| Three one-act ballet
pieces of modern choreographers - " Chamber ¹ 6 "
by Radu Poclitaru, "Leah" by Àlexei Ratmansky and
"Ìagrittomania" by Yuri Possokhov have recently
been premiered in the Bolshoi theatre. The latter of the three
named producers has more than ten years of the leading soloist
career with the Bolshoi theatre behind and had danced here
(from 1982 to 1992) a great number of key roles in Bolshoi
ballet performances, such as "Giselle", " Romeo
and Juliet ", "Chopiniana "," The Swan
Lake ", "The Nutcracker", " The Sleeping
Beauty ", " La Bayadere", "Corsaire",
" The Prodigal Son " and others. From 1992 to 1994
he worked as a soloist with the Danish Royal Ballet and has
been successfully working with the San Francisco Ballet during
the last ten years. In 2000, Posokhov mounted an abstract
ballet called "Magrittomania" on the motives of
the canvasses by the well known Belgian artist – surrealist
Rene Magritte, by the way, the music to this ballet is known
to have been written by a Petersburg avant-garde composer
Yuri Êrassavin to Possokhov’s special order. The new art chief
of the Bolshoi Ballet Alexei Ratmansky invited Yury Possokhov
to bring his "Magrittomania" into the Bolshoi Ballet
Company. After the first Moscow night of the ballet Possokhov
gave an exclusive interview for our readers.
- In 1992 you left
the Bolshoi Theatre managed by one team of executives, and
now the people there are different. Have there been any changes
in the Bolshoi ballet due to this reshuffle, or, on the contrary,
have there been some losses?
- After my departure I came back to the
Bolshoi more than once. I even danced here, I happened to
witness quite a rapid succession of art directors. It’s worth
noting, though, that the theatre has gained nothing due to
these measures. Moreover, in my opinion, the situation in
the Bolshoi changed for the worse. At the Bolshoi Ballet,
things there were simply awful at times, and year after year
the situation there got worse and worse, and nobody could
understand the reason. The key to the problem, as I see it,
was a man with creative insight and profound understanding
of modern life to put at the head. Meanwhile, remarkable people
and remarkable actors came and went but the mentality in the
theatre remained old. And it’s really for the first time now
that today’s chief of ballet Àlexei Ratmansky fits his post
of art director perfectly. Yet, it’s still to be proved, but
it seems to me, Àlesha can give to the theatre what no other
executive can give at present. Certainly, he is a stranger,
he is not from here, he has a different viewpoint, but this
fact puts him at a great advantage. Firstly, Ratmansky’s huge
opportunities as a talented choreographer, secondly, his substantial
experience of work in the West, with western balletmasters.
" The Western wave " must come here. It goes without
saying, we shall never be "Western" here, in Russia,
we’ll retain our Russian individuality and mentality, but
the combination of some "western" and "our"
features can trigger a break-through in the art of ballet,
- at least, me personally, I strongly believe in the opportunity...
- And why did you
go abroad, if you career was successful enough here, at first
glance, at least? What were your reasons?
- I have already been asked this question
too often! The reason was as simple as that - I felt deeply
depressed. A kind of internal Great Depression it was! So,
the reasons were of internal character only, because on the
surface, really, everything looked perfectly well. Yuri Nikolaevich
Grigorovich was giving me all the main parts I liked, I was
the principal dancer, I was about to be awarded the rank of
Honoured Artist of Russia, but all the same, I felt that nothing
could stop me. I was in such an awful condition that I can
hardly recall my signing the first overseas contract: I do
not remember it at all. Believe me. What I know is that I
signed it. And soon I left for Denmark, then returned and
decided that I wouldn’t work any more in the West, because,
all the same – I’m a Russian, a Soviet man. On my returning
to the Bolshoi I faced all this out-of-date approach, to say
nothing of the dullness and unwillingness to do anything.
So, it’s no surprising, naturally, very soon I found myself
signing the next contract with the San Francisco Ballet. So,
I think, I cannot say I feel sorry about my leaving. Thank
God!
- Who chose the
cast for "Magrittomania"?
