Amal Choucri Catta approves not just the colour scheme Gayaneh and Danses qu'on croise, Cairo Ballet Company, supervised by Abdel-Moneim Kamel, and Cairo Opera Orchestra, conducted by Nader Abbassi and Mustafa Nagui. Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, 23 to 30 April, 8pm Four girls meet four boys. They had never seen each other before the dance at the café. And what a pink café. There are pink benches, and a great deal of pink paraphernalia. Indeed the show appears to be drowning in pink: girls and boys wear grey with pink dots, pink scarves, pink ties and pink belts. Even the jewellery is pink. The pink clad enter separately. Girls take their seat on one bench, boys on another. The tall, intellectual girl -- we know she is intellectual because she has glasses -- begins reading. The less intellectual girl -- we know this because she has big earrings, pink of course -- lights a cigarette. An athletic young lady fidgets. The shy girl sits demurely. The boys on the other pink bench watch the girls. They are busy choosing. Boys watch girls. Girls watch boys. Then the youngest boy makes his move, chooses his girl, and the others follow. Suddenly they are all leaping about to the loveliest Hungarian tunes, though tunes one might never have supposed suitable for the modern dance. Danses qu'on croise opened the five ballet performances scheduled for Cairo Opera's Main Hall from 23 to 30 April, with the Cairo Opera Orchestra conducted by Nader Abbassi. Danses qu'on croise -- to Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dances -- was originally produced for Cairo Ballet Company a few years ago by Thierry Malandin according to his original choreography for the Opera de Nantes in 1987. It tells the tale of four couples meeting and dancing at a cabaret: as the dances go on the girls take a liking to their male partners and the boys enjoy dancing with the girls. In due time one young lady discovers, as one young lady must, that she really should have chosen someone else's partner. Maybe she objects to her present partner's polka-dotted pink tie. Her mood turns sour and she decides she must leave. She grabs her handbag and vanishes. The three other girls follow, as other girls must do, leaving four perturbed men behind. The intellectual one with dark goggles -- thank goodness for brains -- gives her card to her partner before leaving. The boys leave too. But it isn't over yet. The girls return, one by one, hoping their partners had remained. But the pink benches are empty. They leave and the boys return. Disconsolate, they sit on the empty pink bench. One of them, however, waves his partner's card. Maybe all is not lost yet: maybe they'll all meet again. As the music comes to a close the dancers take a bow. Revived by Erminia Kamel, the entire performance enchanted. Nader Abbassi was marvelous and the audience was clearly taken by the pink. The second dance on programme was Cairo Opera Ballet Company's premiere of Aram Khatchaturian's four-act ballet Gayaneh : the prologue was followed by three scenes and a final wedding sequence. It was brief, sweet and beautifully costumed, though it did have its chaotic, repetitive moments. Mustafa Nagui conducted Cairo Opera Orchestra. The music began with bold percussion before moving into familiar Khatchaturian nostalgia. Composed in 1942, Gayaneh was produced to a libretto by Derzhavin and choreographed by Anisimova. It was revised in 1952, and then again in 1957 with a new plot. An earlier version of the ballet was produced in Yerevan in 1939. Khatchaturian's original Gayaneh was a young Armenian patriot who discovered her husband betraying his country. Love and patriotism were in conflict. In later years the plot underwent several changes. Romance was foregrounded at the expense of nationalist zeal. The version created for Cairo's ballet company is according to a libretto by Serguey Krupko and Abdel-Moneim Kamel. The choreography is by Serguey Krupko and the sets and costumes by Igor Grinvitch. The prologue opens on three children, Gayaneh, Guiko and Armen playing in a snowy village street. Guiko and Armen are in love with Gayaneh, who prefers Armen to Guiko. But parents know better: they always do. Gayaneh is promised to Guiko, while Armen and his parents leave the scene. The entire prologue, with its at times melancholic music, takes place behind a transparent screen. As the screen lifts the stage is bathed in bright light. Mount Ararat serves as backdrop to a village street crowded with young people in national costumes, celebrating what seems to be a feast. Gayaneh and Armen, now in their teens, meet and rediscover their mutual attraction. In no time, however, Guiko appears, tearing them apart and rushing Gayaneh off to his mountain residence. In Guiko's mountain hideout Gayaneh tells him she does not love him and, pushing him from her, rushes into Armen's arms. He has been searching for her everywhere, and it is with Armen she returns to the village. The villagers, though, approve of Gayaneh's relationship with neither Guiko nor Armen. Guiko decides to leave the village and never to return. Nune and Karin, the couple's friends, help Gayaneh and Armen regain the villager's sympathy and the two families finally decide to celebrate the lovers' wedding. The last scene contains the best- known tunes, including the Sabre Dance, and gives dancers and soloists the opportunity to perform solo sequences and excellent pas-de-deux. The wedding goes on even as the curtain falls. This Gayaneh has beautiful tunes and excellent dancers, though the plot is in need of revision if the ballet is to be turned in to a less confused show. Costumes and sets are perfect, though the men's striped stockings might be of lighter material; the choreography, however, could do with revision. The music gorgeously blends Russian romantic strands with Armenian oriental. It is highly coloured, with lavish orchestration and powerful expression, typical of Aram Khatchaturian's national musical aspirations. Born in Tibilisi in 1903, the composer died in Moscow in 1978. He planned to be a biologist but at 19 he became cello-student and, later, joined the composition class. A Trio of 1932 attracted Prokofiev's attention, who arranged for it to be performed in Paris. Khatchaturian's first two symphonies enjoyed immediate success. In 1948 he switched to composing film music, for Lenin, The Battle of Stalingrad and Othello. In 1950 he began teaching at the Moscow Conservatoire. Conducting his own works, he travelled to England, Italy, Latin America and elsewhere. In 1956 Spartacus was acclaimed in Moscow, and the ballet went on to become a perennial favourite. Mustafa Nagui obviously enjoyed Khatchaturian's powerful rhythms and colourful tunes. It should be mentioned that Cairo Opera Ballet Company actually has a number of wonderful young performers: soloists and corps-de-ballet were magnificent. They deserved the ovations they got.
