Where does Nacho Duato work now? A curtain! The famous choreographer still leaves the Berlin State Ballet

With the premiere of Romeo and Juliet at the Mikhailovsky Theater, scheduled for December 13, the outstanding choreographer Nacho Duato will continue his movement towards classical dance. An Izvestia columnist learned about the changing preferences of the artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet.

- In an interview with Izvestia, you said that “The Sleeping Beauty” will become your exam in Russian ballet. How do you evaluate the results?

I meant that “Sleeping” would be used to judge whether I understood the classics - after all, in the past I only had to work in the field of modern dance. This is an important turning point, including for myself, but not an exam - because I don’t care what people say. In Spain, critics even give the performance stars, from one to five, which is very funny. Do you have it too?

- Not yet.

You create a large-scale two-hour ballet, and a critic gives you two stars. Hmmm.

- What are your classical plans for the future?

The premiere of Romeo and Juliet will take place very soon. In December 2013 we will stage The Nutcracker. I also want to rework La Bayadère by September. Yesterday I already met with the designer: I’m going to make new costumes and “clean up” the look of this ballet. The result will be a completely new “La Bayadère”.

And then we'll see. A theater is not a factory or a pizza delivery service, where you know that you have to deliver 50 kg every day. A lot depends on inspiration, the public, my colleagues, the general director. I don’t want to know what I should be doing in three years, because it’s not fair to stage ballets without inspiration. But the more I study the classics, the more I love them. I think there will be more and more of it in my life.

Best of the day

- Is your contract with Mikhailovsky exclusive? If the Bolshoi suddenly asks you to stage a play, will you have to refuse?

I can perform ballets anywhere. Mr. Kekhman is so open-minded that he not only allows me to work in other places, but also encourages me to do so. Because he understands: the more I stage in different theaters, the wider Mikhailovsky’s influence extends. It's funny that, under the terms of my Spanish contract, the management stole all my fees for productions in other theaters.

Mikhailovsky has exclusive rights to my ballets for 2-3 years, and then I can sell them anywhere. In January I will choreograph a 10-minute pas de trois for the Martha Graham Ballet Company in New York. Almost every week I receive invitations from different theaters, but I don’t want to stage big ballets there, because my troupe is here.

- Will you continue to appear on stage as a dancer?

No. The last time I did this was in the ballet “Multifaceted,” although I didn’t want to at all - my shoulder hurt. Vladimir Kekhman persuaded me, he said: “It would be great if the public saw you.” My part in “Multifacetedness” is the part of a choreographer, there are no pretensions to real dance. In general, I feel uncomfortable on stage.

- How has the Mikhailovsky ballet troupe changed during your reign?

It has changed incredibly. Why? Yes, because they have a choreographer who works next to them every day. Before this interview, I spent five hours in the hall, after which I will spend another two. I enjoy seeing how kids grow with my help. They became more open, began to move better, and work better in a team. I brought to the forefront some of the dancers from the corps de ballet, who, thanks to the new choreography, had a chance to shine.

- What are your plans for Ivan Vasiliev and Natalya Osipova?

Now they will be Romeo and Juliet in the ballet of the same name. We are good friends, we communicate a lot. If they are available, I will continue to stage for them. You understand that these are big stars and they have a lot of plans. For now, I'm going to stage a half-hour ballet for Ivan and Natalya. I can't reveal which one it is.

- Do they miss you at the National Ballet of Spain?

I am not interested. They broke up with me in a very ugly way. Now Spain interests me only as a place to spend holidays and spend time with my family.

- Many of your compatriots are now seriously suffering from the crisis.

Yes, just like the Greeks, Irish, Portuguese. It is impossible to fight in the same ring when you weigh 80 kg and your partner weighs 20. This is exactly what is happening in the European Union. The peoples I have listed live on the periphery of Europe. The periphery is always poorer than the center.

- Do you want Spain to leave the EU?

