Nacho Duato that he staged at the Mikhailovsky Theater. Choreographer Nacho Duato: biography and ballet activities

Nacho Duato presented his tenth work at the Mikhailovsky Theater - the original version of P. I. Tchaikovsky’s ballet “The Nutcracker”. Formally, with this winter performance the famous Spanish choreographer said goodbye to St. Petersburg. For three years he served as artistic director of the ballet of the second most important musical theater in the city on the Neva.

Duato left with pleasure, feeling that Russia was very fed up with his choreography, and he himself already understood everything about the anti-homosexual government policy that was unacceptable to him.

Home, home - to “free” Europe.

Plus, he was offered a new promising job at the Berlin Ballet, supervised by Vladimir Malakhov for ten years.

Our fellow immigrant (45 years old) will have to look for a new place for himself starting in September 2014. It’s funny that it was Malakhov’s suggestion that Duato’s productions penetrated piece by piece into the Berlin Ballet, and he himself is considered one of the best interpreters of the choreographer’s ideas since the days of his guest contracts at the American Ballet Theater, but the force of fate separated these people.

The wind of change blew - it turned out that the Berlin authorities were “tired” of classics and neoclassics,

which Malakhov had been promoting for 10 years, probably at the same time they were tired of the Slavic surname on the list of the most popular and influential people in Berlin, and, in general, the capital’s managers were tired of ballet (last spring it became known that even the queen herself was being driven out of Berlin contemporary dance Sasha Waltz, taking away the venues she opened, and she urgently retrains as an opera director in order to stay and live and work in the main city of Germany).

In St. Petersburg, Duato was not completely free - traditions weighed heavily on him,

presented by classically trained dancers, their strict teachers, the chief choreographer of the Mikhailovsky Theater Mikhail Messerer, who monitors the accuracy of the fifth positions of these dancers every minute of his stay in the theater, and so on.

However, the choreographer had full powers, and he became truly interested in the affairs of the company under his care: he brought here his best old works for excellent dancers like Leonid Sarafanov and Irina Perren, staged new performances, and tried his hand at ballets by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev.

He succeeded in the first and second, but on the third he broke down.

Even if eight Duato ballets are in the repertoire of one theater, this is nonsense, an unheard of thing. In all theaters in the world with a competent repertoire policy, short performances by Duato are performed on the same evening with ballets by other modern choreographers, mainly demonstrating a different style and plasticity, but not at the Mikhailovsky, where Duato is combined with Duato.

As a result, the theater has on its playbill two (!) full-blooded evenings of Duato’s ballets, two of his big performances - “Romeo and Juliet” and “Multifaceted”, as well as one of his original editions of the heritage ballet - “The Sleeping Beauty”, which he joined in December the second is “The Nutcracker” (the New Year’s block of performances runs until mid-January 2014), the subject of this review.

Let's leave Mikhailovsky's repertoire specifics alone - there are 7 ballets by one choreographer, similar to each other like Siamese kittens - let them go, that's the theater's karma.

But three ballets “to the music” of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev are unbearable.

“Sleeping” of 2011 is the most unsuccessful creation of the choreographer on Russian soil. A boring, non-theatrical spectacle where the audience yawns, even when their favorites are dancing.

He “transferred” Romeo and Juliet from the past, so it turned out not so catastrophically inappropriate. A

"The Nutcracker" is a new unsuccessful work, but partly saved by Jerome Kaplan's stylish design.

When it comes to equipping his favorites with the best, Vladimir Kekhman, the theater director, does not skimp. Since Duato had a difficult period with the composition of dances as such, and the feeling of dissolution in Russian music, which remained deeply alien to him, was not born in him, he finds a wonderful remedy for him - an artist who will take everything upon himself. And so it happened.

