Mathematics and dolls: new ballets at the Bolshoi Theater

Today there were HEAVENLY "Shadows"! Zakharova with Rodkin is not a plot, not drama, it is an atmospheric phenomenon. Light that comes from above, below, from the side - from everywhere. This is a rare feeling of light that fills the entire box of the theater, everything around comes off the ground - a little, but it comes off - and begins to float. Or fly. Or soar. Who cares? What is important is the feeling of weightlessness, of the unearthly.

Zakharova succeeded in almost everything in “Shadows”. “Scarf” is almost unmistakable, in 3-3-2 there is a tiny convergence at the end for 2. But this did not detract from the impression of magic. Denis began the assembly circle all the way from the left wing (previously he stood exactly in front of the first shadow of the corps de ballet and also raised his hand). The audience groaned. But the technical improvements and shortcomings today did not make any sense; everything was drowned in the first adagio of Zakharova and Rodkin. The Adagio was phenomenal in terms of its degree of absorption in the music.

This divine violin by Inna Li! This harp by Anna Levina! Cello by Boris Lifanovsky! They played about the slightest movement from the very depths of their souls. About her quiet moan. About her unheard tears. Like the rustling of leaves outside the window. Everything was shrouded in a state of dreams, when you are still awake, but your soul has already flown to heaven - “where there are no sorrows,” as Kochubey sang in “Mazeppa.” There were no sorrows, there were only two people as the embodiment of revived harmony: Svetlana and Denis. I am happy that I can see this fairy tale in reality! The Lord rarely sends us such beauty, thank him for that!

Alas, Gamzatti-Maria Alexandrova is no longer in this super trinity. Ekaterina Shipulina is just a substitute. She can’t get back into shape, there’s no jump, the rotation is strained, but it’s not a matter of form. The fact is that she is not Alexandrova. This is a completely different caliber of personality. But what can you do?

But there was Magedaveya-Anton Savichev. What a skillful work of a master this is! Enjoying his every gesture. How he bows to Solor at the beginning, when he orders him to clap Nikia! At first he refuses in horror, and then he bows down. That couple of seconds is worth a lot of jumps. They involve voluntary adherence to the will of someone else. Voluntary!

There was the eternal Raja Alexey Loparevich - without him “La Bayadère” is unthinkable for me. Brahmin, unfortunately, was performed by Fadeyechev, not Sitnikov. I don’t perceive the handsome Brahmin as “blood and milk”. I don’t perceive it, that’s all. I need wrinkles, suffering, a feeling of an end to life, a feeling of my own insignificance before the beautiful Nikiya. Someone like Claude Frollo in a light version.

There was a killer version of the drum dance - Kristina Karaseva, Denis Medvedev, Denis Savin. It was as if they had blown up the hitherto reserved hall like dynamite.

There was Manu-Victoria Yakusheva, who amazed me with the balance of a jug on her head. In the last “La Bayadère” that I saw, Manu was danced by the smiling Daria Khokhlova, from whose head the jug almost fell off. Then she decided not to risk it and did not let go of his hand at all. Therefore, Yakusheva seemed perfect.

David Motta Soares absolutely cannot perform the Golden Goddess. This is the second time I see him and the second time he is not a God, but Constraint and Tension. Soares complicated the variation with a central rotation among the arapets, but this will not create an image! It’s not clear what the “hitch” is? After all, he dances the Nutcracker wonderfully - the big part. He is convincing as Pechorin in Taman. But God is a stumbling block for him. Technically, he does everything, but there is no lightness or flight in him at all, everything is somehow bony and clumsy. If you don’t understand what you need to dance here, look at Tsiskaridze’s recording. This is God in the flesh.

At the beginning of the Grand Pas, Chapkina came out in the first pair (in my opinion, with Denisova). She immediately broke up with her - Denisova does her own thing, Chapkina “doesn’t catch up” with her. Every time the name “Chapkina” in the program gives me a spontaneous desire to run away from the theater and never return there.

The first Shadow was danced very quickly by Daria Bochkova - without a single hesitation. In the second, Eleanor Sevenard made her debut - reliably, but for me Natasha Osipova takes precedence here, followed by Anya Tikhomirova. Eleanor, the only one of the Shadows, had a bouquet of flowers at her bows. The third was danced by Ana Turazashvili: it can be better, but the third is the least effective of the Shadows.