No, it's just a crisis! There have been tougher times in Europe. I think that a crisis is very good in a certain sense because it forces you to rethink things. We lived nouveau riche, spent money like crazy. We ruined our Mediterranean coast by building houses and selling them to the Germans and Swedes. Now everything falls into place.

But even now, in the midst of the crisis, living standards are much higher than in Franco's time. In Spain, in general, everything is not so scary: everyone goes to the beach, everyone has the opportunity to cook dinner, everyone has money for beer.

- This is clearly not enough for young people.

I told my nephews: maybe let's switch eras? I couldn't study because there was no ballet school in Valencia. I couldn’t freely say what I thought. I went to London where I got a job at McDonald's. To get from there to Valencia, I spent 34 hours on a bus.

Now the Spanish kids are studying in Miami and flying to Switzerland on vacation. It goes without saying that an 18-year-old boy should have a car, a computer, a cell phone, a car, cigarettes, Nike sneakers, Armani clothes. Despite the fact that the parents of many of these teenagers are unemployed! Invite the young man to work at McDonald's. “This is for Latin Americans or Africans,” he will answer. “Oh, we have no future!” - “Be your own future!”

- How important is nationality for you?

Not important at all. I hate nationalists, I hate flags. An artist should not be a nationalist, because he works not for his people, but for the entire universe. Especially in dance, where no tongue is needed.

Of course, for a “normal” person with a “normal” job living with a family, things are different. But for me, who has been traveling continuously since I was 16, home is where I am now. I am at home in St. Petersburg and truly happy. When I return to my country, I don’t feel at home because I don’t have a job there.

- Two years ago you said that you wanted to master the Russian language. Is there progress?

Very small. I can give instructions to dancers in Russian, I understand Russian speech. Sometimes I read a Russian language lesson on the Internet. I'll learn it little by little. I think that Russian is one of the most beautiful languages ​​in the world. I uploaded recordings of my favorite poets reading their poems - Akhmatova, Pasternak, Brodsky. I don’t understand the meaning (I look at the English translation), but I enjoy the sound. In addition, Russia and Italy are the main opera powers. Neither France, nor Germany, much less England and Spain, have produced so many great operas.

- By the way, what impression did the premiere of Andriy Zholdak’s “Eugene Onegin” at Mikhailovsky make on you?

I can’t judge because on the day of the premiere I was very tired and had to leave after the second act. I can only say: to stage an opera, you need not only to be a music lover, but also to know a lot about this opera.

- Where in St. Petersburg do you live?

Konnogvardeisky Boulevard, 13. I used to live on Mira Street, on the other side of the river. It was great to live a little further from the theater, to cross the river, which is beautiful in summer and winter, in rain and snow. But the place was gloomy, and the house was old. I decided to move to the center, and it changed my life, because now I am surrounded by St. Isaac's, the Hermitage, and New Holland.

- Do you visit the St. Petersburg metro?

I've taken the subway twice in my life. It was not in St. Petersburg and not in Madrid. In Spain I can't use the metro because people stop me and ask for my autograph.

- What can you, as a traveler, say about the Russians?

Compared to the southerners, they are more beautiful. Tall and elegant women. Of course, people are different, and those who come from the countryside are a little less elegant. Russians are quieter than Spaniards. The noisiness of the Spaniards is understandable: the weather is good, they are outside all day. But I always didn’t really like it - this openness, spontaneity, willingness to be friends with everyone. There is always something unaesthetic in the way an absolutely happy person looks. I like to maintain a distance in communication - with dancers, with random people I meet, with the receptionist. My receptionist in Spain knew all the ins and outs of my life. And here - only “good morning”, “good evening”. And that's great.

I'm for the classics
10.12.2012 01:39:51

And rightly so, we should also give stars as an assessment of performances. Otherwise they will perform all sorts of dregs and distort classical productions beyond recognition, like Mr. Chernyakov... But someone else is watching this! People go and pay money for it. I can not understand.

