Eifman Ballet opens its jubilee season

On August 22, Eifman Ballet opened its 40th season. After the hiatus the Company started rehearsals of a new choreographic version of the ballet Russian Hamlet – one of the most famous works of Boris Eifman, which was created in 1999 and dropped out of the repertory about five years ago. We are bringing to your attention an overview of the main events of the Company’s artistic life in 2016–2017.

The first tour of the new season will take place in Monaco on September 9 and 10. Eifman Ballet will present the ballet Up & Down, a plastic reinvention of the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald Tender Is the Night, at the Salle des Princes of the Grimaldi Forum. Performances will take place within the fifth anniversary of the Gala Russe project. After that the same production will be presented in Ljubljana. Up & Down will crown the 64th Ljubljana Festival.

On October 4, 5 and 6, a Moscow premiere of Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA will take place on the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre within the framework of the International Chereshnevy Les Open-Art Festival. The production by Boris Eifman about the composer’s life and work premiered in St Petersburg at the end of the previous season on the eve of the choreographer’s anniversary.

On October 8 and 9, the ballet Eugene Onegin will be presented in Samara with the support of Rosneft. In the middle of the month Eifman Ballet will visit Astana. Kazakh dance art lovers will also enjoy the ballet based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin. In late October the Company will go on tour to Israel (Tel Aviv and Beersheba), where Red Giselle and Up & Down will be performed.

In early December Eifman Ballet will participate in the work of the “Ballet and Dance” section of the V St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum. Boris Eifman will act as a chairman of the section. Among other events the programme will include a round table dedicated to interaction of ballet art and cinematography, as well as the premiere of Eifman's The Brothers Karamazov ballet movie.

One of the season’s key events is the Company’s tour to London. Performances are scheduled for December 6–10 and will be staged at the London Coliseum. The Company successfully performed at this famous venue in 2012 and 2014. This year it will host a British premiere of Up & Down.

In late December the Company will visit Oman with Anna Karenina. It is notable that last October this production by Boris Eifman, based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy, won over the audience of the other Persian Gulf country – Bahrain.

In the mid-January 2017, Eifman Ballet will visit Helsinki. Spectators from the Finnish capital will see the ballets Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA and Rodin. In late January the production dedicated to the great composer will be brought to screen in St. Petersburg. The screen ballet Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA will be directed by Boris Eifman. Film's shooting will continue till the end of January.

February will be marked by tours to Riga (with the ballet Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA) and Tallinn. In the capital of Estonia the programme will include performances Rodin and Eugene Onegin. In March Eifman Ballet plans to go on tour around Russia.

In April the company will finish working on Russian Hamlet. The premiere of the revived and rethought ballet dedicated to the tragic figure of Prince Paul I of Russia will take place at the end of the month in St. Petersburg.

On May 8, a big tour around North America will start. It is timed to coincide with the Eifman Ballet’s jubilee. During the tour the Company will visit Toronto, Minneapolis, Chicago, Boston, New York, Costa Mesa and Los Angeles. In Canada Eifman Ballet will present a new version of Red Giselle for the first time. This production (as well as the ballet Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA) will be performed in US cities as well. The North American tour will last until June 27, and the Company will complete the season thereafter.

We would like to mention that in summer 8 young talented dancers, graduates of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, the Vaganova Ballet Academy and the Rudra Bejart's school, joined the Company. Among the Company’s new artists are diploma winners and awardees of national and international ballet competitions.