Boris Eifman Theater: repertoire and reviews. Choreographer Boris Eifman: biography, creative activity Official Eifman Theater
Each ballet performance on the stage of the Eifman Theater is a weaving of different styles, a combination of classics and elements of modern dance, and a search for new musical and choreographic images.
Boris Eifman Ballet Theater: destroying stereotypes
In addition to the classics, the artists mastered the techniques of folk dance, jazz, and modern. This was the only way to realize the ideas of the choreographer’s non-standard productions. The maestro boldly combined academic choreography with pointeless ballet dance in his programs and used rock compositions. It was a progressive new vision of modern art that shattered stereotypes.
Throughout the forty years of its creative life, the Academic Ballet Theater under the direction of Boris Eifman has demonstrated an innovative approach to the selection of dramatic and musical material, and special choreographic thinking. And it draws full houses.
Saint Petersburg
The St. Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theater was created by Boris Eifman in 1977 (the original name of the troupe was the Leningrad “New Ballet”). The concept of the group was quite bold: it was created as an author's, director's theater, an experimental laboratory of one choreographer.
Already the first performances of the troupe - “Two Voices” and “Boomerang” - brought audience success to the theater and forced critics to talk about new trends in Russian ballet art. However, followers of the traditional school were in no hurry to recognize the authority of the young choreographer. Innovation in the choice of dramatic material and music, the boldness of plastic solutions for a long time secured Boris Eifman’s reputation as a “choreographic dissident.”
In the period of the late 1970s - early 1980s, the Eifman Theater developed its own approach to the formation of the repertoire. More and more ballets are appearing on the playbill, the dramatic basis of which is the work of world classical literature. The choreographer and his troupe, characterized by special plastic thinking, are mastering new genres. Performances are created that are distinguished by the sharpness of the choreographic design, which conveys the extreme intensity of the characters’ passions: “The Duel”, “The Idiot”, “Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro”, “Legend”, “Twelfth Night”, “The Master and Margarita”, “The Killers” and others.
Today, the Boris Eifman Ballet Theater is known to lovers of dance art in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia for its performances “I am Don Quixote,” “Red Giselle,” “Russian Hamlet,” “Anna Karenina,” “The Seagull,” and “Eugene Onegin.” "", "Roden", "Beyond Sin", "Requiem", "Up & Down", "Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA.” These works, which have won universal recognition, not only represent the achievements of modern Russian ballet at the highest artistic level, but also introduce the audience to the immortal spiritual heritage of domestic and world culture, inspiring the choreographer and his dancers.
The desire of Boris Eifman's troupe to involve its audience in the inexhaustible world of human passions, to establish living spiritual connections with the public, to stun them with the brightness and dynamism of the plastic language - all this determined the success that has accompanied the theater's performances on the world's leading stages for several decades.
Eifman is a choreographer and philosopher. He is concerned about the problems of modernity and the secrets of creativity. The artist openly talks to the viewer about the most complex and exciting aspects of human existence, defining the genre in which he works as “psychological ballet.” The New York Times calls Boris Eifman the leader among living choreographers: “The ballet world, in search of a chief choreographer, can stop searching. He has been found, and it is Boris Eifman.”
The theater troupe is distinguished by its impeccable performing skills, unique dedication and high stage intelligence. Today, Boris Eifman’s plans are being realized by wonderful artists - laureates of international competitions, prestigious theater awards “Golden Mask” and “Golden Sofit”, the Presidential Prize of the Russian Federation for young cultural figures and the Russian Government Prize in the field of culture: M. Abashova, L. Andreeva, S. Volobuev,
O. Gabyshev, A. Sitnikova, D. Fisher and others.
An important stage in the life of the theater began in 2011, when the Government of St. Petersburg decided to begin construction of the Boris Eifman Dance Academy, the creation of which was initiated by the choreographer. In September 2013, the Academy began its first academic year.
Also in the near future, the Boris Eifman Dance Palace should appear in St. Petersburg, which is intended to become one of the world centers of dance arts.
The creation of an original ballet repertoire in modern Russia based on the traditions of domestic psychological theater, the search and development of new forms of choreographic art of the 21st century are the main components of the creative mission of Boris Eifman and his troupe.
Boris Eifman is called a choreographer-philosopher, choreographer-psychoanalyst and “theater wizard.” Eifman considers the characters in his performances “his life’s companions.” He strives to discover the unknown in famous characters - and does this with the help of ballet art.