For modern dance I am considered too classical, for classics too modern Nacho Duato

The master of plotless short ballets, Nacho Duato, after three years of work in St. Petersburg, admits that he has again made friends with the classics, does not like being called a “modern” choreographer, and promises to stage a new “Nutcracker” at the Mikhailovsky Theater before moving to Berlin.

"I am a classicist when I do a classical ballet, such as The Sleeping Beauty, or a more modern choreographer when I stage one-act ballets. Although yes, it is true, I am closer to abstract ballets and a smaller format. You can stage Giselle fresh and in a different way." “new, or you can put something “modern”, but sand will fall out of it,” explains Duato.

Nacho Duato shows the “new face” of the St. Petersburg Mikhailovsky Theater in London. The London National Opera sees Duato for the last time as the head of the St. Petersburg ballet troupe: next year the maestro leaves the Mikhailovsky and moves to Berlin, where he will head the joint troupe of the state ballet Staatsballett.

For him, his arrival in London is also notable for the fact that it was in London that he began dancing - at the age of 18 at Rambert School.

“I had absolutely no money, I had to work part-time at McDonald’s, then as a waiter at the Food and Wine bar, and sleep in flophouses,” Nacho recalls. “A few years later I returned to London as a dancer at Cullberg Ballet and later came as the director of the Spanish Ballet Company "Life is an absolutely unpredictable thing."

“I am very proud to have come here with the Mikhailovsky Ballet. The London public knows and loves our dancers, guest dancers. Natalya Osipova, Ivan Vasiliev, Olesya Novikova, Leonid Sarafanov, Polina Semionova, Denis Matvienko - she waits for and loves them. But, It seems to me that right now, they saw not only individual dancers, but the whole theater as something whole. The whole theater is now a star."

First foreigner in 100 years

Two and a half years ago, the ballet world was shocked by the news of the appointment of a Spanish choreographer to the post of chief artistic director of one of the oldest theaters in St. Petersburg.

Duato, who danced in the troupe of Jiri Kylian in the Netherlands, whom Nacho still considers the best modern choreographer, had the task of modernizing and breathing new life into the St. Petersburg theater and bringing it out of the shadow of the world famous Mariinsky Theater.

Mikhailovsky opened the door leading to something new. And I think that's very good. We stirred up cultural life a little, if only by the fact that the theater was led by a foreigner for the first time in 103 years

The famous Spaniard was invited by Vladimir Kekhman, who headed the Mikhailovsky Theater in 2007 as general director. Kekhman was also a co-owner of the largest importer of bananas to Russia, the JFC group, which was recently declared bankrupt.

Having agreed to lead Mikhailovsky in January 2011, Duato did not expect quick changes and did not strive for them. As he admits now, he “didn’t have a goal to turn everything upside down. We need to move gradually.”

He did not fire the dancers or change anything radically.

“The first three years you sniff, look closely,” says Duato, admitting that one can judge changes in the theater only after a few years. “I saw changes in the Spanish theater after 10 years of work. When I came to Mikhailovsky, I told Kekhman: maybe With this theater, changes will be visible even earlier, in five or six years.”

“This is not a factory, you work with living people and their feelings, with the public.”

One way or another, Nacho Duato is the first foreign choreographer after the Frenchman Marius Petipa to direct a Russian ballet troupe.

“We showed them the new face of the Mikhailovsky Theater. Mikhailovsky opened the door leading to something new. And I think this is very good. We stirred up cultural life a little, if only by the fact that the theater was led by a foreigner for the first time in 103 years. And the public reacted to what we did was very good."

He came to the conclusion that such joint work was possible. You just need to want to change. And the public, according to him, is already ready.

“Ballet does not stand still, it develops and changes. One should not think that the public only wants to see ancient classics. No one keeps ballets that were a hundred years old.”

