http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/22/arts/dance/osipova-and-vasiliev-in-mikhailovskys-don-quixote.html 2014-11-22 01:12:56 Osipova and Vasiliev in Mikhailovsky’s ‘Don Quixote’ Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev reprised their roles in “Don Quixote” at the Mikhailovsky Ballet’s season at the David H. Koch Theater. === Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev performed their first “Don Quixote” together, on tour with the Bolshoi Ballet, in 2007, the same year that the Russian businessman Vladimir Kekhman took over as general director of the On Thursday, they led another rendition of “ Still, it wasn’t dull. This 2012 production, staged by the company’s ballet master in chief, Mikhail Messerer, with stage design by Vyacheslav Okunev, meanders at times but has its scenic rewards. The fantastic arched tavern, where Kitri and Basilio hide out, has a touch of New York’s very own Boat Basin Café; the vision scene in the second act envelops its ballerinas within a glowing twilight of pastels. In this forest, Ekaterina Borchenko’s statuesque Queen of the Dryads and Veronika Ignatyeva’s fluttering Cupid light up the dreams of Don Quixote (Marat Shemiunov). It is, however, disconcerting to see him roaming around the stage as if he’s inspecting crops. “Don Quixote” is a work in which comedy is enacted through buffoonery and balletic moments can veer toward circus. Both occur here. Mr. Vasiliev’s humor involves flirtatious gestures, the bigger the better: After he bumps repeatedly into Lorenzo (Roman Petukhov), Kitri’s father, he backs away, vigorously fanning his face with his hand. He smacks his thigh when something goes wrong. Loudly. Mr. Vasiliev does know how to get a crowd going, and props aren’t immune either; one leaping entrance sent a basket of fruit and a cup flying off a table. The thrill of watching this dancer spring suddenly into a sideways split and land in a knee lunge with an arched back is still possible, though in his approximation of a swashbuckling Errol Flynn how long will his exuberance win out over a shaky landing or flimsy feet? His lack of refinement and shortness of breath overshadow the power of his jumps. Forget about windmills; he needs a treadmill. Ms. Osipova, despite her ferocious speed, possesses real delicacy, even in her astonishingly whirlwind fouetté turns, which featured more doubles than singles. And while jumping is her gift, her leaps are less about elevation than in the way she lights up the air. More than ever, she is this ballet’s real hero, a role she inhabits with an irrepressible grin. If she is sick of playing Kitri after all these years, it doesn’t show.