- As to the male leading soloist of the
first cast, it was my choice - I knew Dima Belogolovtsev quite
well, we had worked together here, in the Bolshoi. As regards
Katya Shipulina, the female leading soloist, she became a
wonderful surprise for me: fortunately, the role fitted her
like a second skin, otherwise, it would have been problematic
to find the right ballerina. I understood that the Bolshoi
ballerinas were different in terms of technique, "impulse"
of movement, even in terms of aesthetics! But here I put all
my trust in Alexei Ratmansky and, to tell the truth, was stunned
by Katya’s giftedness! There is something in her, something
unusual... In any case, it seems to me, she displays the brightest
side of her talent still unknown for us. This performance
of hers speaks volume, it’s very telling. This assertion,
by the way, can be referred to all the participants. Although
I haven’t had an opportunity to get acquainted with all the
guys here and I don’t know their physique, i.e. how well they
can cope with some choreographic steps, generally speaking,
I can tell you that the Bolshoi troupe is one of the strongest
in the world today. But it is evidently not enough: they need
to understand today’s life, the modern aesthetics, they obviously
need to learn the different manner of dancing. The school
itself needs changing. This touches upon the problem of teaching.
Both the Theatre and the Bolshoi School need to invite more
young teachers who work with modern dance. And as I see it,
the school should take the edge here. There should be a natural
change in the team of teachers, choreographers and dancers
and it should be a non-stop, ever-going process, while what
we always have is a chasm between generations!
- Do you find Dmitry
Belogolovtsev strong in his leading role in "Magrittomania",
what are his dramatic merits?
- I wish you saw the way Dimà started
working with us... He did it as if he were doing Spartacus,
he looked as if he borrowed the concept of his part from Grigorovich’s
“Spartacus” – now we have his style changed 60 or 70 percent.
In the part of the leading soloist there should be pureness
and sincerity. No special effects, no intentional, deliberate
poses, no miming! Because a ballet is most of all an internal
world rather than heroic story. And Dima made a success, factually,
within a week: something new appeared in his style. Belogolovtsev’s
tremendous face can shine, so he needn’t act! And right at
the end of the performance, when he simply sat down on the
stage - how beautiful it was! I told him: " don’t make
any faces, don’t mime. Look straight into the auditorium!
Your eyes " reach " the public. The music is beautiful
and it’ll help them understand everything". This is,
by the way, just a different school of acting. Maybe the Bolshoi’s
huge, spacious stage as well as the stubborn idea that pursuits
the actors that every gesture of theirs must "reach"
the audiences, make them deliberately produce exaggerated,
large-scale gestures, acting, "large eyes". Here,
on the new premises both the stage and the hall are not that
big, so, once we show a chamber ballet, a certain line should
be drawn, which shouldn’t be dress-passed...
- Does the level
of performing in "Magrittomania" in San Francisco
differ from that in Moscow?
- When we began to rehearse, I at once
recognised the old basement of classic school in all the gestures
of the cast. For me, traditions, first of all, consist in
development, but what I see here are some settled canons I
don’t actually like. As a balletmaster, I always seek to get
rid of the old, “cut it off” and try something new. And when
we began to do "Magrittomania", it took me about
five days to recover from the shock of my first impression.
The problem is that Russian dancers have no command of the
western dance aesthetics. But three days ago I was happy to
see a sort of breakthrough when, all of a sudden, the whole
cast "entered" the show, felt it - and the right
style appeared, they seemed to have got a deeper insight of
what they were doing…Even conceptually, a clear vision of
the whole show started to be seen... Now Êàtya Shipulina and
Dima Belogolovtsev’s dancing makes you realise that nothing
is beyond them. It looks great. I also would like to mention
the supporting trio of remarkable male soloists Yan Godovsky,
Denis Medvedev and Ruslan Pronin. There is no need any longer
to teach, to explain anything to them – they have grasped
the idea now! I wrongly thought they would do it earlier,
but it takes time, there is a time for everything…
- And why were
both dress rehearsals and two premieres of "Magrittomania"
danced by the same cast?
repertoire policy taken by the management:
all the actors are engaged in performances every evening (as
you know, there are two stages in the Bolshoi now). All of
them have their own tough schedule. It’s beyond them to appear
on stage every evening! I had some coaching with the second
cast, but they simply didn’t stand it physically: I could
not let them dance the premiere. It’s not the actors who are
to blame - there were virtually no rehearsals, moreover, each
night they were onstage, got tired, so I have only one cast
now. On 25 May, Nelly Kobakhidze will probably take part in
"Magrittomania", by the way, with Dima Belogolovtsev,
and in June, I hope, one more cast will be trained. It’s neither
me nor my assistant Katita Valdo, who will do it, but Victor
Barykin, the teacher – rehearser of the production, I have
left everything in his charge; he knows the production and
is sure to teach the soloists quite right. Katita is leaving
two days after the premier takes place. If at this time in
San Francisco it were a season, I would leave straight after
the premiere, too, but as it’s holiday time there, I can stay
in Moscow, which will give me a chance to see all the three
premieres and estimate the results...