"The dancers are young, they want to try something new, different, different. They liked my movements, my work, approach, attitude towards the audience and they want to continue in this spirit. And if they don’t find it in this theater, they will try in others places."

Duato gave Mikhailovsky's dancers new movements and tried to teach them his choreographic language, and in return he again “made friends” with classical ballet.

“Before Mikhailovsky, I had never staged classical ballets. I took on The Sleeping Beauty because Kekhman asked me to do it. But I wanted to do it in my own way, in my choreographic language. I didn’t want to copy either Petipa or anyone different. And I really liked working on a classical ballet, speaking the classical dance language. Ballerinas dance on pointe shoes, this is a ballet where there is a plot. I follow the music."

Nacho Duato himself does not like to be called a “modern choreographer”. “You can’t say exactly when classic ends, neoclassical or modern begins. There are three stages, you are free to do what you want,” says the choreographer.

Choreographic NPO

Duato is sure that a new attitude towards modernity needs to be instilled from a young age. In Russia, young choreographers who want to work in this field do not yet receive proper support, he admits.

I was lucky to work with outstanding dancers of our time. I will never forget this feeling when I rehearsed with Svetlana Zakharova for the first time. It feels as if the Virgin Mary is in front of you. It's unforgettable

“Therefore, I consider it very important to work with children, young dancers. And I hope my cooperation with the Vaganova ballet school will continue. I teach in other ballet schools, Australia, Madrid, Paris, New Zealand, in many countries.”

He jokingly calls it his "non-profit organization, Choreographers Without Borders." “I rehearse with them, if I can go, I send my assistants and offer them my ballets for free.”

When Duato signed a contract with Mikhailovsky, he, by his own admission, thought it was for life. “But they offered me something new, and I agreed.”

“Now, after 20 years of work in Spain, three years in St. Petersburg, I’m ready for Berlin. I’m ready to be in the center of Europe and direct a ballet troupe there. I thought that at my age no one would offer me to direct a ballet troupe anymore. But only for "during my work at Mikhailovsky, I received five offers. And Berlin is calling me for the third time. I simply could not help but agree," says 56-year-old Duato, who is called one of the most sought-after choreographers.

In Berlin, Duato has an almost complete schedule of productions until 2016, at a rate of five premieres per year. “I already have dates, times and in which theater the ballet will be staged.”

There are still several months of work ahead in St. Petersburg, where the choreographer is planning new premieres in April and May. Duato plans to complete his work at the theater with a new production of “The Nutcracker,” and in the future he promises to come from time to time as a choreographer.

Russia is gradually opening up

A loner and an introvert, Duato says he will remember the huge city with empty streets. “I like to spend time alone, I’m not a very sociable person. In St. Petersburg I was even more lonely. But it’s useful.”

"I was lucky to work with outstanding dancers of our time. I will never forget the feeling when I rehearsed with Svetlana Zakharova for the first time. It feels as if the Virgin Mary is in front of you (and I’m not a Catholic). It’s unforgettable. The same feeling arises when you work with Natalya Osipova, Leonid Sarafanov - some of the best dancers of our time."

Of course, Duato says, he understands that “a theater that wants to stage classical works needs big names - no one can watch long ballets if you don’t have beautiful soloists and principal dancers.”

"Russian dancers are more closed, they treat you a little more distantly. It's similar to the country itself. Russia is still a closed country, it needs to open up a little. Slowly, but it's gradually happening."

The recent scandal with the attack on Bolshoi artistic director Sergei Filin should not scare away foreign choreographers, Duato is sure. This is an isolated incident that does not in any way reflect what is happening in the ballet world, he says.

"We know about the worst things that happen in politics, in business, where people simply disappear. This incident [at the Bolshoi Theater] is not part of the world of ballet. The ballet world is completely different from the one shown in the stupid movie "Black Swan", which "I don't even want to watch. The Bolshoi is a very beautiful and wonderful theater. And the one who committed this act is simply crazy, and he belongs in a madhouse."