Kaplan designed L. Desyatnikov’s “Lost Illusions” staged by A. Ratmansky at the Bolshoi Theater - exactly these days the iconic performance is touring at the Paris Opera. For “Illusions” Kaplan painted a nostalgic bookish Paris, for “The Nutcracker” - utopian Petersburg, the literary capital of European Art Nouveau.

This time Duato did not even try to compose new classical dances,

as was the case with him in the case of “Sleeper”. He took from his predecessors - L. Ivanov, V. Vainonen, Yu. Grigorovich, J. Balanchine, M. Bejart, J. Neumayer and many other choreographers who worked and continue to work in the classical manner and are or were the most important interpreters in history Tchaikovsky's mysterious ballet score - the best ideas, in his opinion, and made his own cuts.

Duato's performance turned out to be quite childish in form

He introduces the announcer's voice, anticipating the main events that will happen to Masha, elements of a real puppet theater, all sorts of special effects with the metamorphosis of a nutcracker doll into a person and a Christmas tree growing at cartoonish speeds.

On the other hand, the completely unchildish content of Hoffmann’s story also found its place in the performance - Duato came up with beautiful echoes of his senior colleague I. Kilian’s ballet “Insomnia”, which is shown at MAMT. The boundaries between sleep and reality are presented as very fluid; there are also psychoanalytic characteristics of a person dreaming in a dream.

In general, the director succeeded in everything that concerns the search for new modern forms of performance.

We can say that “The Nutcracker” was born in the edition of Nacho Duato, but it did not show any interesting dances.

The waltz of snowflakes turned out to be funny and moderately alarming - as it is written by Tchaikovsky, but only due to the scenography, lighting and costumes. Snowflakes wrapped in soft transparent plastic looked more like icicles, and in this composition the choreographer managed to convey the feeling of unsettledness of a small but proud St. Petersburg man. It turned out to be a very literary association—really Gogolian.

The dances of the dolls - Columbine, Pierrot and the Moor, almost the heroes of Fokine's "Petrushka" - were composed by faceless people, but the complaint, naturally, is not to the artists, but to the choreographer. The battle scenes with the Mouse King (N. Korypaev) and his army are a kind of projection of the impending First World War.

The rats are German sappers, the Nutcracker army is the White Guards.

It is assumed that the Stahlbaum family celebrates Christmas either on the eve of the war, or closer to the revolution (the very height of the Silver Age). And if the directors had the second thing in mind - revolution, that is, then the rats are, well, it’s clear who...

For the second act, Duato composed “his own” dances of the peoples of the world and did not succeed in this activity.

The Spaniards could have become stylish, given the director's nationality, but he only joked about the theme of sultry Latin American dances with an admixture of recognizable steps from Gorsky's Don Quixote. So, Chinese could easily be called Korean or Italian, judging by the movements, but “you can’t remove the words from the song (Tchaikovsky’s score),” and the dance sagged. It’s a similar story with the French (shoutout to the artists - S. Yapparova and M. Labrador) and the Oriental (the brilliant work of I. Perrin) - expressive steps of the soloists and no meaning or content in them.

Drosselmeyer is portrayed as an extravagant young bachelor scientist,

slightly hitting on his beautiful niece (outstanding work by M. Shemiunov).

Both casts of the main characters - O. Bondareva with L. Sarafanov, and N. Tsiskaridze's student A. Vorontsova, who transferred to Mikhailovsky from the Bolshoi, with the main young talent of the theater V. Lebedev - danced flawlessly. The first couple came up with a more daring story of the relationship between Masha and the Prince, more sensual, the second - childishly angular and touching, but, most importantly, absolutely pure in terms of observing the norms of classical dance.

Duato has already left, but promises to return to transfer his ballet about a drug addict called “White Darkness” to Mikhailovsky - already as a guest choreographer. There are other plans for the future, but the theater director is silent about this for now. Perhaps these will be interesting co-productions with the Berlin Ballet.

Photo by S. Levshin

Famous Spanish dancer and choreographer, theater artist. Artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Theater ballet troupe (2011 - 2014), subsequently its permanent guest choreographer.