Irina Milyutina

2006
Boris's friends(“The Golden Age” by D. Shostakovich, choreography by Yu. Grigorovich)
flamenco(“Carmen Suite” by J. Bizet - R. Shchedrin, staged by A. Alonso)
crows(“Cinderella” by S. Prokofiev, choreography by Y. Posokhov, director Y. Borisov)
soloist(“Playing Cards” by I. Stravinsky, choreographed by A. Ratmansky)

2007
Indian doll(“The Nutcracker” by P. Tchaikovsky, choreography by Y. Grigorovich)
bolero(Don Quixote, choreography by M. Petipa, A. Gorsky, revised by A. Fadeechev)
soloist(“In the Room Upstairs” by F. Glass, choreography by T. Tharp) - was among the first performers of this ballet at the Bolshoi Theater

2008
Kubanets(“Bright Stream” by D. Shostakovich, staged by A. Ratmansky)

2009
mazurka(“Coppelia” by L. Delibes, choreography by M. Petipa and E. Cecchetti, production and new choreographic version by S. Vikharev)
"Waltz of Old Paris"(“Esmeralda” by C. Pugni, choreography by M. Petipa, production and new choreography by Y. Burlaki, V. Medvedev) - premiere participant

2010
Tybalt's friends(“Romeo and Juliet” by S. Prokofiev, staged by Y. Grigorovich)
Auvergne dance(“Flames of Paris” by B. Asafiev, staged by A. Ratmansky using choreography by V. Vainonen)

2011
role in the ballet “Symphony of Psalms” to music by I. Stravinsky (choreography by I. Kilian) -

2012
voonri(“Ivan the Terrible” to music by S. Prokofiev, choreography by Y. Grigorovich)
Crap("Nutcracker")
2013
bidet, pedestrians, waltz(“Apartment”, music by Fleshquartet, production by M. Ek) - participant of the premiere at the Bolshoi Theater
party in "Rubins"(II part of the ballet “Jewels”) to the music of I. Stravinsky (choreography by J. Balanchine)
WITHinyor Pomidor(“Cipollino”)

2014
servants(“The Taming of the Shrew” to music by D. Shostakovich, choreography by J.-C. Mayo) - premiere participant
officers, Stranger,Ferkhad's friends(“The Legend of Love” by A. Melikov, choreography by Y. Grigorovich)

2015
seven doubles of Claudius (“Hamlet” to music by D. Shostakovichdirected by D. Donnellan and R. Poklitaru) - lessonTnickname worldetcemiers ballet
Old woman/Yanko, disabled soldiers(“Hero of Our Time” by I. Demutsky, part “Taman”, choreography by Y. Possokhov, director K. Serebrennikov)
couple in green(“Russian Seasons” to music by L. Desyatnikov, choreography by A. Ratmansky)

2016
Chimney sweep(“Moidodyr” by E. Podgaits, staged by Y. Smekalov) jig(“Don Quixote” in the second edition by A. Fadeechev)
Hungarian dance(“Raymonda” by A. Glazunov, choreography by M. Petipa, revised by Yu. Grigorovich)
peasant dance(“Sleeping Beauty” by P. Tchaikovsky, choreography by M. Petipa, revised by Yu. Grigorovich)
guardsmen("Ivan groznyj")
reflections of a fugitive / first soloists(“Ondine” by H. V. Henze, choreography by V. Samodurov) -

2017
two friends(“La Sylphide” by H. S. Levenskold, choreography by A. Bournonville, revised by J. Kobborg)
Jerome("Flames of Paris")
drum dance("La Bayadère")
couple in pink(“The Forgotten Land” to music by B. Britten, choreography by I. Kilian)
Mercutio(“Romeo and Juliet” staged by A. Ratmansky)
inhabitants of the Bois de Boulogne, "Sun King"/"Island"(“Nureev” by I. Demutsky, choreography by Y. Posokhov, director K. Serebrennikov) - participant in the world premiere of the ballet