Last week, the artistic director of the Berlin State Ballet, Nacho Duato, submitted an early resignation to the city's ruling mayor. One of the world's best choreographers is leaving his post as director of Germany's largest classical dance company, which he has led since 2014. For several years now, the conflict in the capital's ballet has given newspapermen reasons to add sensational articles to their list, depriving artists of the opportunity to work normally.

Chronicle of events and characters

2004 - a single dance group is created from the ballet troupes of three opera houses in Berlin, and its head is appointed Vladimir Malakhov, dancer and director of the State Opera Ballet. Despite all the difficulties associated with the unification, the Berlin State Ballet, under the leadership of Malakhov, becomes one of the leading European classical ballet companies.

2014 - the Berlin Ministry of Culture refuses to renew the contract with Malakhov and appoints a Spanish choreographer and theater artist as director of the troupe Nacho Duato(Nacho Duato), who was working at the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg at that time. Nacho Duato is a representative of the school of modern classics, who has worked for a long time in the best ensemble on the planet in this direction - the Netherlands Dance Theater (NDT). Apparently, the management decided that it was not suitable for avant-garde Berlin to have a purely classical ballet ensemble, and tried to “modernize” the style of the theater with the help of Duato. The Spanish choreographer was invited to work at the Berlin State Ballet more than once. In the end he agreed.

2015 - It’s not easy for Duato to get used to a new team that is not very friendly towards him. But soon he manages to captivate the dancers with his concept. He performs with them three of his old ballets, which he brought from other theaters. The composition of the State Ballet's audience is also beginning to change. Adherents of traditional classics are leaving the halls, and a younger and more informal viewer is coming in to replace them. At the initial stage, the number of visitors decreases. For this, the press furiously attacks the choreographer, strangely choosing the statistics of visits to the most successful years of the theater and comparing them with the number of visits in the first months of the new choreographer’s work.

Nacho Duato at rehearsal. Photo: Fernando Marcos

Fourth Estate

The official press does not make allowances for the fact that the start of Duato’s work coincided with a wave of strikes by theater artists for increased fees. The artists boycotted the performances. Duato took the side of his charges in the dispute over raising rates. The authorities and the press also considered this fact to be a mistake by the theater director.

Nacho Duato's work is subject to widespread and unfounded criticism. Some newspaper excerpts from those days:

“It’s as if he doesn’t exist: neither mentally nor physically. He has no vision, no idea. As soon as he started working at the State Ballet, the question was already heard from all sides: “How much longer can Berlin tolerate him?”

(Welt, 09.09.2015)

“The face of a violinist playing Bach - if he didn’t want to fool around for a laugh - would turn purple with anger if he saw that bows can be used for fencing. And Duato, you won’t believe it, actually came up with this crazy idea!”

(Der Freitag, 03/15/2015)

“His musical approach remains unclear. The choreography, although it fits exactly to the beat, does not carry any power.”

(Tagesspiegel, 02/14/2015)

Ballet “Diversity. Forms of silence and emptiness"(Vielfältigkeit. Formen von Stille und Leere) directed by Nacho Duato. Photo: Fernando Marcos

Let's compare this assessment of Nacho Duato's musicality with the opinion of other experts:

“For me, Nacho is a magician. He plays the score with the bodies of the dancers. You can hear the music with your eyes.”

Wei Wang, dancer of the Berlin State Ballet · video

“Duato doesn’t just set the movement to music, but he hears how the note sounds, and puts his body just as sonorously to that note. And the body begins to sound.”

Andrey Kuligin, director of the Mikhailovsky Theater ballet troupe
(in an interview for TC “Culture”, 2011) · video

The German press did not miss the opportunity to mock Duato’s work in Russia:

“Humbly submitting to fate, Duato accepts the offer of one Russian “banana” oligarch to head the ballet troupe of the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg. In 2011, he made his debut there with Sleeping Beauty. He, an insomniac stranger, films himself on his mobile phone at night, at rehearsals, like Yves Saint Laurent, flashing a stern gaze from under his glasses, standing next to the rosy-cheeked oligarch.”