Nacho Duato / Nacho Duato. Biography

Juan Ignacio Duato Barcia, or Nacho Duato, (Juan Ignacio Duato Barcia, Nacho Duato) was born on January 8, 1957 in Valencia, Spain, into a large family. Since childhood, he loved music and dancing. Meanwhile, the boy's parents, being conservatives, did not approve of his aspirations for ballet art. Father Juana, who held an important government post at that time, wanted a career for his son as a doctor, politician or lawyer.

However Nacho followed the call of his soul, going to a famous London school to study ballet. Later, he honed his skills in Brussels with the direct participation of the famous French choreographer Maurice Bejart. Then in America he practiced at the New York Ballet Dance Theater Alvina Ailey.

Nacho Duato / Nacho Duato. Creative path

In 1980 in Stockholm Duato signed his first professional contract - with the Kullberg Ballet troupe. In 1981, choreographer Jiri Kylian invited him to the famous Dutch Dance Theater (NDT).

At the Amsterdam City Theater Schauburg in 1987 Nacho won his first award as a dancer: the “Golden Dance Prize”. And soon his natural talent took the artist beyond the scope of performing arts - he began to work as a choreographer.

The first choreographic experience turned out to be a triumph. It was the ballet Jardí Tancat ("The Walled Garden") to the music of the composer Maria del Mar Bonet, brought Duato great success and won gold at the International Choreographic Workshops in Cologne.

In 1988, the Spaniard, along with Jiri Kylian and Hans van Manen, became the permanent choreographer of the Netherlands Dance Theater.

1995: title of Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters. 1998: The Spanish government awarded Nacho Duato a gold medal for his services to the arts. April 2000: in Stuttgart, the artist received the international ballet prize Benois de la Danse as the best choreographer of the year for his production of the ballet “Multifaceted. Forms of silence and emptiness." 2003: Winner of the Spanish National Dance Award. 2010: award from the Union of Art Critics of Chile; The ballet Na Floresta (In the Forest) was nominated for the Golden Mask Award.

In 1990, the leadership of the Institute of Performing Arts and Music of the Spanish Ministry of Culture proposed Nacho to head the National Dance Theater (Compañía Nacional de Danza). He left this post in July 2010. Then he announced that from January 1, 2011 he would become the head of the ballet troupe of the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg.

In 2011 – 2014, when Duato served as artistic director of the Mikhailovsky troupe, the theater’s repertoire was replenished with one-act ballets Nacho Nunc Dimittis, “In the Forest”, “Without Words”, “Duende”, “Prelude”, “White Darkness”, “The Invisible” and multi-act productions of “Sleeping Beauty”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “The Nutcracker”.

As part of the famous teleconference held in the summer of 2011, Nacho Duato repeated several times that he was not going to make radical changes and respected Mikhailovsky’s classical repertoire and traditions. And the theater’s then general director, Vladimir Kekhman, noted that he was confident in the Spaniard’s knowledge and experience, which would help “expand the horizons of Russian ballet and bring something new and interesting to it.”

Since 2014, Nacho Duato has been the director of the Berlin Ballet troupe and a permanent guest choreographer at the Mikhailovsky Theater.

From January 1, 2011, one of the leading choreographers of our time, Nacho Duato, will head the ballet troupe of the Mikhailovsky Theater - Duato himself and Mikhailovsky General Director Vladimir Kekhman announced this at a press conference held a few hours ago in Moscow.

The rumors that have plagued the ballet community for the past few months have turned out to be true. With the appearance of Duato, the Mikhailovsky Theater automatically enters the major ballet league, and Vladimir Kekhman literally creates a cultural revolution in Russia.

