The ballet universe of Boris Eifman. Boris Eifman Ballet Theater: plans for the new season Eifman Contemporary Ballet

Creates his own troupe, the Leningrad New Ballet, today known to theatergoers around the world as the St. Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theater under the direction of Boris Eifman. The concept of the "New Ballet" was innovative and bold for its time - it was initially created as an author's, director's theater, an experimental laboratory of one choreographer.

Already the first performances of the new 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 the choreographer’s reputation as a “choreographic dissident.”

During the period of the late 70s - early 80s, the Eifman Theater developed its 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 characters’ passions - 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, the theater, under the leadership of Boris Eifman, was one of the first in Russia to develop its own model of organizing and planning theatrical business on the principles of public and private partnership.

A troupe of dancers with a special plastic mindset, brilliantly mastering classical dance and the art of dramatic transformation, captivates Western audiences. “There is now no doubt that choreographer Boris Eifman is an amazing theater wizard,” writes respected theater critic Clive Barnes in the New York Post. “Perhaps the only thing that can still be doubted is whether he is the last leading choreographer of the 20th century or the first choreographer of the 21st century.”

One of the leading US ballet critics, Anna Kiselgof, calls Boris Eifman the leader among living choreographers: “The ballet world, which is in search of a chief choreographer, can stop searching. He has been found, and it is Boris Eifman."

Today, the Boris Eifman Ballet Theater is known to lovers 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.

“All my creative life I have been expanding the boundaries of the possibilities of ballet theater and, first of all, searching for body language that can express the life of the spirit. For me, dance is not a physical process, but a spiritual one. Body language is an older, deeper way of communication. It records the reflexes of the sensory life of many generations of people. Our goal is to decipher these signs and translate them into an emotionally rich work of ballet art,” says Boris Eifman.

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. Today, the enrichment of the ballet repertoire of modern Russia and the implementation of these two strategic projects are the main guidelines in the long-term plans of the choreographer and his theater.

Source: official website of the Boris Eifman Ballet Theater

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.

Indeed, in the first three years, the troupe’s repertoire was dominated by compositions on youth themes, performed to the so-called “modern music”. Thus, in “The Interrupted Song” - a performance dedicated to the memory of the Chilean poet Victor Jara - a rock band played on stage, in “Temptation” the symphonic jazz music of R. Wakeman was used, in “Two Voices” - a recording of Pink Floyd, in “Boomerang” " - the group "Mahavishna". However, even during this period of the formation of the group, its repertoire included works that clearly went beyond the “youth” framework, ballets that were significant in concept and interpretation (“Under the Cover of Night,” the same “Two Voices” and “Boomerang”).

The landmark performance for the troupe was the ballet “The Idiot” staged by B. Eifman in 1980 (based on the novel by F. Dostoevsky to the music of P. Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony). The artistic courage of the choreographer turned out to be justified: questions of life and death, the discord between dreams and reality, man’s passionate desire for happiness and his fatal collision with real life - all this is characteristic of both the problems of Dostoevsky’s novel and Tchaikovsky’s brilliant work. Since that time, in the seemingly motley kaleidoscope of works by B. Eifman (since 1978 - the only choreographer of the troupe), an interest in eternal themes and plots, problems of good and evil, love and hate, slavery and freedom is clearly revealed. However, the choreographer also stages comedy ballets, even slapstick ones (“Crazy Day” based on the comedy by P. Beaumarchais or “Twelfth Night” based on the play by W. Shakespeare).

During the formation of the group, famous Leningrad artists A. Osipenko and D. Markovsky worked in it. Their inspired, expressive skill not only embellished the performances, but also served as a kind of tuning fork for young artists. From them grew their own masters - V. Galdikas, V. Morozova, V. Mikhailovsky - and interesting soloists - N. Golubtsova, I. Emelyanova, O. Kalmykova, T. Korochkova, R. Kupriev, V. Mukhamedov, S. Fokin. The Modern Ballet Theater, like Choreographic Miniatures, is a touring troupe. His work was greeted with interest and understanding by audiences in Moscow and Novosibirsk, Kyiv and Tbilisi, Gdansk and Budapest, Bucharest and Helsinki.