"My first performances"
Boris Eifman was born in 1946 in the family of engineer Yankel Eifman. He wrote his first choreographic number at the age of 13. The boy started a notebook called “My first performances.” On the first page it read: “I am starting these notes in order to help specialists in the future understand the origins of my creativity.”. In 1960, he entered the choreographic department of the Chisinau Music College. Soon Eifman was already running a choreographic studio in the Palace of Pioneers. He recalled: “At the age of sixteen I already began composing ballets, or rather scenes. But the scenes were dramatic. I remember I composed a small ballet on the theme of the film “Start in Life” with Zharov in the title role.”
After graduating from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1972, the choreographer worked for several years at the Leningrad Academic Choreographic School named after Agrippina Vaganova (today the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet). Eifman taught, staged student ballets and at the same time worked on performances for the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theater (today the Mariinsky Theater). The most popular ballets in those years were “Gayane” (1972) to the music of Aram Khachaturian and “Firebird” (1975) to the music of Igor Stravinsky. After the premiere in Leningrad, “The Firebird” was shown on tour in Moscow and Japan. Boris Eifman became a choreographer known throughout the world.
Body language is a very ancient, very wise and unique tool of self-expression, cognition and communication. Creating a new type of ballet performance is the goal of my creative conscious life.
Boris Eifman
New ballet
In 1977, Boris Eifman organized the “New Ballet” (today the St. Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theater of Boris Eifman) - the first author's theater of modern choreography in the Soviet Union.
Eifman's team was very small at first. The theater did not have its own stage, nor permanent premises for rehearsals and storage of props. However, the very first program was a huge success among the audience. Among his productions were “Only Love” (music by Rodion Shchedrin), “Perpetual Motion” (music by Aram Khachaturian), “Under the Cover of Night” (music by Bela Bartok).
In the USSR in those years, Western music was under an unspoken ban. And Boris Eifman was inspired by the work of Western musicians. He created the play “Temptation” to the music of Rick Wakeman, a member of the British rock group Yes; the ballet “Boomerang”, based on the work of John McLaughlin, a British guitarist who plays jazz fusion. After this production, the New York Times wrote about the choreographer. The publication was called “Boris Eifman - the man who dared.”
Boris Eifman. Photo: eifmanballet.ru
Boris Eifman recalled how the idea for the play “Two Voices” came about: “I heard music that provoked me to create choreography. I had nothing oppositional in my soul, only love for this music and the desire to stage a ballet on it.”. Soviet critics declared “Two Voices” dissident; they wrote about the author that he challenged the authorities. Eifman even seriously thought about emigrating from the USSR.
“I really felt like I was a foreigner, as if I had a temporary residence permit. There was a feeling that if not today, everything would be covered up tomorrow,” said Boris Eifman.
In 1987, Boris Eifman decided to stage “The Master and Margarita” based on the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov in his own interpretation. The choreographer created a ballet in which he showed the destructive influence of the totalitarian system on the individual. Then he thought that this production would be the last, and expected anything - indignation from critics, persecution in the press. But both critics and spectators accepted the production with delight, calling it the art of a renewed Russia.
The fate of the Master is the main theme of the ballet. Seeing his suffering, we cannot help but remember the many years of forced silence of Bulgakov himself (it is no coincidence that the Master first appears in the play with his mouth tightly gagged), and the fate of his works, some of which have not been republished for more than 60 years.
Arsene Degen, ballet critic
In the late 1980s, the Eifman Theater went on tour for the first time - to New York. Later these trips became annual. Today the theater is famous in the countries of North and South America, Europe and Asia. Eifman created more than 40 ballet productions of various genres. Among them are performances based on Russian classics, fairy tales, and rock ballets.
Tchaikovsky, Pushkin, Fitzgerald
Boris Eifman calls his performances “psychological ballet.” In 1993, the premiere of the ballet Tchaikovsky took place on the stage of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Theater. The composer in Boris Eifman's production is a man of internal contradictions; he is in constant search of himself. Reviews from viewers and critics after the premiere were contradictory: some felt that Boris Eifman showed the most complex spiritual world of a genius, others that he distorted the biography of the great composer.
Eifman created the most complex of his ballets. Firstly, complete unity of design has been achieved. The paintings follow each other without length; the story is clearly told about the constant struggle that the composer wages with himself.