2018
pages of the retinue of the fairy Lilac("Sleeping Beauty")
Makhotin(“Anna Karenina” to music by P. Tchaikovsky, A. Schnittke, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, choreography by J. Neumeier) - first performer at the Bolshoi Theater
czardas("Coppelia")
Black slave(“The Pharaoh’s Daughter” by C. Pugni, staged by P. Lacotte after M. Petipa)
Arab (first performer), young merchants(Petrushka by I. Stravinsky, production by E. Klug)

2019
Polixenes(The Winter's Tale by J. Talbot, choreography by K. Wheeldon)

He participated in the Bolshoi Theater project “Workshop of New Choreography”: in 2008 he became one of the performers of the choreographic suite “White Noise” (“Interactions”) to the music of V. Poltoratsky (choreography by Anna Balukova).
In 2010 took part in world premiere and the subsequent European tour of the dance play “A further - a millennium of peace”/ Creation 2010 (music by Laurent Garnier, choreography by Angelin Preljocaj), specially created for the Bolshoi Theater.
In 2016, as part of the Youth Program of the Bolshoi Theater Ballet (project “Faces”, New Stage) he performed in the ballet “Love is Everywhere” to the music of I. Stravinsky (choreography by Ivan Vasiliev).

On the one hand, Forsyth works with a classical vocabulary, in which it is easy to recognize the heritage of nineteenth-century aesthetics and twentieth-century neoclassicism. But he places all these batmans and arabesques in such a psychophysical context, and so shifts the centers of gravity of the dancing bodies that the usual ballet steps become almost unrecognizable. Not in terms of external design, but in terms of spatial and chronological content.

"Artifact Suite" is a plotless ballet in two parts. Its meaning is the collision and confrontation of dance tensions. Playing with bodily angles. Symmetry and its violations (everyone does one thing, but someone always breaks out of the general order).

A coherent picture emerges from disparate details. It seems that Forsythe does not compose, but mounts his compositions as structures. All these lightning-fast collective falls to the floor. Sudden lowering of the black curtain, and when it rises again, there is a completely different picture on the stage, a different formation. The raised vertical is the ballerina's leg. Unperturbed flexibility and outright sportiness are the ideal of a dancer, adopted by Forsyth from Balanchine.

Foresight is mathematics and discipline, first and foremost. But here's the paradox. The myth about the formalism of the master, who supposedly uses music as a background for his exercises, “Artifact Suite” quickly dispels. Bach performed by Nathan Milstein and a lonely “live” piano with minimalist cadenzas give Forsythe many different solutions, dance and visual, right down to the lighting design.

Black tights and golden sand tights, changing chiaroscuro, priority of soloists and “parterre” dance - this is the Chaconne from the second Partita for violin. Bodies and even individual steps look different in different lighting, which bravely corresponds with the ups and downs of Bach's music. In the second part - dark green leotards, jumping, dance of the corps de ballet and the evenness of the brightness of the spotlights. In fact, Forsythe is engaged in color music. A special type.

Our dancers, both soloists and corps de ballet, dance with enthusiasm and catchiness, but always soften the prescribed rigidity. Apparently this is inevitable. There is a “Russian Foresight”, just as there is a “Russian Balanchine”, with all the pros and cons of this concept. While this ballet suggests a kind of “dancing machine” (as much as a person can be a machine), Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin are reminiscent of ballet swans and princes, although in themselves they are the undisputed stars of bright radiance. The second couple - Anastasia Stashkevich and Vyacheslav Lopatin - dance much more accurately in relation to the archetype of Forsythe's ballets.

Olga Smirnova, Semyon Chudin; Anastasia Stashkevich, Vyacheslav Lopatin. Photo: Damir Yusupov

The connecting figure of both parts of the ballet is the mysterious woman in blue (Nelly Kobakhidze), who performs complex passes with her hands. She is different plastically, and perhaps (if you use your imagination) her hands conjure these technologies for space exploration. When the air is like a dense substance, and it seems like you need to “pierce” it with your hands and feet. When comparing the difference in movement speeds (of two pairs of soloists and a corps de ballet). When the main thing becomes the contrast of the “robot gait” (from the heel) and the play of straight-up socks. Or syncopations, spatial "swings", with clapping of palms.