A. Degen, I. Stupnikov, 1988

If we very briefly try to describe the state of ballet at the end of the 20th and 21st centuries, then we must say that today there is academic ballet, folk dance and everything else that should be called modern ballet. And here, in modern ballet, there is such diversity that you can get lost.

To find yourself, you can talk about ballet from different countries, remember modern performers, but perhaps the best approach is to start talking about choreographers, those people in the world of ballet who actually always create it.

And those who realize their own choreographic ideas will be especially interesting. Such a choreographer is St. Petersburg resident Boris Eifman, 69 years old, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, laureate of several Russian awards, holder of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland of various degrees, director of the Ballet Theater (St. Petersburg). And this is where we can end Eifman’s biography, because what he did and is doing is much more interesting.

About personal motives

There is a well-known expression that architecture is frozen music, but then ballet is the sounds of music in volume, movement and plasticity. Or else – soaring architecture, or dancing painting. In general, this means that it’s easy to get carried away and fall in love with ballet, but it’s unlikely to fall out of love later.

And it’s good when you can write about a phenomenon, in this case ballet, from the perspective of an amateur. Because, in order to be considered an expert, you will need to use professional language, terms (lifts, pas de deux, pas de trois, etc.), justify your assessments, show your ballet outlook, etc.

It’s a different matter for an amateur who can show a fresh look at a phenomenon, and if there is insufficient substantiation, remark: well, okay, I’ll learn some more. And what is important is to talk about personal impressions, but the main thing is not to be funny.

What does Eifman have that others don’t?

Even when he called his Theater simply a ballet ensemble directed by B. Eifman (late 70s), his productions still stood out. The young choreographer chose exclusively first-class music for his performances: high classics, and modern music that was artistically attractive and convincing. By genre - symphonic, opera, instrumental, chamber, by name - Mozart, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Bach, Schnittke, Petrov, Pink Floyd, McLaughlin - and that’s not all.

Eifman’s ballets are deeply meaningful, very often for his productions the choreographer takes plots from classical literature, among the names are Kuprin, Beaumarchais, Shakespeare, Bulgakov, Moliere, Dostoevsky, or these could be creative and biographical events, say, associated with the sculptor Rodin, ballerina Olga Spesivtseva , composer Tchaikovsky.

Eifman loves contrasts; in one performance he can feature music from different composers, eras and styles (Tchaikovsky-Bizet-Schnittke, Rachmaninov-Wagner-Mussorgsky). Or a well-known literary plot can be interpreted by other music (“The Marriage of Figaro” - Rossini, “Hamlet” - Brahms, “The Duel” - Gavrilin).

About Eifman's stylistic beginnings

An interesting feature of Eifman’s biography is that he was never a dancer, did not perform on stage, he began his creative activity immediately as a choreographer (his first performances at the age of 16 in a children’s choreographic ensemble), and then he worked at the Choreographic School. A. Vaganova (Leningrad). This means that Eifman has an academic base; another thing is that in his Ballet Theater he began to look for something else.

It is impossible to talk about the plasticity and choreography of Eifman’s ballets in isolation from the music and stage content of the performances. This is a kind of unity of spirit, sound, gesture, movement and event.

Therefore, it is useless to look for some familiar ballet steps; all the time there remains the feeling that any ballet movement in Eifman is the one and only.

If we say that this is a plastic interpretation of music, then it will be offensive to Eifman and his dancers, but if we say that this is a “translation” of movement and plasticity into music, then this will perhaps be more accurate. And even more precisely: the maestro’s ballets are a kind of trinity of music, dance and theatrical performance.

What doesn't Eifman have yet?