- Is it true that
at the end of "Magrittomania" on the back drop,
against the background of the light-blue sky and clouds your
wife’s face appears?
- Yes, it is true. The art director Tyhra
Hartshorne did it herself. I explained to her what I needed,
that I need just this picture by Ìàgritte and she thought
it out herself, she didn’t tell me what she was going to do,
just took photos of my wife and then let me have a look at
it. She didn’t involve me into her work. I didn’t even know
about it, it came as a surprise.
- Which Bolshoi
performances have you managed to see when you came here, to
Moscow, this time?
- You see, I spent days and nights rehearsing,
so I really had very little time for any other things to do.
I managed to see only one part of " Balancine’s Evenings
" - " Concerto Barocco " and " Òàrantella
". And “ Chamber ¹ 6 " by Radu Poclitaru together
with Ratmansky’s " Leah " during their dress rehearsals.
Although I was aware of most controversial comments on those
ballets beforehand, I must confess that the whole program
is very much to my liking. That’s my sincere opinion. "Leah"
is really a great ballet: a professional and interesting performance...
I also found it catching to watch " Chamber ¹ 6 "
from beginning to end… if the performance captures me... When
watching it I never had a feeling that I missed something:
every minute of Poclitaru’s performance kept me impressed.
I do not know the judgement of the critics in advance, but
I wouldn’t like the spectators to be driven by an intention
to judge the performance, I would be happy if they come to
see it with an open mind. Even if they fail to understand
something that happens on stage, let them try not to reject,
and not to deny it. I do not like, I hate it when people come
to the theatre originally prepared to deny what they are going
to see. By the way, when one tells me that a certain ballet
is bad, I cannot say I often agree with the opinion…
- And do you like
the order of succession of ballets in the program?
- At first, the program was organised
differently: "Magrittomania" opened the evening.
I think, that the new structure is much more logical. Ratmansky
was right in rearranging the program - two drama pieces make
a sort of frame for a narrative one. Two drama ballets like
" Chamber ¹ 6 " and "Leah" coming one
by one - would be a difficult show for the audiences. It would
be a kind of “sur”, though, the real “sur” is “ Magrittomania
"
- Tell me, please,
where and when you got acquainted with Àlexei Ratmansky? Which
of his ballets have you seen except for "Leah"?
- When studying at the Moscow choreography
college, both Àlexei and I, we happened to be in the class
of the remarkable teacher Pyotr Antonovich Pestov. And when
in the evening the college was closed, Pestov liked very much
taking all his students home and giving them additional lessons.
And, though, I am four years older than Àlesha (we didn’t
then pay much attention to junior students) we have known
each other since our college time. Afterwards I met him in
the West, but not in Copenhagen; Ratmansky appeared there
after I had left Denmark. I am grateful to my destiny for
my acquaintance with Àlesha Ratmansky because I have always
appreciated talented people – they help me and teach me. And
learn much from Àlesha as well... In San Francisco he successfully
staged " Carnival of the Animals " to the music
by Camile Sen-Saens (in September we are going to bring it
to London). I liked Ratmansky’s "Bright stream".
I don’t absolutely agree with the idea Ratmansky found the
right approach to the ballet, which is the cause of so many
people’s describing it as "kapustnik ". Had the
performance been rehearsed (I would have managed it) and danced
differently, I think, there wouldn’t have been so much of
the so called “kapustnik” or cabaret touch in the work of
the dancers (the touch, which unfortunately, to my mind, was
clearly felt in the ballet), this piece might very well have
become... if not more serious, still much more graceful. Choreography
is not the point here, I told Alesha at once when I saw it,
that the problem was the approach to acting, there were too
many cliches, which were meant to impress the spectator but
failed to bring a success. It mustn’t be so! When onstage
actors should feel, rather than act for “ the spectator",
otherwise it looks like a pop show approach...
- What made you
turn to choreographic compositions? When did it all begin?
- It is like a disease. Still working
here, with the Bolshoi theatre, I knew, that one day I’d be
mounting ballets... But even in Denmark I was far from thinking
of a try. The idea came with richer experience, after I had
worked with dozens of choreographers, when they bet on me
- only after that I really made up my mind. There are so many
excellent choreographers, incredibly ingenious in the West!