“Petrushka” is another version of this title set to music by Stravinsky (conducted by Pavel Klinichev at the Bolshoi premiere), inspired by the first, legendary production by Fokine-Benoit, made at the beginning of the twentieth century for Diaghilev’s “Russian Seasons” in Paris. The plot is an eternal conflict: a certain Magician owns three dolls - a stupid Moor who boasts of physical strength, whom the empty-headed beauty Ballerina loves, rejecting the sophisticated loser Petrushka, who is in love with her. The Arab kills Petrushka, but the hero is immortal and powerlessly threatens the Magician and the world.

True, in Klug’s performance there is little literal ethnography, which is in the music and which bloomed in lush colors with the set designer of the first “Petrushka”, Alexander Benois, who recalled ancient St. Petersburg fairs and booths. The Bolshoi Theater has mobile decorations in the form of huge colored (not painted, but monochrome) nesting dolls with the faces of enlightened Buddhas on their sides. These are the “houses” of the characters from set designer Marko Japel, with a hint. It’s not clear why: in the ballet’s heroes there is not even an iota of desire for nirvana. There are residents of these “houses” - the corps de ballet, which, in general, is on its own, and mindlessly having fun, only in the finale grieving over the dead Petrushka. And against the background of this popular-non-popular picture there is a drama of the followers, oppressed by the leader. One of the main collisions of "Petrushka", no matter how it is staged.

Denis Savin (Petrushka), Ekaterina Krysanova (Ballerina), Georgy Gusev (Magician), Anton Savichev (Arap). Photo: Elena Fetisova

It is played out in a mixture of “puppet” steps with elements of ballet and Russian folk dance: deliberately “artificial”, angular and (or) rollicking stomps, arms that do not bend like those of baby dolls, pseudo-quadrilles with “picking toys”, girls in dresses with hints of a toy, guys - in fur coats over their naked bodies. And all this looks like something from a fashion catwalk (clothing designer: Leo Kulash). You can see a souvenir "a la Russe". It’s possible - a world of timeless cruel experiment with a human threshold of sensitivity. In general, this is the life of puppets.

Except for the Magician-Puppeteer (Georgy Gusev). Whose sinister figure in black (outside - like a soul inside) seems to be omnipresent in this world and seems to take special pleasure in manipulating others.

The canes with which the Magician shapes the plastic behavior of the main characters continually turn into rapiers; they can be pierced through. And the wooden skeletons of puppets, or perhaps soulless mannequins that the heroes literally carry on themselves, are a way to show that the living body of the dancer is not a body at all, but a soul. Even indifferent, like the ballerina (Ekaterina Krysanova) and Moor (Anton Savichev), even suffering, like Petrushka. (Denis Savin). By the way, they all dance wonderfully.

The finale - the soul of Parsley, killed by Arap, “flies away” into oblivion, led by a certain parsley double, and only a soulless piece of wood lies on the ground. And the very end is like Fokine’s: the immortal sufferer waves his hands to the world. What he says? If only I knew.

Tuxedo in wool with satin details, cotton shirt, silk bow tie, silver plated metal cufflinks, all Ermenegildo Zegna.

This year, dancer Ivan Vasiliev, who habitually dances under the grate on stage, made a jump behind the stage - now he stands in the wings and watches his friends perform his choreography. He is not going to part with his artistic career - Spartaki and the Counts of Alberta in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Milan remain with him. But “Ballet No. 1,” which at the premiere at Barvikha Concert Hall united young society maidens and life-worn balletomanes, became a transition to a different quality. The quality of the choreographer.

The previous ten years (prizes, prizes, leading roles began to shower on Vasiliev from the age of sixteen) are now being processed and put into action. Victory of a Minsk schoolboy at the international ballet competition in Moscow in 2005. Then the newspapers shouted to the general director of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater: “Grab the boy, in a year the Americans will drag him away!” In 2006, he made his debut at the Minsk Bolshoi: school is not over yet, graduation is ahead, but the Belarusian artistic director wants to convince the guy to stay in Minsk, wants to show him prospects. “Don Quixote,” the “beloved,” is exactly twice as old as the hero, she no longer bends too deftly in a jump – but the guy carries her like a banner, not forgetting to grin at “her friends” and hooliganly hug them. Minsk residents fail to keep Vasiliev - an invitation to the Moscow Bolshoi follows. “Spartak,” which seemed to have long ago turned into a monument to the sixties, comes to life with his arrival and is again filled with the energy of uprising. Triumphs, triumphs, triumphs – and a rapidly forming role cell. Dancer for Grigorovich's power ballets? Yes, sure. Prince for classical ballets? Come on, my friend, he’s an athlete, not an elf.