Gerard Mannoni, ballet critic
In 2009, Boris Eifman’s play “Eugene Onegin. Online". The choreographer has previously turned to the works of Russian classics. He said that the performance completed a trilogy, the previous parts of which were “Anna Karenina” based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy and “The Seagull” based on Chekhov. “Encyclopedia of Russian Life” to the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Soviet rock composer Alexander Sitkovetsky is the author’s interpretation of Pushkin’s plot. The second act of the play takes place in modern Russia. Tatyana's husband, a general, becomes a modern oligarch. And Tatyana rejects Onegin’s advances, fearing the power of her influential husband.
This group was founded in 1977 and bore various names (“New Ballet”, “Leningrad Ballet Ensemble”, “Leningrad Theater of Modern Ballet”). Initially, his task was to attract the interest of young spectators to modern ballet. Perhaps that is why B. Eifman, a young choreographer who has barely passed his thirtieth birthday, was entrusted with leading the new team.
During the late 70s - early 80s in Eifman Theater develop your own approach to the formation of the repertoire. More and more ballets are appearing on the theater’s playbill, the dramatic basis of which is the work of world classical literature. Turning to classic plots, the choreographer masters new genres. He creates performances that are distinguished by the sharpness of the choreographic design, which conveys the extreme intensity of the passions of the characters - such as the ballets “Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro”, “Twelfth Night”, “Legend”, “Thérèse Raquin”, “The Idiot”, “The Duel”, "The Master and Margarita" and others.
Eifman the director managed to force the viewer not only to admire the beauty of the dance fabric of his performances, but to actively empathize with the action. In addition to creative searches, theater directed by Boris Eifman one of the first in Russia to develop his own model of organizing and planning theater business on the principles of public and private partnership.
Today, the Boris Eifman Ballet Theater is known to fans of dance art in North and South America, Europe, and Asia for its performances “Tchaikovsky,” “I Am Don Quixote,” “Red Giselle,” “Russian Hamlet,” “Anna Karenina,” “The Seagull,” “ Onegin." On November 22, 2011, the world premiere of the ballet “Roden” took place on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, dedicated to the fate and work of the great sculptors Auguste Rodin and his student, lover and muse Camille Claudel.
The author of more than forty performances, Boris Eifman defines the genre in which he works as “psychological ballet.” Using the language of dance, the artist openly speaks to the viewer about the most complex and exciting aspects of human existence: about the search for the meaning of life, about the collision of the spiritual and the carnal in the intimate world of a person, about the knowledge of truth.
An important stage in the life of the theater began in 2009, when the Government of St. Petersburg decided to begin construction of the Boris Eifman Dance Academy, the creation of which was initiated by the choreographer. Currently, the construction of the buildings of this unique educational institution of an innovative type is almost complete, and in September 2013 it will accept its first students. Also in the summer of 2009, the results of the competition for the best architectural project of the “Boris Eifman Dance Palace” on the Embankment of Europe were summed up.
According to Boris Eifman, the Dance Palace is intended to become not just a ballet theater, but an international center of dance art. Three ballet troupes representing three centuries of Russian choreographic art will creatively coexist within its walls.
Boris Eifman is a famous Soviet and Russian choreographer, People's Artist of Russia, a multifaceted director of classical and academic performances, as well as a true innovator in the art of ballet. The famous choreographer is even called the founder of modern Russian ballet.
Boris was born in the Altai Territory, in the village of Rubtsovsk, where the artist’s father, Yankel Eifman, was sent during the Great Patriotic War. As a talented professional engineer, Yankel Eifman participated in the construction of a plant for the production of tank engines. The knowledge of the mother of the future choreographer, Clara Kuris, a doctor by training, also came in handy there. Boris also has a brother, Leonid, who, having matured, immigrated to California.
When Bora was 5 years old, the family returned to their native Bessarabia, more precisely to the capital of Moldova, Chisinau. There the boy studied in high school, later began working, and at the same time graduated from high school in the evening department. As a teenager, Eifman became interested in dancing, which predetermined the further biography of the creative young man. Boris began to attend the ballet studio at the Palace of Pioneers, which was led by the honored teacher Rachel Bromberg.
Then the young man entered the first organized choreography department at the Chisinau Music College and, at the age of 17, received a teaching position in a children's studio. After working in Moldova, Eifman went to the Northern capital and entered the Leningrad State Conservatory in the choreographic department. Since then, the city on the Neva has become home to Boris Yankelevich.
