the memory of the Russian baller icon who died at the age of 89 last May.
In a poetic twist, it was Konovalova, the Russian-born ballerina who has been staking her claim on Plisetskaya’s glorious legacy, who captured Sunday night’s biggest applause as she danced the Black Swan pas de deux from “Swan Lake,” a role that was synonymous with Maya in the ballet world.
“The last time I danced as the Black Swan (Maya) told me, ‘Don’t think about anything, just dance for you and for her’ — and tonight I did the same thing,” said Konovalova, the prima ballerina of the Vienna State Ballet whose career rise was guided and overseen by Plisetskaya. “I was dancing for her. It was a magical and emotional night.
“I think one of the great London ballet nights.”
Prince and Princess Michael of Kent were among those at the London Coliseum who watched Konovalova’s breath-taking performance as she was partnered by Matthew Golding, the principal of the Royal Ballet.
“To give a show for Maya and dedicate the career she gave for the stage and off the stage was something special,” said Golding. “All the people here are good people from top companies.”
Like most Russian-born dancers, Konovalova grew up fantasizing that she would follow in the toe shoes of the country’s fabled ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, who spent much of her career as a captive under fierce scrutiny and at the murderous whim of Stalin’s regime, but still shimmered as one of the greatest dancers of the 20th century.
Konovalova, the prima ballerina of the Vienna State Ballet, was close to Plisetskaya who helped launch her career after she won a competition in Rome organized by Plisetskaya.
For Konovalova, that fantasy was little more than a fairy tale, a seemingly unrealistic goal given her circumstances.
The child of a broken home, she lived in a shelter as a teen and was rejected by the Bolshoi Ballet company after going through its academy. She had little reason to expect that one day her homeland’s ballet icon would wondrously connect with her artistically and personally, breathing new life into her dreams, not unlike Michelangelo’s near-touching hands of God and Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Much less could she have foreseen a scenario in which that would happen when she was literally down and out — and in the most embarrassing position possible.
But that was the spectacle Konovalova now remembered from Italy’s 2007 Premio Roma Dance competition at which Plisetskaya was head of the judging jury, and where Konovalova dreaded she had chosen to perform the challenging Black Swan pas de deux in front of her role model whose storied name was closely identified with “Swan Lake” in the world of ballet.
“I was thinking, the Black Swan is… one the most famous roles that Maya Plisetskaya did,” recalled Konovalova who had never met Plisetskaya until that competition, “and now I (am) gonna show her my Black Swan! I thought it’s a joke. That would be total fiasco.”
Almost prophetically, in the middle of her performance that day, Konovalova’s worst fears pirouetted out of control. Slipping and as her legs gave way underneath her, she felt certain that her dreams of winning the competition had just fluttered somewhere beyond her black tutu — all in front of Plisetskaya.
“I finished my (Black Swan) variation exactly (as) the music was ending, seated on my ass,” said Konovalova. “Yes, I fall completely on my popo, bottom, rear, ass — however you call it — it is the fact.
“I was sure I am out of the competition and plus such big shame… But right after I was sitting on my ass, Maya Plisetskaya stands up. (She) was clapping and laughing! “So then we did (the) coda. I did my fouettés. This all went fine. We got a really good applause, but she was (giving) me standing ovation…”
The competition wasn’t over, though Konovalova figured she could no longer even place, much less win, and that in further rounds could only hope to complement her dance partner who was still up for a prize himself.
“That gave me time to give more to understand the situation,” she said, looking back on what appeared to be developing into a disappointing moment in her career. “I was officially working nowhere. I (was) finished with Russia. I had (a) contract to Berlin, but I (was) suppose to start in two months.
“So I was girl from nowhere.”
Then, as all hope seemed gone, fate stepped in.
“Konovalova! Where is my Konovalova?” “Коновалова,где моя Коновалова!”
Startled out of her self-pity over having fallen in competition, Liudmilia couldn’t believe she was hearing Plisetskaya’s voice screaming her name in their native Russian tongue. “Konovalova! Where is my Konovalova?”
“I was scared… but went front… And then comes unbelievable thing,” said Konovalova, who found Plisetskaya reaching to embrace her. “She hugs me and tells me how great it was and that I gonna get a first prize, and that she remembers how hard was this variation of Black Swan, and I am doing it so light, like nothing. “And that I am real ballerina.
“I thought I am dreaming… Deeply! And need to wake up… But it was the truth! Sometimes I cannot even talk about it because it sounds so unrealistic!
“So then it was second round and on to the third I had to repeat Black Swan again. She came to me right after third round was finished. She told me that it is the best Black Swan she ever saw. She told me that I will get first prize and I will not share it with anyone — normally very often they share the prizes — but Maya Plisetskaya said, ‘No way. She will get it alone!’
“And I got it! And got it alone! And I know that she was fighting for me, and because it was against their rules to give it just to me, and Maya Plisetskaya had major fight, but she did what she told me! And this you almost never see now.”