Search - Medea / Georgiy Aleksidze, Marina Goderdzishvili on DVD

Competent, but rather irrelevant

Robert Levonian | Porto Alegre, Brazil | 02/27/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is a typical product of Soviet ballet films of the late 60'd and early 70's. The language is wholly conservative, no modern tricks or twists here. What bothers me is that the dramaturgy - the way the story is told - is very conventional. Steps and movements are what we would expect from any traditionally-minded choreographer. Don't take me wrong. I'm not implying that this ballet is junk. It simply isn't a very original piece. But it's quite interesting. Cast and producers are not Russians, but Georgians. The music is commonplace. Sets and costumes are... well, adequate. And the main dancers perform with restrained brio. The ballerina doing Medea seemed rather cold. Stone-faced Jason was not much better. They both lacked deep, convulsive emotions. After all this lady (Medea) kills her two infant children! One just has to compare her "Dance of Vengeance" - during which she plans the double murders - to a similar passage in Martha Graham's "Cave of the Heart" to see the immense gulf that separates Martha's exasperated choreography from the Apollonian aloofness of her Soviet counterpart. Still, it's an interesting piece, if you want to have a balletic version of the drama."