In St. Petersburg, the Ballet Theater does not yet have its own premises, although a rehearsal base has already appeared. Performances are performed on the stages of the best St. Petersburg theaters, you just need to keep an eye on the posters.

The Eifman Ballet Theater does not have its own symphony orchestra; performances are performed with a soundtrack, but this is an artistic principle: a high-quality recording performed by the best orchestras or the sound of specially created arrangements. Although once in Moscow one of the performances was scored by a symphony orchestra conducted by Yu. Bashmet.

Eifman does not yet have universal world recognition (like, say, Petipa, Fokine, Balanchine), but he already has world fame. Authoritative critic New York Times wrote that the ballet world can stop searching for the number one choreographer because it already exists: Boris Eifman.

Eifman’s dancers also do not have world recognition, but they can do everything in the ballet genre, you can easily verify this when you attend a ballet theater performance. Here are the names of the theater's 5 leading dancers: Vera Arbuzova, Elena Kuzmina, Yuri Ananyan, Albert Galichanin and Igor Markov.

Eifman has no complacency, no desire to end his career as a choreographer, which means there will be more new performances and new artistic shocks.

In the meantime, you have to try to get to the performances of the Ballet Theater in St. Petersburg, try to search the Internet for films based on B. Eifman’s ballets, and finally look at the theater’s website. And even from fragments of performances it becomes clear that Boris Eifman is a real phenomenon in the world of modern, no, not ballet, but art, where music, literature, drama through plasticity and gesture speak of high spiritual principles.

Website of the Boris Eifman Ballet Theater – http://www.eifmanballet.ru/ru/schedule/

Choreographer, screenwriter, director, dancer.
Honored Artist of the RSFSR (07/18/1988).
People's Artist of Russia (12/11/1996).

Born into the family of engineer Yankel Borisovich Eifman and doctor Klara Markovna Kuris, who was mobilized before the war to the Altai Territory from Bessarabia for the construction of a tank factory.
In 1951 he returned to Chisinau. In 1964 he graduated from the choreographic department of the Chisinau Music College. From 1962 to 1966 he directed the children's choreographic studio at the Palace of Pioneers. In 1972 he graduated from the choreographer's department of the Leningrad State Conservatory. Rimsky-Korsakov.

He performed his first productions in 1970 (ballets “Towards Life” to the music of D. B. Kabalevsky and “Icarus” to the music of A. Chernov and V. Arzumanov), then followed by “Brilliant Divertissement” (1971) to the music of M. I. Glinka , “Fantasy” (1972) to the music of Antony Arensky, “Gayane” to the music of A. I. Khachaturian (1972, graduation work), - on the stage of the Maly Opera and Ballet Theater in Leningrad.

From 1971 to 1977 he was a choreographer at the Leningrad Choreographic School. Vaganova, and the ballets he staged were performed on the stage of the Opera and Ballet Theater. Kirov: “Russian Symphony” (1973) to music by V. Kalinnikov, “Meetings” (1975) to music by R. K. Shchedrin, “Firebird” (1975) to music by I. F. Stravinsky, “Interrupted Song” ( 1976) to the music of I. Kalnins, “... Beautiful impulses of the soul” (1977) to the music of R. Shchedrin. Eifman gained wide fame after the successful production of the play “The Firebird,” which was also shown on tour in Moscow and Japan. During these same years, Eifman became the author of the film-ballets “Variations on a Rococo Theme”, “Icarus”, “Three Works”, “Bloody Sun” and “Brilliant Divertissement”.

In 1977, at the Lenconcert, he created his own theater, which was first called “New Ballet”, and was later renamed the St. Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theater under the direction of Boris Eifman.
Already in the late 1970s, with this troupe he staged the performances “Only Love” to the music of Rodion Shchedrin, “Temptation” based on the compositions of the group Yes (mainly Rick Wakeman), “Under cover of night” to the music of Bela Bartok, “Interrupted Song "to the music of I. Kalnins, "Two Voices" based on the early compositions of Pink Floyd (mainly by Syd Barrett), "Firebird" (1978) to the music of I. Stravinsky and "Perpetual Motion" (1979) to the music of A. Khachaturyan. Staging ballet programs with a combination of academic and pointeless choreography and using musical compositions of modern progressive rock in those years was also perceived as an obvious innovation.