Many of them are not even heard of here, in Russia. I judge
from the choice of western balletmasters who are being invited
to the Ìàriinsky and Bolshoi , all of them, as a rule, belong
to the senior generation: Roland Petit, John Neumeier… The
generation of 70-s! Today Angelin Preljocaj and William Forsythe
are considered to be on the crest of contemporary choreography
- they have got a more modern vision of art. So, why are those
people being invited? I think, because the style of 70-s,
probably, at present suits your theatre better: their ballets
are easier to dance. The Forsythe performances are physically
exhausting and technically complicated – they imply a phenomenal
technique, a tremendous command of the body, legs, feet and
so on. I haven’t seen Ìàriinsky’s cast doing the Forsythe
ballets, still it’s no secret that the actors fail to keep
up with their rhythms. And besides, when some Bolshoi actors
now and then tell me in the morning they will not come today
to rehearse and the reason is their evening performance and
when asked about the title they answer - "Àgon",
for me, personally, it is hard to believe... Western dancers
cannot even imagine doing anything like this! You rehearse
in the afternoon, then have a two-three-hour break and then
in the evening you follow you working timetable and dance
what you are to dance, be it "Àgon", " Don
Quixote " or whatsoever. When in San Francisco the cast
were preparing " Don Quixote ", each participant
went through the performance from beginning to end at every
afternoon rehearsal. From the very beginning to the very end!
Certainly, at the rehearsal actors might skip something, but
they knew that three hours later they were to appear onstage
and do it in front of the audiences. And no one got tired!
Well, naturally, they get tired, but the more you get tired,
the more your body gets trained. Here, in the Bolshoi the
dancers put their legs “on a shelf " one week before
the performance takes place! Now, however, the situation has
changed a lot, now, when their performances go in a rapid
succession...
- Do you consider
that the problem is in the wrong repertoire planning?
- No, I don’t, I think that the theatre
hasn’t yet borrowed the tough western system of repertoiry
planning and organising of rehearsal schedule, but it will
happen by all means, in due course, because the theatre has
to work in modern conditions!
- In one of your
recent interviews you said that as choreographer you prefer
a dramatic ballet, a ballet with a plot. But your "Magrittomania"
has no plot, it’s abstract...
- The matter is that even if I said something
a while ago it doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m sure to repeat
it now. It is not for the first time that it happens! I always
say what I feel now, at the moment of speaking and my opinion
my feeling may very well change tomorrow morning. A month
ago I preferred a drama ballet and today I do prefer a pure
dance one…
- What kind of
thing do you mean to produce for the San Francisco Ballet?
- I do not know yet... I have a long
month in store to decide... These days I am planning to visit
one of my good friends in his summer cottage…This man helped
me much with the music to my ballets when I was staging performances
here, in Russia. And I hope, this time, again we are going
to do a lot of thinking… it’s peculiar, most of my friends
are living here though I’m working there and that is why I
like to combine it all. I like many things in Russia... Especially
I love drama and I’m sure that drama in Moscow or St.-Petersburg
is art number one.
- And what or who
in particular are you impressed with in drama?
- Oleg Menshikov’s "Kitchen"
has impressed me most favourably lately. Actually, every production
of his is interesting. His version of "Gamblers"
is unbelievably impressive! You see I don’t often have a chance
to visit theatres. But have I a free evening, I’ll go to see
a drama rather than ballet.
- It means you
as a balletmaster, do credit to a plot, doesn’t it? …
- Yes, certainly, but if you take my
nearest future plans, it’s a pure dance ballet, because I
need to learn the language of choreography, it’s very important,
it’s our means of expression. I do not want to do a drama
on the ballet stage - a drama with some movement used. I want
to do a choreographic drama. Because Àlesha Ratmansky has
got everything – the command of the language of movement and
also a tremendous command of choreography! He creates genuinely
choreographic "phrases"! So far I have staged only
one narrative ballet – I did it two years ago and it was called
“Proklyatye” and based on Evripidus’ “Medeya”. I chose the
English "Damned" for the title. I wanted it to be
an emotionally saturated, strong performance...
- Do you plan to
continue working with the Bolshoi?
- I can’t say with certainty yet, because
as far as I know the upcoming season in the Bolshoi is engaged:
John Neumeier is to bring his " Summer Night Dream ",
Ratmansky is staging Shostakovich’s “Bolt", All-Leonide
Miassine programme is to occupy the new stage... There is
a lot of work to do. I know that Ratmansky is thinking of
inviting me to stage something at the Bolshoi. We haven’t
had a word on it yet, though. To my way of thinking, this
is going to be a performance specially created to show the
Bolshoi dancers at their best. But here the problem of my
contract as a ballet dancer arises. I’m still under contract
as a ballet dancer. And it is still pretty questionable whether
I will be able to cope with all this. I’m, though, thinking
of retiring – in two months’ time I’ll be forty. It’s high
time… Ratmansky has already done it...
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