Dance Open XVII season:
meanings and tales Automatic translate

Next spring, Russia’s largest international ballet festival, Dance Open, will present a mix of world masterpieces and premieres from the legendary choreographers of our time. The performances of the XVII season of the festival, the most intriguing, as the audience has already dubbed it, will be held in St. Petersburg on the Main Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater from April 2 to 17.

The poster contains the best productions of Mayo, Wildon, Dawson, van Manen, Ratmansky, Pastor, Verbruggen, Ekman, Klug and Inger. It is impossible to compare, weigh, measure, and most importantly - to repeat. Walk your wife and sleep off on the ballet will not succeed. Square packs, scorpion tails, ski ballerinas, dancing outside the law of gravity and other unexpected moves by choreographers will not let you relax in your chairs. The Dance Open is also preparing a special gift for ballet fans for the 200th anniversary of the great Marius Petipa.

The season will open on April 2 with the performance of the golden fund of the world choreographic repertoire “Vain Precaution” performed by the Yekaterinburg Ballet. The story of a poorly watched daughter wanders over world scenes for more than two centuries: when the premiere of "Vain Precautions" was being prepared in Bordeaux, they were planning to storm the Bastille in Paris. The Petersburg version of the ballet was born in 1885, thanks to the creative genius of Petipa. Restored and modernized by Sergei Vikharev in collaboration with production designer Alona Pikalova, the vaudeville comedy about happy lovers is ideal for everyone, without exception. Connoisseurs will truly enjoy the depth and concentration of the choreographic text: the names entered into the fantastic chain of reconstructions, restorations and stylizations of this ballet speak for themselves. Neophytes will plunge into the mood of the holiday, which will give a colorful, piquant, sparkling, flavored with French humor staging. Ballet is not only a virtuoso technique, but also the art of emotions… The most ardent and embossed are guaranteed to you: after all, the sets and costumes are created in a creative manner and Vincent Van Gogh’s unique artistic style.

Despite the start of the performance at 20.00, we recommend it for family viewing.

On April 6 and 7, the Monte Carlo Ballet will show Cinderella by Jean-Christophe Mayo. This absolute choreographic masterpiece excites the hearts of ballet fans all over the world for almost twenty years, but comes to Petersburg for the first time. Let’s say right away: the ballet is far from a history familiar from childhood: there will be no crystal shoes, the pumpkin will not turn into a carriage, and the storyline of Cinderella and the prince will be, if not secondary, then naturally devoid of miracles. The main fairy here is mom. Even beyond being, her love remains the driving force and seal of selectness in every fate.

The choreography, images and scenery of the old fairy tale underwent the intellectual and stylistic upgrade of Jean-Christophe Mayo in alliance with costume designer Jerome Kaplan and stage designer Ernest Pignon-Ernest. Cinderella’s “gilded” cordiality, stepmother’s “tailed” cunning and sisters ’“ bandaged ”envy - a dramatic rethinking of fairy-tale characters will touch even the most sophisticated theater-goers; and the scenery in the dispute of imagery and simplicity will surprise with aesthetics and conciseness of receptions.

On the podium of human passions they dance on pointe shoes and barefoot. Everything is here - as in life, but much more complicated than in a fairy tale: good and evil are intertwined, motives for actions are blurred, sympathies are fleeting, reality is virtual, like projections of luxurious palace interiors on a white sheet, and only morality is tormented and surprisingly universal. It is not only for those who are lucky with the prince, but for everyone without exception: the love of parents for their children is stronger than death and, while the memory is still alive, nothing can break the connection of loved ones and shake the value of family ties.

"Soul of Flamenco" will burst onto the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater on April 8. Passion and pride, depravity and purity, longing and ecstasy - a chance to experience incoherent emotions attracts and fascinates generations of dancers and fans of this truly fiery art. The dance, akin to a real battle between a bullfighter and an angry bull, will be presented by the Spanish master and flamenco patriarch Jose Antonio. The choreographer, who at one time turned the national ballet of Spain into one of the most amazing dance events in the world, like no one knows much about burning performances.

Pure antidepressant "Made in Amsterdam" will present the National Ballet of the Netherlands - a virtuoso and for decades not leaving the world tops.