Artistic director - director of the St. Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theater, professor.

theatrical works

“The Duel” (1980) based on the story by A.I. Kuprin to music by A. Khachaturian
“Conquest of the Elements” (1981) to the music of D.D. Shostakovich, “Autographs” (1981): “Games” to the music of Antonio Vivaldi, “Pro and Contra or Counterpoint” to the music of A.G. Schnittke, “Requiem for a Ballerina” to the music of Beethoven
"Cognition" (1981) with music by Tomaso Albinoni
“Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro” (1982) to the music of Gioachino Rossini, arranged by T. Kogan
“Legend” (1982) to music by T. Kogan
"Composition" (1982) with music by Anton Webern
"The Artist" (1983) to music by Franz Schubert
“Metamorphoses” (1983): “Aria” to the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos, “A Walk or Rendezvous” to the music of O. Nicolai, “Thérèse Raquin” based on the novel by Emile Zola, “Preface to Hamlet” to the music of J. Brahms
"Caprice" (1983) to music by Hector Berlioz
"Twelfth Night, or Whatever" (1984) to the music of Gaetano Donizetti
“Duel” (1986) based on the story by A.I. Kuprin to music by V. Gavrilin
“Intrigues of Love” (1986) to the music of Gioachino Rossini, arranged by T. Kogan
“The Master and Margarita” (1987) to music by A. Petrov
"Pinocchio" (1989) to the music of Jacques Offenbach
“Human Passions” (1990) to music by H. Sarmanto
“Killers” (1991) to the music of I.S. Bach, Gustav Mahler and A.G. Schnittke
“Requiem” (1991) V.A. Mozart (also staged by Eifman at the National Opera and Ballet Theater in Chisinau in 2007)
“Illusions” (1992) to music by K. Petit
"Boomerang" based on the compositions of John McLaughlin
“Idiot” based on F.M. Dostoevsky to the music of the Sixth Symphony by P.I. Tchaikovsky
"Tchaikovsky" (1993)
“Don Quixote, or Fantasies of a Madman” (1994) to the music of L. Minkus “The Karamazovs” (1995) based on the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky to the music of S.V. Rachmaninov, Richard Wagner and M.P. Mussorgsky
“Red Giselle” (1997) to the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky, Georges Bizet and A.G. Schnittke
“My Jerusalem” (1998) on techno music of the groups: Wanfried, Future Sound of London, Reload (religious music and ethno music are also used)
“Russian Hamlet” (“Son of Catherine the Great”), “Don Juan and Moliere”, “Who is WHO” to the music of J. S. Bach and the Fourth Symphony of P. I. Tchaikovsky, “Musaget” for the centenary of George Balanchine
“Anna Karenina” after L.N. Tolstoy (2005)
“The Seagull” by A.P. Chekhov to music by S.V. Rachmaninov and A.N. Scriabin (2007)
"Eugene Onegin" to the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky and A. Stikovetsky (2009)
"Rodin" to the music of Ravel, Saint-Saëns, Massenet (2011)

prizes and awards

Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (May 5, 2012).
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (March 16, 2007).
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (September 1, 2003).
State Prize of the Russian Federation (1998) - for ballet performances of the St. Petersburg State Ballet Theater “Tchaikovsky”, “Don Quixote, or Fantasies of a Madman”, “The Karamazovs”, “Red Giselle”, “My Jerusalem”.
Laureate of the Higher Theater Award of St. Petersburg “Golden Sofit” (1995, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2005).
National Theater Award "Golden Mask" (1996, 1999).
Triumph Award (1996).
Order of Peace and Harmony (Russia, 1998) in the category “new word in choreography”.
French Order of Arts and Letters (1999).
Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2003).
Award "Person of the Year" from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (2006).
“Benois De La Danse” award in the category “Best Choreographer of 2005” (2006).
Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of culture for the ballet trilogy “Another Space of the Word” (2011).
Honored Worker of Kazakhstan (2012).

