Mathematics and dolls: new ballets at the Bolshoi Theater. Mathematics and puppets: new ballets at the Bolshoi Theater Anton Savichev Bolshoi Ballet

As is known, plotless ballets are based on an emotional image instead of a semantic one.

The Bolshoi Theater hosted two premieres of ballets from the world repertoire. These are “Artifact Suite” by William Forsythe and “Petrushka” by Edward Klug, which made up the program of the Evening of One-Act Ballets.

“Artifact Suite” is a shortened and modernized 2004 author’s version of Forsythe’s first performance “Artifact,” created by him for the Frankfurt Ballet, which he headed from 1984 for twenty years. A kind of thank you message to George Balanchine for everything the young choreographer learned from watching him work.

As is known, plotless ballets are based on an emotional image instead of a semantic one. This is not a story embodied in dance, but sensations, feelings, moods captured in plastic. At the origins of the movement were choreographers Mikhail Fokin (“Chopiniana”), Alexander Gorsky (shadow scene in “La Bayadère”), Fyodor Lopukhov (dance symphony “The Greatness of the Universe”), George Balanchine (“Serenade”), Leonid Yakobson (“Choreographic Miniatures” ), Kasyan Goleizovsky (“Fleetingness”)...

Forsyth not only caught this trend, but developed it, turning it into a real energetic cocktail of classical and modern plasticity, “seen” from the same Balanchine and invented by himself...

In “Artifact Suite,” this “ballet about ballet,” the choreographer, relying on the counterpoint of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Eva Crossman-Hecht (accompanist of the Frankfurt Ballet), formed an emotional plastic dramaturgy of juxtaposing ballet eras.

Like Pushkin’s Salieri, Forsythe “dared, experienced in science, to indulge in the bliss of a creative dream” and began to “verify the harmony” of the soul with algebra. The talented “destroyer” of classical ballet invited the audience to witness his exercises with the lines and shapes of the dancers’ bodies in space. Instead of the aesthetics of images and feelings, there is a fascinating aesthetics of geometric lines, which is curious and undoubtedly deserves attention. Forsyth indicated the understatement inherent in most artistic creations by dropping the curtain at the peak places of the action, giving the viewer the opportunity to figure out the ending for himself...

Bolshoi Theater stars Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin, Anastasia Stashkevich and Vyacheslav Lopatin filled the complex Forsyte duets with feeling, and the corps de ballet demonstrated a rare synchronicity of individuals.

Now about Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “Petrushka”, which for more than a hundred years has retained the magic of the legend, but has lost the charm of topicality and novelty. Reading about it is much more interesting than watching unsuccessful attempts to restore what went into eternity along with its brilliant creators.

However, Edward Klug managed, in my opinion, to return “Petrushka” to stage life. And first of all, due to the fact that he acted as a choreographer-producer, and not a choreographer-restorer, offering his version of the story from the life of farce puppets, in which there is a “love triangle” and a puppeteer with puppets dancing under his control.

You can agree or disagree with Klug’s “Petrushka,” but the ballet is original in its idea (“For dolls - dolls, everyone is puppets, theater within a theater, a complex dream within a dream ...”), in the interpretation of Stravinsky’s music, in the design of the performance (Marko Japel ) and, of course, in a modern choreographic solution invented by the choreographer for his heroes - Petrushka (Denis Savin), Ballerina (Ekaterina Krysanova), Moor (Anton Savichev), Magician (Georgy Gusev), as well as for ensemble scenes and extras, which are few similar to Russian Maslenitsa festivities (just remember Kustodiev’s sketches from life of the famous Maslenitsa cycle), but they look lively in the circumstances proposed by the choreographer.

The evening of one-act ballets at the Bolshoi Theater, judging by the grateful applause of the audience, was a success. He showed that William Forsythe and Edward Klug, artists of different worldviews and different creative credos, are united by the search for their own meaning, physical and spiritual, in choreography, based on the classics - a very promising and successful search.

Let us remind you that a student of the Trinity Children's Art School will take part in the 19th International Competition for Young Musicians “The Nutcracker”, which will be organized from December 4 to 11 in the capital.

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.

Concert ballet

The premiere of "Ballet N1" took place in the concert hall of the Barvikha Luxury Village shopping complex. This is an hour and a half concert of modern dance numbers choreographed by the famous Russian dancer Ivan Vasiliev. About what happens when a dancer is tormented not only by the torment of the body, but also by the suffering of the spirit - EKATERINA ISTOMINA.