In order to understand the scale and significance of what happened, let's look at the facts. 53-year-old Nacho Duato, a student of Maurice Bejart and one of the main choreographers of our time, occupies a place in the pantheon of titans next to Jiri Kylian, William Forsythe and Mats Ek. His performances are performed in the repertoire of key companies in the world - the Netherlands Ballet Theater (NDT), the Paris Opera Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre. Until recently, the very possibility of getting “something from Duato” into the repertoire of domestic theaters seemed like a pipe dream. Duato's miniature "Na Floresta", which was added to the playbill of the capital's Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater a year ago, became the highlight of the Moscow ballet season and brought the company enriched by it to ballet headliners. And now that same Duato becomes the artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet.

Let us remind you that this post has remained vacant since the fall of last year, when Farukh Ruzimatov left it, currently de jure continuing cooperation with the theater as an adviser to the general director. In fact, the leadership of the troupe since October 2009 has been carried out by the chief choreographer of the theater, Mikhail Messerer (as Vladimir Kekhman emphasized, he will continue to retain the second most important post in the hierarchy of the Mikhailovsky Ballet) - an excellent teacher and a keen connoisseur of ballet rarities, but, alas, not a charismatic leader , capable of igniting the troupe with creative fire. The hypothetical list of candidates for the post of artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet included both John Neumeier and Yuri Grigorovich - it is difficult to understand which of them was really “in sight” of Vladimir Kekhman, and whose names were generated by the collective unconscious around the ballet. Among others, the most fantastic options appeared: from the current artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet Yuri Burlaki allegedly leaving Moscow to the ex-head of the Mariinsky troupe and current artistic director of the Milan Alla Scala ballet Mahar Vaziev allegedly returning to St. Petersburg. But Kekhman made a decision that no one expected.

Although, upon closer examination, the appearance of Duato in Mikhailovsky does not look so incredible. On the contrary: this step seems natural and almost ideal. It is no secret that domestic choreography has been in a deep crisis in recent decades - today there is simply no artist in the country who could lead the capital's groups. It is no coincidence that the ballet troupes of the country's two main theaters - the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky - eke out an orphan existence: the Mariinsky - after the departure of the team of Mahar Vaziev and Pavel Gershenzon, the Bolshoi - after the flight of Alexei Ratmansky (having worked for several years in Moscow, he chose not to solve the administrative problems of the Bolshoi, but to engage in free creativity in the U.S. Willy-nilly, Vladimir Kekhman had to look for an artistic director of the ballet outside of Russia.

But even in the world of truly outstanding choreographers, one or two have been missed. And those that exist are often unable to create within the structure of a repertory theater - most of the grandees of modern ballet prefer to work with their own groups rather than be responsible for the artistic policy of the entire theater. Nacho Duato has a lot of experience in this field: in 1990, already a star on the world stage, having worked with all the leading companies in the world and holding the post of choreographer of the cult Kilian NDT (the main European ballet outpost), he headed the Spanish National Dance Theater. And in a few years he managed to turn this provincial troupe into one of the most sought-after and highly paid ballet troupes in the world. Vladimir Kekhman, having shown an instinct for the art market, undoubtedly took this experience of Duato into account when deciding to collaborate with him - not only a visionary genius, but also a brilliant teacher and organizer.

A reasonable question is - what prompted one of the most sought-after choreographers in the world to head an ambitious, but still fairly little known theater company in the world? The most predictable answer suggests itself - Kekhman offered Duato an exorbitant fee. Which in itself is quite probable. But at the same time, the Mikhailovsky Theater was helped by the specific circumstances of Duato’s career. This year he is leaving the National Theater of Spain - the resignation, as the choreographer himself hints, is caused by disagreements on both creative and financial issues with the Spanish Ministry of Culture. At the Mikhailovsky Theater, Duato will have absolute carte blanche, which would be quite difficult to provide in famous Western theaters with an artistic program developed decades in advance. It’s one thing to integrate into an already existing structure, but quite another to create it from scratch and tailor it to suit yourself.