17 pa

Boris Eifman Ballet Theater on tour in London

Boris Eifman is a legend. He lives his whole life and performs his ballets in defiance of: prohibitions, public opinion, competitors. He proved that you can dance the way you want, and not the way they taught you at the academy. Eifman created a ballet that was destined to revolutionize the idea of ​​choreography, and then (here is the irony of fate) - to become part of a textbook on the history of ballet. Today Boris Eifman is a lifetime classic. On April 15–19, his theater shows two ballets on the stage of the London Coliseum: Rodin and Anna Karenina.

The general partner of the London tour of the St. Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theater of Boris Eifman is the investment company VTB Capital, part of the VTB Group.

Eifman's ballet is analyzed in facts and figures by the site's correspondent

The St. Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theater of Boris Eifman was originally called the “New Ballet”. It appeared in 1977 at the Lenconcert. Eifman got a pop group under his leadership, from which he began to train his future artists. For Leningrad of that time (and for the Soviet Union in general), the theater he created was absolutely innovative. It was the laboratory of one author - Eifman, an experimenter who combined academic and pointeless choreography in his ballets to the music of the mastodon rock bands Pink Floyd, Yes or such creative contemporaries as composer Bela Bartok.

Boris Eifman composed his first choreographic number at the age of 13, recording it in a notebook, which he called “My first performances.” “I am starting these notes,” this boy wrote, “to help specialists in the future understand the origins of my creativity.” Even then, as a child, he looked at the future work of his life with a gaze free from systems and cliches, rules and responsibilities. Later, Eifman, who from the very first productions was called the Treplev of ballet, that is, an innovator and seeker of new forms (it is probably no coincidence that the play “The Seagull” appeared in the repertoire of his theater), will say: “In principle, nothing new has been created in dance technique it can no longer be. Today, in general, any technique is traditional. But I see 21st century ballet. He is absolutely free from any traditional systems, from any obsessive forms. This is a world in which movements from classical dance, from modern dance, the movements of gymnasts and wushu instructors, the movements of a boy, an old man, a pregnant woman, the movement of a tree or a stone can appear.”

The very first tour of the New Ballet took place a month after its formation. In 1977, the theater went to Kyiv to perform on the stage of the October Palace. The tour was accompanied by a scandal. The ballet “Boomerang” was brought to Soviet Kyiv, based on Bertolt Brecht’s “The Threepenny Opera” to the music of John McLaughlin, which was very un-Soviet. The artists were already warming up before putting on makeup when the news reached them that local party leaders considered it impossible to hold an anti-Soviet event in the capital of Ukraine. Then the ballerina Alla Osipenko, who performed the main role in Boomerang, said that she would commit suicide if they were not allowed to go on stage. So “Boomerang” was shown to the people of Kiev, who understood and accepted the bold, complex language of the innovative choreographer. Since then, Kyiv has been considered a talisman city at the Eifman Theater. Boris Yakovlevich himself jokes: “If the Kyiv audience accepts the performance, it means that audiences in other cities will like it.”

Boris Eifman did not participate in the first foreign tour of his theater. The team left for Finland without the maestro, who was not given permission to travel abroad.

In the 1990s, the Boris Eifman Ballet Theater began traveling to New York, gradually making tours to America regular. After the first tour, ballet critic Anna Kisselgoff wrote in the New York Times: “The ballet world, in search of a major choreographer, can stop searching. He has been found, and it is Boris Eifman.”