(Tagesspiegel, 02/14/2015)

The Welt newspaper, publishing his photograph in an article about Duato, does not simply sign his name under it, but formulates it as follows: “This is what he looks like, Berlin director of the State Ballet Nacho Duato.”

Nacho Duato. Photo: Costas

Duato is criticized for what others are praised for. Such, for example, as the future director of the State Ballet of Berlin. Her name is already known, she is a popular German choreographer Sasha Waltz(Sasha Waltz).

Duato is accused of being too “modern” and innovative; bold experiments are expected from Sasha Waltz. Duato is condemned for the fact that he did not devote himself entirely to work in Berlin, but remained in St. Petersburg as a guest choreographer. Sasha Waltz is credited with the fact that, when she heads the State Ballet, she will continue to simultaneously direct her own dance troupe, Sasha Waltz & Guests.

Such criticism of Nacho Duato's work has little in common with professional journalism. It's more like bullying.

A Sound of Thunder

2016 - in September the head of the city Michael Müller(Michael Müller) reported in the press that in 2019 two people will be appointed to the post of director of the Berlin State Ballet: the aforementioned Sasha Waltz and the current director of the ballet company of the Royal Opera in Stockholm Johannes Eman(Johannes Ohman). Three years before the expiration of the contract of the current director of the troupe, the powers that be decided to express their “fi” to him and inform him of their confidence: no matter what he does in the next three years, they are already convinced that they will no longer need his work.

Sasha Waltz. Photo: Sebastian Bolesch

Democracy and perestroika

The decision was made without any negotiations with the artists and management of the ballet troupe. The dancers protested against the decision of the ruling burgomaster and initiated an online petition “Save the Berlin State Ballet!” (which we are already talking about). The fact is that they consider Waltz and Eman to be persons who do not meet the requirements for the head of a theater of this magnitude.

Johannes Eman is a kind of “dark horse”, a little-known theater figure and dancer who has not proven himself to be anything special at the international level, Sasha Waltz is an interesting choreographer, but, pedagogically speaking, she is an excellent school director. And to head the State Ballet of Berlin means to lead a university.

During the reign of the previous burgomaster, Klaus Wowereit(Klaus Wowereit), she and her troupe were not treated kindly by the authorities. Several years ago, city officials even refused her additional funding, which threatened the very existence of her theater.

Ballet "Sleeping Beauty" (Dornröschen) staged by Nacho Duato. Photo: Yan Revazov

For the Berlin Ballet, the candidacy of Sasha Waltz was proposed three years ago, to replace Vladimir Malakhov. Wowereit rejected this offer in favor of Duato. Under the new leadership of the city, Sasha Waltz, it seems, will be able to achieve the desired goal and lead the main ballet company of the country.

The team is still opposed to her also because she is a representative of the so-called “Dance Theater” (Tanztheater), who did not go through classical school. “Dance theatre” is intended, by definition, to reject the traditions of classical ballet. To reject what the State Ballet of Berlin is a symbol of, what its strength and potential are. Classical ballet and “Dance Theater” are two different directions, with different principles, different training of dancers, different experiences.

But whatever the Berlin State Ballet's perspective, the artists would like to be informed about the nature of the impending changes. Unfortunately, neither Sasha Waltz nor the city authorities respond to the protests, requests and appeals of the artists with a single line.

The Berlin government has already implemented a similar policy in the drama theater. This year, ignoring the unanimous protests of the team, they appointed a new artistic director.

But the creative process is impossible within the framework of arbitrariness on the part of officials! The first victim who could not withstand the violence was the choreographer Nacho Duato, the other, and main, may be the entire team of the Berlin ballet, and with it the city of Berlin.