The concert hall of the Barvikha Luxury Village shopping center that evening was full of the usual audience for these expensive suburban areas: secular observers, editors-in-chief of fashion magazines, glamorous VIPs in expensive new clothes for the upcoming spring-summer season. However, honored, truly ballet people also found places in the stalls: we mean People's Artist of the USSR, teacher-tutor Yuri Vladimirov (he is the one who studies with Ivan Vasiliev), People's Artist of the USSR Mikhail Lavrovsky and People's Artist of Russia Dmitry Gudanov. The first part consisted of six short numbers and one powerful historical performance - an adagio from the ballet "Scheherazade" by Mikhail Fokin (1910). The second part was relievingly fast: 17 minutes 49 seconds were spent on the performance of Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" staged by Ivan Vasiliev. Bolshoi Theater artists took part in "Ballet N1" - the choreographer himself, Maria Vinogradova, Kristina Kretova, Anna Okuneva, Alexandra Rakitina, Ana Turazashvili, Angelina Karpova, Denis Savin, Anton Savichev and Alexander Smolyaninov.

It is difficult to say exactly what evil force and whose specific dark will forced the outstanding performer, Honored Artist of Russia, the idol of the ballet public and the secular public that joined it, Ivan Vasiliev, to suddenly grab hold of his insidious writing pen. However, Ivan Vasiliev grabbed him as fiercely and uncompromisingly as Rodion Raskolnikov once grabbed the ax. Moreover, the ax of the neophyte director turned out, to put it mildly, extremely heavy - as if a thick volume of the darkest German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer had fallen on Ivan Vasiliev’s head and forced him to immediately sadly, but extremely actively suffer and suffer from everything imperfect, involving his colleagues in the troupe in this hopeless process Bolshoi Theater.

The main thread that easily wove through such dance sketches as “Intro”, “Underwood”, “Inside”, “Fake Man”, “Return”, “Spirit of the Universe” turned out to be the search for something vague by half-naked dancers and dancers, and inconclusive.

Ivan Vasiliev, having chosen problems and feelings that ached like an old splinter - suffering, tossing, hesitation, doubts, visions, torment and decisions, tried to create his own choreographic language. The alphabet is simple: the basic platform of classical dance, loosened by angular “puppet” hands, elements of breakdancing, as well as a loud iconic fall to the floor in the spirit and pose of a frog tired of experiences. The expression on the faces of the seriously trying good artists also attracted attention: they seemed to be looking with their whole body and eyes for where else to rush, where to jump, to whom to raise their fingers and hands? Alas, the scope of suffering was seriously limited by the scenes, the hall and the talent of the choreographer.

In the presented dance pieces by Ivan Vasiliev, one could find the germs of the plots. Thus, in the “Fake Man” number, dancer Anton Savichev spent several minutes, using basic pirouettes, desperately trying to attract the attention of a male mannequin, as if he had arrived at an expensive concert from the Knitwear store and was sensibly dressed only in dark straight trousers. The stubborn mannequin never fell for a love dance to music from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons". The number “Inside” (Anna Okuneva, who once beautifully danced Forsythe’s choreography) should be considered as a gymnastic version of a dying swan in a white shirt and black silk panties. In the number “Spirit of the Universe”, dancer Denis Savin kept trying to squeeze something fateful in his hands - either the head of poor Yorick, or the Holy Grail, but in the end he could not cope with existential control and, according to the planned plan, fell exhausted onto the stage. The first part was completed by the already mentioned “oriental” classical adagio by Mikhail Fokine: Ivan Vasiliev appeared in it as a perfect sketch of Leon Bakst, and Maria Vinogradova was unorientally cold, restrained and pretentious, like an old European fairy.

"Bolero" by Maurice Ravel in the interpretation of Ivan Vasiliev looked like this. The actors walked along the backdrop from backstage to backstage, with such a characteristic step as models usually walk at the shows of Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana and Marni. In the foreground, soloists of different sexes initially replaced each other, then they were joined by colleagues from the background, so that gradually (with the “swelling” of Ravel’s music) the number of soloists on the ramp became equal to the number of ballet participants. The artists gradually lost their clothes, eventually remaining in flesh-colored overalls; most likely, they symbolized nakedness, defenselessness, innocence, and purity of their souls. The outstanding dancer Ivan Vasiliev found such a medium as music completely alien: Vasiliev the choreographer has no ear for music - that’s why he could not grasp the great uniformity of the musical phrase “Bolero”, which, while maintaining its structure, intensifies the sound and power towards the end. The director was never able to come up with a comprehensive dance phrase that, consistent with the musical phrase, could develop toward the finale into the famous deadly crescendo.

Ivan Vasiliev and his fiancée Maria Vinogradova came out to bow in “civilian” clothes: there were many bouquets, little applause. But choreographer Vasiliev did not seem to notice this. His radiant appearance as the master of life suddenly made me remember Chekhov’s Lopakhin, who had already begun cutting down the cherry orchard for the sake of Rublev’s dachas.

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).

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.