Times change, fashions in dance styles, themes, and choreographic solutions change. And Eifman continues to stick to his line. “Today the media,” he argues, “talk a lot about the crisis of the global economy, global social problems, and the environment. But for me, the main problem area remains the spiritual world of modern man, which, unfortunately, is going through rather sad times. We are seeing how the most important moral and humanistic values ​​are being lost, how ideas of creativity and transformation of reality are being replaced by the cult of consumption. And ballet, without a doubt (as well as other forms of high art), is that bright force that is able to resist these negative processes. Of course, you cannot change the world and the people around you overnight. But you can shake them, evoke a living response in their souls. And this will already be an important victory.”

The Boris Eifman Ballet Theater's tour to London in April 2014 with the performances "Anna Karenina" and "Roden" will be the fourth visit of the company to the capital of Great Britain in its 37-year history.

For the play “Anna Karenina,” artist Slava Okunev created 177 costumes (including men’s and women’s costumes, costumes for soloists and corps de ballet dancers). Olga Shaishmelashvili designed 282 costumes for the production of Rodin.

All scenery, props, costumes and lighting equipment for the performances “Anna Karenina” and “Roden” are transported to London on two trucks. The cargo volume for each vehicle is 120 cubic meters. The weight of cargo for each performance is about six tons. In total, 12 tons of the Eifman Theater arrived in Foggy Albion.

The ballet “Anna Karenina”, staged to the music of P. I. Tchaikovsky, was first seen by the public in St. Petersburg in 2005. This performance is one of the theater's most successful performances. The focus is on the love triangle Anna – Vronsky – Karenin. The rest of the characters in Tolstoy's drama remained behind the scenes. Boris Eifman interprets Anna as a werewolf woman, who for strangers is a society lady, but for herself is a perishing soul corroded by passions.

The premiere of the ballet "" to the music of M. Ravel, C. Saint-Saens, J. Massenet took place in St. Petersburg in November 2011. The ballet is dedicated to the fate and work of the great sculptors Auguste Rodin and his student, lover and muse Camille Claudel.

Shoes in the ballet theater are consumables. Each theater soloist uses 4 pairs of Gaynor Minden pointe shoes per year (total: 40 pairs per year per theater). Each corps de ballet dancer uses 8 pairs of Grishko pointe shoes per year (total: 160 pairs per year per theater). In addition, each dancer of the troupe uses 2 pairs of soft shoes of the Sansha and Grishko brands per month. It turns out that the theater “dances” 1,320 couples per year.

At the Boris Eifman Theater, all the dancers are unusually tall for ballet. Women in the troupe are from 172 cm, men from 182 cm. “Ballet for me,” Eifman explains, “is, first of all, lines. They should be thin and elongated.”

Boris Eifman's productions are very taxing for dancers from a physiological point of view. Complex choreography, which is compared to acrobatics, the large height and weight of the artists, support, the continuous presence of the soloist on stage - all this leads to the fact that during one performance the artist performing the main role loses from one and a half to three kilograms of weight. You can imagine how the actors lose weight during long daily rehearsals!

Boris Eifman's performances, as a rule, are accompanied by a soundtrack. An exception is the premiere of the play “Requiem” in St. Petersburg, which took place on the 70th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the siege. The premiere took place on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater, accompanied by the Moscow Virtuosi orchestra conducted by Vladimir Spivakov. Spivakov, according to the musician himself, agreed to this event without hesitation, including because his mother was a siege survivor.

Eifman's team received the longest, record-breaking ovation in 1990 on tour in Japan with the ballet Pinocchio. The audience, extremely restrained in emotions, gave a 20-minute ovation at the end of the performance.

Today the repertoire of the Boris Eifman Ballet Theater includes the performances “Tchaikovsky”, “I am Don Quixote”, “Red Giselle”, “Anna Karenina”, “The Seagull”, “Onegin”, “Roden”, “Beyond Sin”, "Requiem". It's no coincidence that Giselle, Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty are not on this list. Eifman’s credo is not to take on ballets that have already been staged by someone else. The choreographer is currently working on creating the play “Tender is the Night” based on the novel by F. S. Fitzgerald.