“I don’t want to die in the costume of Spartacus,” the ballet rumor conveys the phrase allegedly said by the hero when he, along with his partner Natalya Osipova, quits the Bolshoi Theater. The year is 2011. The work book goes to the St. Petersburg Mikhailovsky Theater - less prestigious in the ballet table of ranks, but providing complete freedom of the repertoire. Here Vasiliev tailors the classical choreography to suit himself - but does not simplify the text, as many of his colleagues do, but complicates it, saturates it with extremely complex tricks. Half of the experts faint from this treatment of ancient texts, half applaud it wildly. The online swearing between “basilemans” and “basilephobes” reaches the height of religious wars; Vasiliev reads all this, but pointedly does not take it into account. “I listen only to my teacher,” he says, working with the wise, calm, tired Yuri Vladimirov, a star of the Bolshoi Theater of the 1960s.

Half of the experts are swooning at Vasiliev’s handling of ancient texts, and half are wildly applauding him.

“Underwood” to the music of Max Richter was presented to the public in April at the St. Petersburg Dance Open festival. The festival, which every year gathers ballet stars from all over the world on the banks of the Neva, calls on Vasiliev as a virtuoso performer - but then the dancer offers them a piece he himself composed. Offers it for free, as a bonus to the “Flame of Paris” stipulated in the contract - it’s so important to show it to people, to check the impression. And having persuaded his friend, Bolshoi Theater soloist Denis Savin, to participate, he becomes a typewriter with him.

More precisely, simultaneously with both the hands that hit the keys and the keys that bend under the blow. Each dancer's body flinches in the air, responds to an invisible blow, calms down and flinches again - and all this happens instantly. And in this tiny number there is an obvious challenge: this is how you want to see a ballet dancer? Simple letter reproduction - like a typewriter? Nothing can be changed, you say? But we are alive. We have the right to change and change.

And in May “Ballet No. 1” comes out in Barvikha.

This is the name of the entire program - a set of miniatures in the first part and “Bolero” in the second. Vasiliev almost disappears from the stage - only, in order not to completely disappoint his fans, he appears with Maria Vinogradova in a duet from Fokine’s “Scheherazade”. The rest of the time is devoted to his colleagues from the Bolshoi and his own compositions. And here in Fake Man to the music of Vivaldi, the hero of Anton Savichev stubbornly tries to talk to a plastic mannequin, disturb the stupid doll, shake it, but gives up and freezes in a doll-like pose - it is hardly possible to find a more desperate cry about the fate of an actor in modern choreography. Denis Savin and Alexander Smolyaninov reproduce “Underwood” - and in this duet it sounds quieter, not so bitter (well, of course, these guys got less from the guardians of classical texts). And in “Bolero” Vasiliev tells the story of a man doomed to be a leader.

Simply because he cannot do otherwise. Here is a small crowd walking around the stage - everyone is rushing about their business. And only one discovers the invisible wall and breaks through it. And – I would continue to walk alone freely, what’s the problem? - begins to push friends out of everyday life into the open world, where life is more unpredictable, more dangerous and livelier. And Ravel’s shabby music (after Bejart, almost fifty mediocre choreographers tried to use it in half a century) sounds clear, solemn and fresh.

Ballet number one. Well, not the last one.

Tuxedo in wool with satin details, cotton shirt, silk bow tie, silver plated metal cufflinks, all Ermenegildo Zegna.

This year, dancer Ivan Vasiliev, who habitually dances under the grate on stage, made a jump behind the stage - now he stands in the wings and watches his friends perform his choreography. He is not going to part with his artistic career - Spartaki and the Counts of Alberta in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Milan remain with him. But “Ballet No. 1,” which at the premiere at Barvikha Concert Hall united young society girls and life-worn balletomanes, became a transition to a different quality. The quality of the choreographer.

