The Company unveils plans for the season

On August 26, the vacation of Eifman Ballet has come to an end. After the general gathering of the Company members at the rehearsal base the dancers started preparing for the first tour of the new, 43rd season. Below you can find out about creative plans of Eifman Ballet for 2019–2020.

The season is to open with a tour in China starting on September 5. The Company will visit a number of cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. The program of the tour, which will last until October 8, includes ballets Anna Karenina, Beyond Sin and Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA.

In the second half of October, Eifman Ballet will present its art in several European capitals. The audience of Berlin will see the ballet The Pygmalion Effect (our 2019 premiere), as well as Anna Karenina. In Sofia, Bucharest and Chisinau St. Petersburg dancers will present Eugene Onegin.

On November 3, Boris Eifman’s screen ballet Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA will be shown in San Francisco within the framework of the San Francisco Dance Film Festival. Later in November, same as last year, the Company will commence its tour of France and the Netherlands. The four-week tour will include such locations as Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Nice, Amsterdam, as well as other cities. Audiences in both countries will have an opportunity to enjoy ballets Anna Karenina and Rodin, Her Eternal Idol.

In the meantime, in St. Petersburg the XIII St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum will take place on November 14–16. Its “Ballet and Dance” section, traditionally co-chaired by Boris Eifman, will include a round table discussion “Culture and the Children”, due to be held on November 14. The discussion will gather Russian and foreign experts in the field of artistic and spiritual development of the younger generation. The opening of the Children’s Dance Theatre, a unique public city venue, scheduled for November 15, is expected to become the central event of the section. During the opening ceremony the students of Boris Eifman Dance Academy will perform Boris Eifman’s one-act ballet Musagete. On November 16, a special concert program will be presented at the new theatre. Students of Eifman’s ballet school, Beijing Dance Academy and State Ballet School of Berlin will participate in the show.

In the middle of December, the Company will bring The Pygmalion Effect to Riga. In January, shooting of the screen ballet Russian Hamlet will take place in St. Petersburg. Boris Eifman will direct the screen version of the production about Prince Paul.

In February, Eifman Ballet will focus on the rehearsals of a new ballet about the great French playwright Jean-Baptiste Molière. Work on the production, which offers a new choreographic and dramaturgic interpretation of the 2001 ballet Don Juan, or Molière Passions, commenced at the end of the previous season and continued after the Company’s return from the vacation. The world premiere of the production will take place in St. Petersburg at the end of July. The working title of the new ballet is Molière Passions, or The Mask of Don Juan. According to Boris Eifman, the upcoming premiere will combine drama and ballet and will be an illustration of the remarkable world of theatrical art.

In the first half of March, the Company will return to Riga. This time, spectators of the Latvian capital will see Russian Hamlet. The performance will be accompanied by the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. Then Eifman Ballet will go to Tallinn with Anna Karenina.

In May, the Company will visit the Republic of Korea for the first time since 2009. The playbill of this landmark tour will include ballets Rodin, Her Eternal Idol and Beyond Sin. The tour will form part of the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea. The Company will perform in Seoul and twin-cities of St. Petersburg – Busan and Daegu.

June will be marked by the new encounter of the New York audience with the art of Eifman Ballet. At Lincoln Center, the dancers will give four shows of Russian Hamlet. The performances will be accompanied by the same orchestra that will have earlier performed in Riga. From the United States, the Company will fly to Mexico – the country where Eifman Ballet last toured twelve years ago. The spectators of Mexico City, Puebla and Toluca will have the opportunity to experience the art of Boris Eifman.

The season will end in early July in Colombia with two performances of Anna Karenina accompanied by an orchestra.

We should also like to specially highlight the Company’s large-scale collaboration, developed throughout 2019, with TheatreHD and Stage Russia HD projects, which offer audiences in many countries an opportunity to view famous productions of the world’s best theatres on a large screen. Throughout the first half of the season, Boris Eifman’s screen ballet The Brothers Karamazov, a screen version of the ballet Beyond Sin, will be shown in cinemas of Russia, the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.