“Back in Europe, I came in contact with a new group of choreographers,” said David. “The Russian, Bourmeister, was from the Stanislavski Theatre in Moscow. His production of Swan Lake became a standard for a time with Festival Ballet, plus Snow Maiden, with music by Tchaikovsky.”
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- Coppelia
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- Coppelia
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- Corsaire
A rare photo of Galina Samsova with David in Corsaire with London's Festival Ballet in 1976. Ms Samsova is now known as a choreographer and arranger.
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- Peer Gynt with Genia Melikova.
David: "Orlikowski brought Peer Gynt and a new production of Swan Lake to Festival Ballet. I had returned to Canada for a tour with the National Ballet. Orli as we called Orlikowski choreographed Peer Gynt in my absence, so I did not see the initial steps, but Orli came to visit and work with us a great deal after I had been introduced to Peer Gynt.
"This time the languages were, Russian, German, French and a bit of English."
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- Peer Gynt
"Orli approved of me because of my acting abilities. He never corrected a technical moment, he brought out the character that I was portraying, more and more.
"I had danced a lot of performance of Snow Maiden, but Peer Gynt outlasted and exceeded Snow Maiden for numbers of performances."
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- Peer Gynt
I finally bleached my hair blonde simply because using anything else on my hair to achieve the Nordic look, was harming my hair. For three years, I was blonde. For three years we performed Peer Gynt all over the British Isles, Europe and the then Iron Curtain countries. For the rest of the repertoire, I was a blonde."
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- Peer Gynt
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- Peer Gynt
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- Sleeping Beauty
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- Swan Lake
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- Giselle
At the Gran Theatro del Liceo
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- Giselle
At the Gran Theatro del Liceo
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- Giselle
At the Gran Theatro del Liceo
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- Peer Gynt Programme
Grand Lyceum Theatre, Barcelona
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- In rehearsal
The Arena di Verona, a "football-field" sized stage in an Italian coliseum.
"A season in Verona, in the Roman Arena, brought Orlikowski back to stage four acts of Swan Lake," says David. "Orli had an incredible sense of humour and was always a joy to work with.
"One rehearsal on the Arena stage stands out as quite an event. The stage was 250 feet wide, and 100 feet deep.
"Orli and I , plus the company pianist, spent a couple of hours on the stage, working on my entrance in the fourth act of Swan Lake. I had to run from upstage right, to the left downstage corner, in X number of bars, in fact a drum roll. It eventually happened, and I think that I broke a world record for sprinting. Throughout this time Orli never lost his sense of humour. We were laughing all the time, but succeeding.
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- The Gold Medal
Il Festival De La Opera, Madrid (Giselle, with Galina Samsova)
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- Buenos Aires
One of David's many interviews with the media, this time in a marvelously appointed room in Buenos Ares.
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- Buenos Aires
More interviews
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- On the Farm
One of David's many non-dance activities in South America ...
“Bourmeister spoke only Russian, no English. There were people in the company who could translate, but somehow with his actions his was able to put his point over, without translation.
I shall never forget the rehearsals in Monte Carlo, where Bourmeister was brought in to rehearse both Swan Lake Act 2 and Snow Maiden.
I had become over a short period the main leads in both of these ballets.
Bourmeister was able, through his expression and movement, to take me through both of these ballets and transfer his concept of how they should be performed. All in Russian. He did not want anyone translating while he rehearsed with me. My performances changed and improved. The images that he gave me lasted until those ballets left the repertoire.”