Scene from the play "Multifacetedness. Forms of Silence and Emptiness" by Nacho Duato, National Dance Theater (Madrid, Spain)

Duato is quite capable of this task. But there are also enough problems. The main one is the state of the ballet troupe of the Mikhailovsky Theater, which is far from the ideals of professionalism. St. Petersburg dancers in absentia seem to be weakly effective in solving the tasks that Duato’s most difficult choreographic texts present to them. Another problem is that Mikhailovsky's management has no intention of abandoning its classical repertoire. And how Duato’s radical choreography and “Swan Lake” will coexist is a big question. One thing is obvious: Vladimir Kekhman made the most precise personnel move, leading the Mikhailovsky troupe along the path of reformatting from classical to non-classical. It is clear that in the territory of the classics it is difficult for Mikhailovsky to compete with both the Mariinsky Theater and the Bolshoi. But in the field of modern choreography, it will be much easier to compete with your closest colleagues. In addition, competition may arise not with the Mariinsky Theater, judging by the posters of recent years, which has finally made a choice in favor of reviving the old repertoire, but with the rapidly updating Bolshoi Theater, which has announced premieres of Preljocaj, Forsythe, McGregor and Kilian for the coming years.

Duato has time - the contract with Mikhailovsky was concluded for five years with the right to further extension. Duato has a personnel resource - as was announced at the press conference, in addition to the choreographer himself, a whole staff of his tutors and foreign soloists will move to St. Petersburg, who will join Mikhailovsky’s troupe. Duato's arrival in St. Petersburg promises to lead to a radical improvement in the citywide ballet climate. Thus, it is planned to add a modern ballet course to the curriculum of the Vaganova Academy, which will be taught by Duato’s assistants. In parallel, injections of serious doses of modern choreography will be carried out - Sergey Danilyan, the official agent of Nacho Duato and one of Vladimir Kekhman’s regular partners, will organize the annual large-scale festival of modern choreography on the stage of the Mikhailovsky. Thus, work on the Europeanization of St. Petersburg ballet will be carried out by the Mikhailovsky Theater on all fronts.

Vladimir Kekhman has long said that in his activities he is guided primarily by the experience of the Imperial Theaters. That is, for the golden age of Russian ballet. The last time a foreign choreographer headed a Russian troupe was just over a hundred years ago - this Varangian was Marius Petipa. Nacho Duato can be considered his direct heir. Time will tell how Duato’s work at Mikhailovsky will turn out. But Vladimir Kekhman has already brought his name into the history of Russian theater today.

Sofya Dymova,
"Fontanka.ru"

Appointment of a Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Theater ballet in 2011 became a significant and much discussed event for the entire Russian theater community. This was the first time in modern history that a foreign specialist took such a high position in one of the country's main theaters. Although, let’s be objective: the Mikhailovsky Theater at that time was in some oblivion, and Nacho Duato was called upon to correct this situation.

AiF.ru tried to remember the expectations that were associated with the arrival of the Spanish choreographer, his ideas that should have been embodied within the walls of the Mikhailovsky Theater, and check what worked and what didn’t.

Chose the Mikhailovsky Theater

Two years ago, the news that Nacho Duato was leaving the National Theater of Spain was perceived as a unique opportunity by several major theaters. Why did Nacho Duato choose Mikhailovsky then? Apparently, it was this Russian theater with a rich history and classical diligence that could give the choreographer both new experience and space for development. At a multimedia conference, which took place immediately after the announcement of Nacho Duato’s assumption of the position of artistic director of Mikhailovsky, he stated that he was going to preserve the classical component of the theater’s repertoire policy. And so it happened, in any case, nothing beyond the bounds of theatrical decency happened during this time.

Lured Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev from the Bolshoi Theater

This, of course, is not exactly an achievement, but it is a clear precedent. The prima ballerina and premier of the Bolshoi Theater left the Moscow stage angry. Yes, it was a scandal. Natalia Osipova And Ivan Vasiliev The main reasons cited were “fatigue from intrigue” and “lack of creative freedom,” to which the Bolshoi “accustomed” them. Nacho Duato welcomed the fugitives with open arms and staged duets especially for them in the new production of Romeo and Juliet.