Ballet
Boris Eifman became a certified choreographer in 1972, but two years before that the artist made his first professional productions on the stage of the Maly Opera and Ballet Theater in Leningrad. The debut productions were the classic performances “Towards Life”, “Gayane”, “Brilliant Divertissement” and others.
After graduating from the conservatory, the choreographer became a director at the Leningrad State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after Kirov, where he first staged the ballet “Russian Symphony”. At the same time, the young man taught at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet.
All-Union fame came to Boris Eifman after the artist undertook to stage the complex play “The Firebird” to the composer’s music and successfully realized his plan. With this ballet, the choreographer toured the Soviet Union and other countries. The performance created a sensation among the Japanese public.
But it is unlikely that Eifman would have become a cult figure if he had limited himself to the standard classical approach to ballet art. Boris Yankelevich has always remained an innovator at heart. The artist came up with the idea of making ballet films in the manner of film plays. But Eifman’s main achievement was the creation of his own theater, the New Ballet, in 1977.
For the USSR, author's theater was a completely unique phenomenon. Moreover, the choreographer did not limit himself to academic elements in his productions. His own stage opened the way for the artist to an even more experimental approach to creativity. For example, Eifman was the first to offer the public “pointeless ballet,” rock dance performances, and children’s performances to the accompaniment of modern music.
The People's Artist still runs this theater. True, since 1990, Eifman’s brainchild has had a different name - the St. Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theater under the direction of Boris Eifman.
Under the new name, the artist also continued to experiment with productions. For example, in 1998, Boris Eifman staged “My Jerusalem”, in which, along with ethno-compositions and religious music, he uses parts for techno music written by the famous bands Future Sound of London, Wahnfried and Reload in this field.
In 2015, the theater opened an official website, which contains information about the troupe and repertoire, photographs and theater news, as well as contact information.
Personal life
When Boris Eifman was young, the artist was credited with a huge number of affairs with famous women. There is nothing surprising in this: the artist led a bachelor’s lifestyle for a long time, while being an impressive, attractive and, moreover, successful person. The choreographer's most famous romantic relationship was with a beautiful actress.
But Boris Eifman married much later and to another woman. The choreographer's wife was ballerina Valentina Morozova. The artists worked together for a long time, and even today Valentina Nikolaevna provides her husband with invaluable help, only not as a dancer, but as a choreography teacher. Boris and Valentina were already in adulthood when they decided to become parents: in 1995, their son Alexander was born.
Boris Eifman now
On July 22, 2016, Russia celebrated an anniversary dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the famous Soviet and Russian choreographer, People's Artist Boris Eifman. Five days after his own anniversary, Boris Eifman received the state award of the Order of Honor with the wording “For great services in the development of national culture and art, many years of fruitful activity.”
The next year also turned out to be a festive year for the artist. In 2017, the artist’s brainchild, the Boris Eifman Ballet Theater, celebrated its 40th anniversary. Throughout the year, events were held in the theater to commemorate this event.
The troupe prepared a festive program and toured with this special concert. For two weeks, the artists of the Eifman Theater performed on the historical stage of the Bolshoi Theater and gave concerts in Russian cities, but the holiday tour was not limited to this. The troupe also gave concerts in North America and China.
There were so many planned concerts and events that the organizers continued to delight the audience with a special program in 2018. Boris Eifman scheduled the final performance-concert of the anniversary program “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” for February 13, 2018. As the end of the tour cycle, the local St. Petersburg was chosen as the location of the action, and the Alexandrinsky Theater provided the stage.
The theme of this performance was the connection of times, so roles in the concert went to actors of the troupe from different years - both current theater stars, and even students of the Dance Academy, where Eifman teaches.
Projects
- 1980 - “Duel”
- 1981 - “Conquest of the Elements”
- 1982 - “Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro”
- 1984 - “Twelfth Night, or Whatever”
- 1986 - “Intrigues of Love”
- 1987 - “The Master and Margarita”
- 1990 - “Human Passions”
- 1994 - “Don Quixote, or Fantasies of a Madman”
- 1997 - “Red Giselle”
- 1998 - “My Jerusalem”
- 1999 - “Russian Hamlet” (“Son of Catherine the Great”)
- 2001 - “Don Juan, or Passion according to Moliere”
- 2005 - “Anna Karenina”
- 2009 - “Onegin”
- 2013 - “Beyond Sin”
- 2017 - “Yesterday, today, tomorrow”
