Performing a role repeatedly can either deepen a dancer’s mastery or dull their connection to the material. For international ballet stars Renata Shakirova and Kimin Kim, it’s a challenge they meet with precision, passion, and a relentless pursuit of nuance.
Set to portray Kitri and Basilio in Don Quixote from August 22 to 24 at the Aliw Theater — the final offering of Ballet Manila’s Pearl Year season — Renata and Kimin return to roles they’ve danced countless times, but never the same way twice.
“I think that the role of Kitri is my most performed role in the classical ballet repertoire,” says Renata. Yet despite this, she stresses that the key to keeping the character fresh is to forget how many times she’s performed it.
She adds, “I have to prepare for the performance like it’s my first time so that we are always paying attention and ready. For example, looking at each other as partners — it can become mechanical. But it is our responsibility to always look into the details and discover something new with every rehearsal or performance.”
Renata also acknowledges her partner Kimin’s ability to see the smallest nuances: “He has this trait of always looking at and paying attention to even the smallest of details, and I think that every performance consists of these small details.”
Having danced with Renata previously in the same roles, Kimin still finds excitement in discovering something new about his partner. “It is always a pleasure to work with Renata. When we are dancing the same ballet a hundred times, there are also a hundred different versions of her dancing.”
For Renata, who had a wonderful experience playing Giselle with Ballet Manila last year, her return as Kitri is most welcome. “The audience was so receptive and hospitable, and now that I am here with a different performance, I am so excited to show a different side of me. Giselle was a very dramatic and heavy ballet, and Don Quixote is very happy– different requirements of coordination and style. As an artist, I want to show this other side of me.”
Meanwhile, for Kimipern — performing in Manila for the first time — he hopes the audience will carry the emotions of the performance long after the curtain falls: “I always want the audience to feel a bright emotion after a performance, not only to clap and shout ‘bravo’ after the show, but to bring home that memory of Renata and Kimin. I think that can only happen if the performer gives the audience a message and a feeling. It is so important to me that the audience will like our performance.”
With the caliber and artistry of Renata and Kimin, Ballet Manila’s CEO and artistic director Lisa Macuja Elizalde says, “I think it’s only fitting to close our Pearl Year performance season with Renata and Kimin leading Ballet Manila’s Don Quixote. With their performance, we will once again reinforce our pursuit of bringing world-class performances to our audiences.”