Staged the classics: “Romeo and Juliet” and “Sleeping Beauty”

Nacho Duato has certainly worked with music before Prokofiev, and with the Shakespearean plot itself. But for the Mikhailovsky Theater he decided to create a new work: absolutely danceable and, as expected, not departing from the traditional interpretation of the great classic.

Same story with . A completely new version of the famous ballet also turned out to be a bright project - certainly not a recreation of something that already existed.

I brought something of my own...

Let's return to the famous TV conference of the summer of 2011. Then Nacho Duato repeated several times that he was not going to make radical changes and respected the classical repertoire and traditions. But Mikhailovsky’s general director said then: “I am confident that Nacho Duato’s knowledge and experience will be able to expand the horizons of Russian ballet and bring something new and interesting to it.”

Nacho Duato contributed. For example, he staged his ballet “Multifacetedness” at Mikhailovsky. Forms of silence and emptiness,” composed by him back in 1999. This premiere became a new element in the carefully constructed atmosphere of the Mikhailovsky Theater, but was not perceived by the troupe itself as something alien.

Won at the Golden Mask

True, the Mikhailovsky Theater had nothing to do with this victory. Victory in the category “Best Performance in Ballet”, staged by a choreographer at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre. But this year the above-mentioned ballet “Multifaceted. Forms of Silence and Emptiness”, directed by Nacho Duato, is presented in the same category and has every chance of winning.

Of course, Nacho Duato has done a lot for the Mikhailovsky Theater, and will continue to collaborate with it as a choreographer. Until the end of his tenure as artistic director, the Spanish choreographer will take part in staging a one-act ballet to music Andrzej Panufnik under the working title "Promenade", the ballet "Na Floresta" and will present another version of the classic work "The Nutcracker".

We managed to get behind the scenes of the Mikhailovsky Theater to watch the preparations for the premiere of The Nutcracker, which will take place tomorrow

A festive premiere is being prepared at Mikhailovsky. Choreographer Nacho Duato, leaving his post as director of the theater's ballet troupe, says goodbye to St. Petersburg with "The Nutcracker." There are almost no tickets left for the ballet— sophisticated audiences are eager to see how the recognized master of modernism, Duato, handled the classic production.

The Angleterre and Astoria hotels help the city on the Neva and its guests to experience art in maximum comfort. The first has a separate box in Mikhailovsky, where Astoria guests can also get in. For those for whom a box is not enough, there is an opportunity to take a private tour behind the scenes of the theater. In fairness, it is worth noting that this is not the first classic experience of the famous Spaniard. He has already staged The Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet at Mikhailovsky (however, the ballet to Prokofiev’s music became, in Duato’s own words, an “extended version” of the performance that he created in Spain more than 15 years ago).

But if the public was initially somewhat wary of “The Sleeping Beauty” (such memories were shared with Buro 24/7 by the Mikhailovsky Theater premier Leonid Sarafanov), then they seem to be more favorable towards “The Nutcracker” in advance. A few days before the release of the play, an amazing atmosphere reigns in the theater. This is often a busy period for everyone, from the artistic director to the assemblers, but at Mikhailovsky now everything is different - it’s as if they are preparing not for an important premiere of the season, but for a family celebration.

There is no fuss, just the anticipation of a big holiday. Behind the scenes they say that this is largely due to Duato - even before the premiere he tries to remain completely calm. During rehearsals, the artistic director, who controls the process on stage from the auditorium, quietly makes reserved comments to the artists, politely and even with some tenderness in his voice, calling each by name. However, the choreographer’s excitement can still be sensed: for example, by the passion with which he tries to convey to conductor Pavel Bubelnikov his thoughts about this or that piece of music. Or by the way he quietly sings along with the orchestra; how he can’t help himself, gets up from behind the director’s console and begins to dance, as if repeating his part along with the soloist; how passionately he whispers with the artist Jerome Kaplan...