Fragment from the ballet “The Sleeping Beauty” (Dornröschen) staged by Nacho Duato

Farewell tour of the artist

A month ago, the farewell performance of the Berlin Ballet soloist Michael Banzhaf, who danced there for 19 years, took place. At the evening, among others, the head of the cultural department of the city administration congratulated and honored the artist awkwardly and with some (understandable, however) awkwardness in his voice Torsten Wehlert(Torsten Wöhlert). For example, he managed to say the following:

“You, Michael, as a child wanted to become an athlete. Athletics and ballet - they have something in common. But thank you for deciding to devote yourself to ballet.”

It is not surprising that a person who does not see much difference between ballet and athletics does not notice it between classical ballet and Dance Theatre. The only question is: does such a person have the right to lead culture in Berlin?

Michael Banzhaf himself spoke beautifully, sincerely and heartfeltly. At the conclusion of his farewell speech he said:

“Dear audience, I have one request for you. When dancers want to take the floor and express their opinions (and they don’t do this very often), please listen to them!”

The audience understood what he meant, and Mr. Wehlert understood it too. And, I would like to hope that at that moment he wanted to collapse on the spot out of shame and embarrassment. But he did not fail, and bravely applauded the evening in honor of the honored artist along with the dancers standing next to him on stage.

One-act ballet Castrati from the production DUATO | KYLIÁN | NAHARIN. Photo: Yan Revazo

Choreographer Nacho Duato, leaving the Berlin stage a year later, with all his ambiguity inherent in any creative personality, could leave a noticeable mark on the culture of Berlin, show the German audience something different, which he had never seen, which he was not used to. But due to intrigue and lack of communication between the authorities and the theater, it became impossible to work and create with soul in the created atmosphere.

The last performances staged by Duato are still being performed at the Berlin State Ballet. In April 2017, the premiere of his new ballet “Earth” (Erde), created especially for this dance ensemble and for the Berlin public, is due to take place. The play is dedicated to the problems of the finite resources of our planet and the thoughtless, profit-oriented attitude of man towards them. So Berliners and guests of the German capital still have a short opportunity to get acquainted with the work of Nacho Duato with their own eyes.

Berlin State Ballet dancer Alexander Abdukarimov in the ballet “Earth” (Erde). Photo: Yan Revazov

The Mikhailovsky Theater hosted the loudest ballet premiere of the season, long promised and long awaited. “The Sleeping Beauty,” our national treasure, our classic “everything,” appeared in a new production, and staged by a choreographer of a different, non-classical formation. Namely Nacho Duato, with whom all the hopes of the Mikhailovsky Theater are now connected. But, unfortunately, hopes for an extraordinary, unparalleled performance, as it seemed from interviews and annotations, were not justified: everything that was a priori stated was not realized.

The main interest was that Nacho promised to make a completely new, completely original version without any regard to the original source or any modifications of it (there are many of them). Knowing Nacho as a master of modern plotless ballet and ornamental dance compositions, one could assume that he would stage something that did not in the least resemble the well-known example. (The mocker Mats Ek, for example, turned the same “Sleeping” into a shocking story about a beauty addicted to a needle). At the same time, Duato warned that he was not abandoning the old libretto with all its characters, clear plot, unfolding action and even divertissement. So we could only guess how he would manage to apply his dance language to this libretto and what chemical reaction this combination of different types of artistic thinking would produce.

The deviations from the canon are indeed striking, but they are not of such a nature as to constitute a radically new work. Only the “vocabulary” has been changed, although the language has remained the same, and, most importantly, the classical structure has been used. And although there are plenty of newly invented movements that Duato promised, they are all inscribed within the same boundaries of Petipa’s masterpiece and into the ancient framework of “ballet in tutus.” And, I must say, they stick out from him in all directions, because they don’t fit him. And not according to measure. All these unusual silhouettes, breaks in the design, interspersed in the dance, do not look like novelty, but rather aimless distortions of the text. And those places where the original shines through look the best. So the result was not a new ballet, but simply another version of the old one, moreover, more than controversial: with unclear choreography, ineptly constructed dramaturgy, empty staging and surprises like the inclusion of gentlemen in the initially female ensemble of fairies.