Behind the typical made in markings is a unique program specially created for the Dance Open: five choreographic shots from cult generation choreographers. The refined dance plastic in the Concertia Concert by Christopher Wildon will disarm the most capricious aesthetes. The Pas de deux from the play “Tristan + Isolde” by David Dawson will turn the most inveterate cynics into adepts of ballet magic and seekers of eternal love. “Memories of an expensive place” by Alexei Ratmansky will provide work with that part of the soul that is responsible for the formation of the most persistent attachments. The highest level of freedom from any real and imaginary obstacles will demonstrate the "Moving Spaces" of Krzysztof Pastor. But the main intrigue will remain unsolved: the world premiere of the new work of Hans van Manen will be held in March in Amsterdam. There is no doubt, it will be a hypnotic elixir of the highest standard. Use - in one gulp. And no simulators of happiness are needed. All performances will be shown in one evening on April 10th.

On April 13, the Nutcracker of the Bolshoi Theater of Geneva will delight and confuse even the most devoted fans of Hoffmann and Petipa. The author’s ballet star Yeron Verbruggen retells in his own way a brilliant extravaganza: mixes genres, exfoliates texts, exposes the plot psychology to the maximum and gets a fairy tale blockbuster for adults. Eccentric and insane, mystical and tender, intricate and simple. And maybe not a fairy tale, but an allowance for growing up for children of great age, seasoned with fogs of Tim Burton’s cinema worlds

Extravagant Parisian designers took part in the production, who helped to assemble the main images of The Nutcracker: a tender and impetuous Marie in a shell of a nutshell; a person without skin - her defenseless and vulnerable love; treacherous werewolves-rats and other incredible characters of these waking dreams.

On April 15, dancers of the Slovenian National Theater of Maribor will continue to play the sense bead. Fans of fashionable and provocatively bold choreographers will enjoy three completely different, deeply intelligent, but equally insane stories. Edward Klug’s surrealistic fantasy is a frank quest in the most marginal areas of the neural network: well, where else but in Hill Harper’s Dream will you see skis worn over pointe shoes? Or maybe you are closer to air flaning along a sheer wall? Then you - on the "Walk with the Madman" from Johan Inger. More extreme may be a dance on a treadmill, a new version of “Right, Left, Right, Left” from Alexander Ekman. Risk it? Choose which is closer: subtle game, daring trolling or self-irony and saving hooliganism.

And yet, as always, the most anticipated choreographic walk of the season will be the Gala of the Stars of the Dance Open. The program of the final evening, which will be held on April 17, will traditionally include both fragments of recognized masterpieces and the latest experiments performed by leading soloists of world ballet. In the XVII season, the presentation of the international ballet award Dance Open Award will take place again. The crystal replica of the sculpture, made 105 years ago from a cast of the feet of the great ballerina Anna Pavlova, not only managed to be in different parts of the world, but also became a recognizable and coveted symbol of the highest class of performing art in choreographic art.

Festival Off-Program

Dance Open is an event not only for experienced dancers, but also for neophytes. The festival annually presents an international program of master classes for students of ballet schools. Outstanding teachers of St. Petersburg share their skills: dozens of young men and women from all over the world come to learn from the experience. Among them are future ballet stars. Teachers already see the best on the stage of the brilliant Hermitage Theater. They see, but are in no hurry to reveal the secret.

For the first time together with the Lev Lurie Culture Center on April 9, 11 and 12, at one of the fashionable and democratic St. Petersburg venues, Dance Open will conduct a lecture course “Focus on Ballet” with the participation of leading ballet critics of Russia. Going beyond the standard lecture format, speakers will present the most pressing topics, illustrate them with rare video frames, complement them interactively and season with fresh examples from ballet life. Becoming a student of the lecture course of the Dance Open off-program, you will understand how and why Matilda and Nuriev were among the main scandals of the culture of recent years; You will learn how Agrippina Vaganova came up with her methodology and what it is; they will tell you about the relationship between the largest theaters in Moscow and St. Petersburg and much more.

Connoisseurs of episodes, snatched from time, frozen on the desktop of memory and transferred to the spaces of museums and galleries, are waiting for an exhibition of the works of one of the most striking photographers of our time, the Dutch master of photography Erwin Olaf. The opening will take place on April 4 at the Museum of Contemporary Art ERARTA. The exhibition runs until May 21.

Follow the information on the website and in the groups of the festival and do not miss in April.

Additional information on the XVII season of Dance Open is available on the website. danceopen.com