Kaplan listens carefully to all the comments, nods and, if necessary, goes backstage and then onto the stage to check the serviceability of the huge umbrella for the “Chinese Dance” or the impressive size of the delicious airy cupcake, part of the scenery for the “Rose Waltz”. “For me, The Nutcracker is not even a fairy tale, but a little girl’s dream. The space of the play is divided into two large parts - reality (which we encounter at the very beginning - in the house of Masha’s parents) and the dream of the main character,” says the artist.

The Nutcracker Prince Leonid Sarafanov himself feels like only part of a girl’s fantasy: “I am only part of a dream. And everything comes to an end, all fantasies, everything good, bad... And the holiday also ends. People sometimes cry when a birthday passes. "The Nutcracker" is the same way - everything ends abruptly at the very peak. I remember, as a child, I dreamed that I received the desired toy as a gift. Then I woke up, and it was gone! This is what our performance is about. About dreams." The basis for the “realistic” part of the ballet was Art Nouveau, popular in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Monsieur Kaplan remarks: "In my opinion, this style fits perfectly with Tchaikovsky's music." And Mashenka’s Christmas fantasy is embodied using the “papier decoupé” technique - objects made of paper (both the wonderful pink cupcake and the oriental kite resemble huge paper toys).

Kaplan worked on The Nutcracker for about ten months, while also working on other projects. And a few days before the premiere, he personally, together with Nacho Duato, brings the performance to perfection: “Nacho is absolutely crazy, but I like it. In his opinion, everything should be perfect.” Of course, even during the interview, the choreographer gave some mysterious instructions to Kaplan and repeated: “Have you forgotten? Haven’t you forgotten?” “He’s talking about the buttons for the Harlequin costume,” Kaplan explained.

In general, Duato, as they say in the theater, tries to control everything. The artistic director even personally checked the combat readiness of the huge snake - it appears on stage in the second act. In order to set the structure in motion, there must be a person inside - and it was Nacho Duato who was the first to try it.

After The Nutcracker, the choreographer will go to Berlin, where he will lead the joint troupe of the state ballet Staatsballett. Mikhailovsky soloists Leonid Sarafanov and Oksana Bondareva, who perform the roles of the Prince and Masha in the production, tell us what role the former director of the theater’s ballet department played in their professional lives.

Sarafanov, who before joining the Mikhailovsky was the Mariinsky's premier for eight years, admits: “Nacho changed my attitude towards the profession - now I look at the whole ballet a little differently. He taught me to ask questions, including to myself. I don’t know who he is for I am more of a teacher, a teacher or a choreographer. He liberated me, stirred me up. Previously, my body was sharpened only for classical dance, but now it is ready for any choreography. Sometimes they say: “Oh, if you dance “Swan Lake”, you will dance everything else! "It's not true! Classical ballet enslaves the body so that you can then only play the part of the Nutcracker before turning into the Prince and dance...".

For Oksana Duato— almost Drosselmeyer, the godfather of her heroine in The Nutcracker. “He’s a magician. Here he sits and sits, and then something happens, he lights up and seems to turn into a magician. And everything starts to move, almost fabulously. That’s why Nacho can create performances in such a short period.” People in the theater say about 26-year-old Oksana that she is a true workaholic. Constantly rehearsing. During any break, take a look at the stage, and she will almost certainly be there, repeating the adagio pattern, with headphones and a sweatshirt over her stage costume. But all the work, according to her, is not in vain: “Sometimes we go out to bow, and I feel a warm wave from the audience. Everything you give during the performance comes back.” You can feel all the fabulousness and lightness of the new ballet promised by the creators very soon - on December 12, 13, 15, 18, 20, 21, 25, 29 and 30, “The Nutcracker” will appear before the audience in all its glory and scale.