SHEILA CHISHOLM
Berlin Staatsballett’s Principal Ballerina Ksenia Ovsyanick will make her South African Giselle debut, partnered by Daniel Szybowski as Albrecht. Ovsyanick is heading to Cape Town to perform Giselle with Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB) on 14 July at 7.30pm and 15 July 2018 at 3pm at Artscape’s Opera House.
It’s Ovsyanick’s first visit to Cape Town. One which is exciting our ballet fraternity, who are flocking to book to see this international ballerina dance. Not that overseas guest artists are automatically better than home trained ones.
Why audiences go, is to see the freshness and differences in musicality, as well as the interpretative nuances visitors bring to well-loved and well-known roles. That, as well as the influence their presence brings to CTCB dancers.
Capetonians do not have quick hop, skip and jump access to the European and American world class ballet/dance companies. This drawback often leads to complacency, dulling the artistic demands ballet and dance producers and audiences expect from performers and staff.
Guest artist appearances perk everyone up. Not just for their performances, but for an entire season. So from 6 to 15 July, accompanied by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Allan Stephenson, balletomanes can look forward to a particularly refreshing Giselle produced by Elizabeth Triegaardt.
Of average height 1.65m (5’4″), Ovsyanick was born in Tikhvin in Russia, but grew up in Belarus. Although coming from a family of engineers, her parents appreciated the arts and regularly took her to ballet performances, concerts, and theatre. Ovsyanick believes she was about three and a half years-old when she declared “I want to be a ballerina”. and her parents went along with her ambitions. “I loved dancing. However the ballet technique didn’t come easily – I don’t have an ideal ballerina’s body. Still, I persevered, determined to prove I could do it!”
Ovsyanick’s training, began on the Agrippina Vaganova method at the Belarusian State Ballet college. At 15 she won a scholarship to study in London at English National Ballet (ENB) where she learnt a completely different style – a style which never-the-less offered a more versatile approach to movement.
A huge impact on her development
“During my study and career years I’ve been fortunate to meet numerous good teachers whose passion for sharing and giving and unique approach has had a huge impact on my development,” Ovsyanick says.
Ovsyanick, whose career began with the ENB, has travelled extensively, performing on many of the world’s greatest stages – even at Buckingham Palace.
She was just 20 when she danced her first Giselle for ENB. For this she received a nomination as ENB’s Emerging Dancer award. She adds, “it was in my second year with ENB and the wonderful Maina Gielgud (former ballerina and principal company coach) gave me an opportunity to work on this, my first principal role. The work I did with her gave me the fantastic grounding that has stayed with me. For that occasion Junor Souza danced
Albrecht. Since then I have danced Giselle at several gala performances in different countries as well as Berlin Staatsballett.”
Role model Alina Cojocaru
While Ovsyanick understands she has had to find her own interpretation, she ranks Alina Cojocaru as her role model for Act 1. “Cojocaru’s natural acting and gestures allow you to see a real person rather than a ballerina. In Act 2 Natalia Osipova inspires me for the way she makes you believe she can fly through the power of her jump. Giselle, is a very special character as she moves from genuine happiness for love and dance, to the emotional
rollercoaster of being betrayed and destroyed. Then becoming this unearthly spirit, full of sadness, yet compassionate, ready to sacrifice her being to save someone she loves.”
Ovsyanick will have one week rehearsing with Szybowski, CTCB and the orchestra before she graces Artscape’s Opera stage. Performances we look forward to attending!
To check alternate casts see the CTCB’s site: https://www.capetowncityballet.org.za/
Who: Ballerina Ksenia Ovsyanick
What: Giselle – Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB)
Where: Artscape Opera House, Foreshore, Cape Town
When: 14 July, 7.30pm, 15 July 2018, 3pm
Book tickets: www.computicket, or Dial-a-Seat
WS
