Those watching the ballet La Sylphide on January 9 at the National Opera had a rare opportunity to marvel at the skill of Ivan Putrov, a fellow Ukrainian, currently a soloist with Coventry Garden. Last year, he appeared as Albert in Giselle. At the gala concert commemorating the centennial of the Kyiv Opera building, he and People’s Artist of Ukraine Tetiana Biletska performed “Visions of the Rose.” Later, the young Kyiv dancer showed such “outstanding technical merits, amazing choreographic inspiration, and nobility” in the same number (originally staged by Michel Fokine) in Copenhagen that “the audience received him with utmost enthusiasm,” wrote Cilia Schandorf in her review.
Ivan Putrov’s ascent to the ballet summit received an impetus after the 16 year-old student at Kyiv’s College of Choreography won an international ballet contest in Lausanne, followed by study at the Royal Ballet School in London and an invitation to join the famed Covent Garden.
Last year, Ivan won gold at the Vaslav Nijinsky International Festival with his brilliant rendition as Albert in Giselle. In London, he prepared new parts, once again arresting experts’ attention and increasing the number of his devotees. Anthony Dowell, the then artistic director of the Covent Garden ballet, started by assigning him the Young Man’s part in the Play of Shadows ballet staged by Anthony Tudor, then Benvolio’s part in Romeo and Juliet; later, he danced as Beliaev’s tutor in A Month in the Country based on Ivan Turgenev’s story. His hero appears in a provincial family to help educate the boy and it changes the family’s life; resourceful, witty, and energetic, he enchants the young lady of the house Natalia Petrovna, her foster daughter Vera, and housemaid Katia. In Frederick Ashton’s remarkably inventive production, Ivan danced three adagios with the female partners and the magazine Dance Expression noted that each showed a different style.
Basilio’s part in Don Quixote is coveted by every premier danseur and Ivan performed it on the London stage last October. The rehearsals were supervised by the royal company’s new artistic director Ross Stretton. He succeeded in preserving the enchanting love-rival atmosphere between Basil and Kitri, with its merry games, treacherous practical jokes, and genuine arresting feelings. Ivan’s parents heard a host of warm words in their son’s address, particularly from Mikhail Messerer, currently teaching in London, and Monica Mason, head coach. Herself a reputed ballet dancer, she told Ivan, “You’ve got temperament enough for six.”
In the December performances, on New Year’s Eve, Ivan Putrov appeared as Prince in the Nutcracker. He is working on Lensky in Eugene Onegin, being staged in strict conformity with ballet master John Crank’s original interpretation.
Natalia Berezina recalls, “We walked out of the theater after Don Quixote, and I had to wait long enough for Ivan to be through with his fans. It was a pleasant surprise to me; there were people addressing words of sheer admiration, some asking for an autograph, others offering their booklets to be signed. Too bad this tradition has vanished in Kyiv. I so wish the ballet and opera actors could have their share of well-deserved admiration as before.”
