Premieres in 2008

KYIV MODERN-BALLET THEATRE
Choreographer, Art Director of the Theatre RADU POKLITARU
Stage designer ANDREY ZLOBIN
Costume designer ANNA IPATIEVA
Assistant of Choreographer ANATOLIY KOZLOV

Duration 2:30 with 2 intermissions

UNDERGROUND

Creating the performance “Underground” on music of the famous Latvian composer Peteris Vasks I was inspired by words of Jean-Paul Sartre “Hell is the others”. But this is not a ballet about Bible hell. This is a story of the people, forced into the underground by war. Forced to stay together in the Underground space, they raise the amplitude of their emotions up to peak values – love-hate, joy-despair. Nobody knows if they see the day light ever again. And just is why their “now” is more important that their “afterwards”.

Radu Poklitaru

The Underground is based on the music of world famous Latvian composer Peteris Vasks, his Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra. The author entitled his opus “Far Away Light”. P. Vasks confessed that it is his favourite work. The composer wrote the Concerto in 1997 entertaining the suggestion of the eminent violinist Guidon Kremer who was his schoolmate at Riga D.Darzin School. The Concerto is played by many soloists, six choreographic compositions staged in America, Mexico, Sweden and Netherlands have been created by music of “Far Away Light”. The last one belongs to Radu Poklitaru: The Underground first night took place in June 2008 in Kyiv, before the music author. Poklitary himself says that P. Vasks’ music impressed him. And wellknown sentence of Jean-Paul Sartre “Hell means the others” became the performance conceptual idea message. In The Underground the existential motives of French writer are in close contact with Latvian composer’s melodies. P. Vasks’ music it is “the spirituality concentrate”, intention to say “good words, good sounds which will inspire, help to withstand, as if saying: “Hold out, there is lot of beautiful in the life!” (from the composer’s interview). In his performance R. Poklitaru opposes the universe of personages happened in the boundary survival conditions (the underground) and their aspiration to the far away light (According to P. Vasks “The Far Away Light – this is both the childhood light and Divine, celestial light”.) From here arise the characters reproducing the critical stress of internal state. Occasionally, this stress comes to the limit outside of which shall happen the anomie and relationships’ disaster. The acting idea of Poklitaru incarnates the symphonic dramaturgy by P.Vasks so much visible that the boundary between music and scenic characters

WARD NO 6

For me “Ward No 6” is a performance about incomprehension. About that how often the unusual is treated as abnormal. A Doctor, who found the most interesting interlocutor of his life in mad patient, is perceived himself madman by surrounding people. Delicate, intelligent man he is crossing the boards of familiar, “normal” circle of contacts and becomes an outlaw, lavished with hypocrite care. With care dissimulating the society desire to push off the man irritating by his obscurity.

Radu Poklitaru

Stories, tales, plays of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov are pierced with the music sounds being properly the nature of these oeuvres. Musicality of Chekhov’s dramaturgy and prose makes possible its interpretation using the choreography language. But, is it possible to reveal with the aid of the ballet the depth of psychological revelations of Chekhov’s oeuvres, their finest emotional nuances, feelings, and at the same time the real common ground of happening? The 80-ies of the last century offered three Chekhov’s plays on the stage of Bolshoi Theatre representing his drama, story and tale in form of the ballets. The incomparable Maya Plisetskaya and her co-authors, the composer Rodion Shchedrin and scene-designer Valeriy Levental being the librettists of the “Seagull” (1980) and “Lady with the Lapdog” (1986) are rightfully considered the pioneers in this domain. One can argue about the principles of these ballets’ choreographic solution but undoubted is unity of their most important components such as music, plastiques, stage set well adjusted and subject to the elaborated regisseur’s line. Plisetskaya, being the ballerina with her inimitable style, demonstrated in these performances the theme of beauty and emotion liberty, its verity and intensity glorification. The history of Bolshoi’s “Aniuta” ballet created by composer Valeriy Gavrilin and choreographer Vladimir Vassiliev (1986) raised from the cognominal TV ballet shouted by the film-maker Aleksandr Belinsky by Chekhov’s tale “Feedon Anna”. Ekaterina Maximova, the lead of Anna, opened out in this ballet as the actress of rare dramatic talent. The turn of 21st century was marked by “arrival” of two “Seagulls” in the ballet. Two well-known choreographers – Boris Eifman of St. Petersbourg, and Hamburg Ballet director John Neumeier turned to Chekhov’s play almost at the same time. Avoiding its direct imitation they presented the artists’ story having changed the protagonists’ professional occupations and transferring the action to the ballet universe. Contrary to Boris Eifman’s “Seagull” produced by music of S. Rakhmaninov and A. Skriabin (2007) where the protagonists’ quartet is dominating, John Neumeier in his play activates all the characters, all details and finding plastic equivalent to each Chekhov’s turn. Choreographer-scientists, philologist who feels in love with Russian literature, he inflates the air of the performance with “Russian spirit”. Neumeier affirms that his ballet is transforming into analysis of the orchestics intself. This version of “Seagull” by music of P. Tchaikovsky, A. Skriabin, D. Shostakovich and E. Glenny got up at Hamburg Ballet (2002) was reproduced by the choreographer at Moscow city Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre stage (2007).

Maybe from all performances of «KYIV MODERN-BALLET» “Ward No 6” is the most chamber and rational oeuvre where the staginess cedes to fancy intellect plays… As a result we saw the quite Chekhov’s story of what is the true freedom and love. And under consolatory lamentations “We love you! You are OK!” it remains only to jump from the terrestrial hell as deeper as possible”.

Yuliia Bentia “Kommersant”, November 28, 2008

“The choreographer turned to in fact cultic literary material — story of A.Chekhov “Ward No 6”, creating the plastique drama of the same name. But, the ballet by Radu Poklitaru is rather not this oeuvre dramatization but, some character-association… Choreographic études — either plastic harmonized or broken as the sense parts, — remind some alchemic action in which its participants happen to have their philosophy, their universe, and continue the search. Besides, the limited number of persona as if anticipates some unity, synchrony of actions, plastique tricks”.

Elena Varvarych “Den’ ”, December 18, 2008