The previous ten years (prizes, prizes, leading roles began to shower on Vasiliev from the age of sixteen) are now being processed and put into action. Victory of a Minsk schoolboy at the international ballet competition in Moscow in 2005. Then the newspapers shouted to the general director of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater: “Grab the boy, in a year the Americans will drag him away!” In 2006, he made his debut at the Minsk Bolshoi: school is not over yet, graduation is ahead, but the Belarusian artistic director wants to convince the guy to stay in Minsk, wants to show him prospects. “Don Quixote,” the “beloved,” is exactly twice as old as the hero, she no longer bends too deftly in a jump – but the guy carries her like a banner, not forgetting to grin at “her friends” and hooliganly hug them. Minsk residents fail to keep Vasiliev - an invitation to the Moscow Bolshoi follows. “Spartak,” which seemed to have long ago turned into a monument to the sixties, comes to life with his arrival and is again filled with the energy of uprising. Triumphs, triumphs, triumphs – and a rapidly forming role cell. Dancer for Grigorovich's power ballets? Yes, sure. Prince for classical ballets? Come on, my friend, he’s an athlete, not an elf.

“I don’t want to die in the costume of Spartacus,” the ballet rumor conveys the phrase allegedly said by the hero when he, along with his partner Natalya Osipova, quits the Bolshoi Theater. The year is 2011. The work book goes to the St. Petersburg Mikhailovsky Theater - less prestigious in the ballet table of ranks, but providing complete freedom of the repertoire. Here Vasiliev tailors the classical choreography to suit himself - but does not simplify the text, as many of his colleagues do, but complicates it, saturates it with extremely complex tricks. Half of the experts faint from this treatment of ancient texts, half applaud it wildly. The online swearing between “basilemans” and “basilephobes” reaches the height of religious wars; Vasiliev reads all this, but pointedly does not take it into account. “I listen only to my teacher,” he says, working with the wise, calm, tired Yuri Vladimirov, a star of the Bolshoi Theater of the 1960s.

Half of the experts are swooning at Vasiliev’s handling of ancient texts, and half are wildly applauding him.

“Underwood” to the music of Max Richter was presented to the public in April at the St. Petersburg Dance Open festival. The festival, which every year gathers ballet stars from all over the world on the banks of the Neva, calls on Vasiliev as a virtuoso performer - but then the dancer offers them a piece he himself composed. Offers it for free, as a bonus to the “Flame of Paris” stipulated in the contract - it’s so important to show it to people, to check the impression. And having persuaded his friend, Bolshoi Theater soloist Denis Savin, to participate, he becomes a typewriter with him.

More precisely, simultaneously with both the hands that hit the keys and the keys that bend under the blow. Each dancer's body flinches in the air, responds to an invisible blow, calms down and flinches again - and all this happens instantly. And in this tiny number there is an obvious challenge: this is how you want to see a ballet dancer? Simple letter reproduction - like a typewriter? Nothing can be changed, you say? But we are alive. We have the right to change and change.

And in May “Ballet No. 1” comes out in Barvikha. This is the name of the entire program - a set of miniatures in the first part and “Bolero” in the second. Vasiliev almost disappears from the stage - only, in order not to completely disappoint his fans, he appears with Maria Vinogradova in a duet from Fokine’s “Scheherazade”. The rest of the time is devoted to his colleagues from the Bolshoi and his own compositions. And here in Fake Man to the music of Vivaldi, the hero of Anton Savichev stubbornly tries to talk to a plastic mannequin, disturb the stupid doll, shake it, but gives up and freezes in a doll-like pose - it is hardly possible to find a more desperate cry about the fate of an actor in modern choreography. Denis Savin and Alexander Smolyaninov reproduce “Underwood” - and in this duet it sounds quieter, not so bitter (well, of course, these guys got less from the guardians of classical texts). And in “Bolero” Vasiliev tells the story of a man doomed to be a leader.

Simply because he cannot do otherwise. Here is a small crowd walking around the stage - everyone is rushing about their business. And only one discovers the invisible wall and breaks through it. And – I would continue to walk alone freely, what’s the problem? - begins to push friends out of everyday life into the open world, where life is more unpredictable, more dangerous and livelier. And Ravel’s shabby music (after Bejart, almost fifty mediocre choreographers tried to use it in half a century) sounds clear, solemn and fresh.