It is obvious that the classics for Duato are still a foreign language, in which, although he can already express himself (“the immersion method” worked), he does not feel the subtleties. It even seems that it seems to him to be a single undivided layer, otherwise how could it happen that he has mixed up the plastic codes of all the 19th century ballets in a row: the motifs of “Swan Lake” are fused into the Nereid scene, and a variation of Myrta (the leader of the Willis in “Giselle”), and Desiree (Petipa’s exquisite French prince, who solemnly serves as a kiss to awaken the beauty), Duato copies either the reflective Siegfried (“Swan Lake”), or Albert, who, tormented, goes to the grave of the girl he destroyed (“ Giselle"). Admittedly, there is no new depth in this, there is only eclecticism - and almost parodic.

To be fair, I will say that such an unconvincing whole is interspersed with some convincing nuances. For example, the image of the fairy Carabosse, traditionally given to a male performer, but solved in an original way: performed by Rishat Yulbarisov, this is not an old woman, but some kind of fantastic woman, beautiful and huge, silently flying across the stage, leaving behind a flowing black tail - a giant silk blanket. Or such a moment as the strengthening of a number of dramatic motives that are potentially present in the original, but usually not manifested. On the periphery of Duato's performance, several dramas are played out: for example, the real grief of the Queen Mother at the imaginary death of the princess, or the suffering of a lady, one of the prince's close associates: the scenes of this character, in the original only slightly separated from the corps de ballet, turn here into a story of unrequited love. Lively moments are scattered throughout the performance. However, they do not make the weather.

The ballet was not helped either by the design of Angelina Atlagich (light scenery with motifs of bisque china and elegant costumes), nor by the corps de ballet, which worked an order of magnitude better than in the performances of the current classical repertoire, nor by the excellent artists Irina Perren and Leonid Sarafanov, who danced the premiere. (Let’s keep silent about the orchestra conducted by Valery Ovsyannikov, which didn’t even thunder - it thundered, negating all the magic of the score). Other cast members include Svetlana Zakharova and Natalya Osipova with Ivan Vasiliev, but it is difficult to say whether they will give the performance a different dimension.

What happened?

Nacho Duato, who joined the academic ballet theater a year ago, continues to build his relationship with the classics, and builds them as the plot of his own creative life. Why not? The same conflict underlay his previous works - the controversial Nunc Dimittis and the undoubtedly successful Prelude. Only there it was resolved differently - inside a plotless ballet, at the level of a collision of two artistic systems; in the first case it was a look at “Russian” from the outside, in the second it was an experience of interaction. Now - an attempt to go inside. Nacho simply took a different path, deciding that he had already mastered a foreign language and now he could at least write poetry in it. Did not work out. He will probably continue to search for other, new angles on the aesthetic problem that worries him.

The only difficulty is that the theater in which he now works is a repertory theater, that is, any performance here is staged seriously and for a long time (not like in the Western box office, where, after being performed so many times in a row, the performance leaves the stage painlessly, giving way to new ones). And this premiere has the status of not only another work by Nacho Duato, but also the status of “The Sleeping Beauty” of the Mikhailovsky Theater.

You leave the performance and think: is this argument with Petipa, obviously doomed, even necessary? To be honest, after it I really want to re-watch Vikharev’s “Sleeping”, a subtle reconstruction of the ancient original, in which the choreographer, starting from the “letter”, comes to recreate the “spirit”. But for Nacho Duato, this debate is obviously part of an individual creative process, so we can only wait to see what happens next. The interest continues unabated.

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