A concert “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” in honour of the Company's anniversary

On February 13, Eifman Ballet holds a gala concert “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” dedicated to its 40th anniversary at the Alexandrinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg. The jubilee event’s audience will see the past, the present and the future of the world-known company.

Eifman Ballet had been celebrating the anniversary throughout the most part of the year 2017. Such milestones as the release of a new choreographic version of Russian Hamlet in April, the massive North American tour in May–June, the two-week season at the Bolshoi Theatre Historic Stage, the comeback to many Russian cities in May–October, the performances in Beijing and Shanghai, China, in September coincided with the anniversary. The celebration will reach its peak with the February concert.

“The ballet repertory of modern Russia formed by the Company is our Present. However, on the day of the celebration we will focus not only on today. We’re going to look ahead, with the Dance Academy students and the gifted choreographers of new generation unveiling our Future. On the other hand, we would like to refer to our Past and pay homage to all those people, who have contributed to the artistic formation of our Company,” Boris Eifman says.

In the first act of the concert, the students of the Boris Eifman Dance Academy – the innovative ballet school, founded in 2013 and aimed at preparation of universal dancers, – will present a special program. It will include the choreographic pieces created by Oleg Gabyshev, Eifman Ballet leading soloist and Honoured Artist of Russia, as well as the Academy tutors Irina Kuznetsova, Elena Kuzmina and Konstantin Keihel. Some of these works have been already been presented. For example, the Academy students have already performed with success The Dryads by Elena Kuzmina and The Ritual by Oleg Gabyshev at ballet competitions and festivals, as well as during the European and Asian tours. Furthermore the future ballet stars will perform Boris Eifman’s Beyond Sin (based on The Brothers Karamazov novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky) and Red Giselle fragments for the first time.

The second act will be marked by the premiere of a new work by Oleg Gabyshev staged specially for the jubilee: The Snowstorm, a one-act ballet set to the music by Georgy Sviridov and Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The core message of The Snowstorm is an endless power of fate over a human being. Using the expressive means of modern ballet, the author demonstrates how people turn to puppets in the lap of Fortune. Oleg Gabyshev, Lyubov Andreyeva, Eifman Ballet principal dancer, and Ilya Osipov, Eifman Ballet tutor (soloist in recent past) perform the main roles.

The second act will also include the scenes from Boris Eifman’s Anna Karenina, Eugene Onegin, Up & Down and Russian Hamlet. These ballets are well regarded and critically acclaimed in Russia and abroad.

The special guests of the concert will be the former dancers of Eifman Ballet who had been the Company members in various periods of its 40-year history.