Eifman Ballet wraps up the season
On July 16, with a performance of Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet finished the 41st season. Read about the season highlights below.
September
The first days of the 2017–2018 season saw the preparations for the Chinese tour of Eifman Ballet. It started on September 7, 2017. The Company performed in Beijing and Shanghai. The audience of the cities saw Anna Karenina and Rodin, Her Eternal Idol. The tour ended on September 16.
In the second half of the month, the Company toured to Vladivostok (having performed there for the first time, at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre) and Khabarovsk. Theatregoers of both cities had a chance to enjoy Eugene Onegin.
On September 29, the Company performed at the Alexandrinsky Theatre (St. Petersburg) the revised choreographic version of Russian Hamlet which premiered earlier that year, in the spring of 2017. There was good reason behind the date: 40 years ago, on September 29, 1977, the young company of Boris Eifman debuted in Leningrad.
October
In early October, the Company came to Chisinau, Moldova, with Beyond Sin. That tour marked the first visit of Eifman Ballet to the capital of Moldova – the city where Boris Eifman had spent his early life – since 1988.
In late October, the Company continued touring in the Russian cities, having performed in Surgut and Krasnoyarsk of Siberia. The program of the tour included Anna Karenina and Eugene Onegin.
November
Having completed the autumn tour in Russia on November 1, the Company returned to St. Petersburg and soaked itself in rehearsals. Only two tours interrupted the rehearsing process. The first to Opéra de Lausanne, where the Company performed Anna Karenina on November 18 and 19. The second to Moscow, where Eifman Ballet presented the special festive program “Eifman Gala” at Barvikha Concert Hall on November 25.
It is worth mentioning that events connected to the artistic world of Boris Eifman happened not only in Russia. On November 17, Beyond Sin premiered in Bratislava. The dancers of the Slovak National Theatre performed Boris Eifman’s plastic interpretation of the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
December
In the first half of the month, Eifman Ballet made a series of performances at the Alexandrinsky Theatre. The Company presented Russian Hamlet and Rodin, Her Eternal Idol twice. Also, the St. Petersburg spectators saw Eugene Onegin.
In the second half of December, the dancers toured in Spanish Pamplona and Barcelona with Anna Karenina. In the capital of Catalonia (where Eifman Ballet performed for the first time and was accompanied by the local orchestra) the Company appeared at the renowned Gran Teatre del Liceu. El País highly praised the ballet by Boris Eifman based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy. According to this respected newspaper, “this interpretation of the literary work irradiates vibrant psychological energy”.
January
In the beginning of 2018, Eifman Ballet visited Beijing again. On January 5, 6 and 7, the Company dancers performed Beyond Sin at the Tianqiao Theater. The tour was held as part of the 3rd China International Ballet Season – a large-scale festival, which included performances of the top-tier ballet companies from Russia, the United States, France and other countries. What is more, Boris Eifman hosted a meet-the-artist session with tutors and students of the Beijing Dance Academy.
The same month, Boris Eifman started staging a new production – Pygmalion Effect, a ballet interpretation of the mythos about an artist who falls in love with a statue of a beautiful girl which he carved. This work will be Eifman’s first production in the comedy genre (to be more accurate, tragicomedy) over the two-decade period. The premiere is scheduled for February 2019.
February
The most important event of the season was a gala concert “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” which was dedicated to the 40th anniversary of Eifman Ballet and took place on February 13 at the Alexandrinsky Theatre. The guests of the evening had the chance to see the choreographic pieces performed by the students of the Boris Eifman Dance Academy, the fragments from the most renowned productions of Boris Eifman as well as a one-act ballet The Snowstorm, staged by Eifman Ballet leading soloist Oleg Gabyshev. Former dancers from all the periods of the Company’s 40-year history were the evening’s special guests.
From February 21 to 25, Eifman Ballet performed at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts in Montreal. The Company presented the new version of Requiem – a unique choreographic diptych – accompanied by the chorus and the orchestra. In 2017–2018 Boris Eifman enlarged the first act of Requiem dedicated to Anna Akhmatova by adding the scenes set to the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Jewish music. The Canadian press described Requiem as “mindbending” and “majestic” production.
March
In the middle of the month, Eifman Ballet brought Rodin, Her Eternal Idol to Yekaterinburg. In the second half of March, the Company performed in the Baltic States the ballet Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA. The week-long tour covered Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius and Svetlogorsk.
The Moscow audience also had the chance to dive into the art of Boris Eifman. On March 20, screen ballet Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA premiered at Illusion, Moscow cinema theatre, as part of Nikita Mikhalkov Academy of cinematographic and theatre arts movie club meetings. Both Boris Eifman and Nikita Mikhalkov, Academy founder, People’s Artist of Russia, presented the screen ballet.
April
The beginning of April was marked by the historic debut of Eifman Ballet at Lincoln Center in New York (at the David H. Koch Theatre). From April 6 to 8 the dancers gave four performances of Anna Karenina accompanied by the New York City Ballet Orchestra, with each performance having been sold out. The Company received a standing ovation from the US spectators. During the interview Boris Eifman underlined that he was proud of the fact that the Company “was fully engaged in integrating the universal spiritual human values”. The debut of the Company at Lincoln Centre was dedicated to the 20th anniversary of its first visit to New York in April 1998.
On April 24, the new choreographic version of Requiem premiered at the Alexandrinsky Theatre.
May
On May 8 and 9, Eifman Ballet took part in the International Lake Constance Festival (Bodenseefestival) in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The German dance devotees got to know Eugene Onegin. Pursuing its festival appearances, midway through May the Company visited Kazan. In the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, the dancers performed Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA for the first time. The tour in Kazan became part of the XXXI International Festival of Classic Ballet named after Rudolf Nureyev.
June
In June, Eifman Ballet continued enhancing its status of Russian culture ambassador and made a large tour across Europe with Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA. Its geography included Monaco, Berlin, Bratislava, Vienna. Along with the production about the great Russian composer, the audience of the German capital also saw Red Giselle.
On June 12, President Vladimir Putin granted Boris Eifman the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art for 2017. This prestigious award recognizes Eifman’s contribution to the development of national and world choreographic art.
July
Having returned from June tour in Europe as triumphators, Eifman Ballet dancers held a series of performances at the Alexandrinsky Theatre. It took place from July 4 to 16 and let audience of the city see such worldwide renowned productions as Anna Karenina, Red Giselle, Rodin, Her Eternal Idol, Russian Hamlet and Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA.