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Back to Festival Ballet |
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Outside the Arena |
| "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. "My opening performance of Swan Lake in the Arena, was the first Swan Lake of the season. It was a moment to remember. In this production of Swan Lake the prince was alone on the stage, reading a book. What he was reading was acted out high up on the steps of the Arena. On that night I stood there in the dark, during the overture. There were 30,000 people in the audience. My Swan Queen for that performance was Genia Melikova. She was the first western dancer to be partnered by Nureyev when he did his jump. There was a problem with Genia at this Verona performance--she outweighed me."
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