DANCE OPEN - 2017

Performances of the 16th season of Russia’s largest Open Dance ballet festival will take place on the Main Stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater from April 13-24. In terms of the number and status of the premieres, the representation of ballet groups and the stylistic diversity of the program, the audience will see the largest and one of the most exciting seasons in the history of the Dance Open.

For the first time in the history of the festival, the season will open with a children’s play. The artistic director of the Yekaterinburg ballet, Vyacheslav Samodurov, created his “Snow Queen” in collaboration with Russian composer Artem Vasiliev. Vivid musical images, stunning choreography, inventive directing, aesthetic layering and imagery of the production, which can be reviewed endlessly, were noted not only by critics, but also by spectators of different ages.

Photo by Sergey Gutnik

A fairy-tale quest with fantastic characters and wonderful transformations will captivate any child, and adults will once again remind you of the true value of relationships with family and friends. After all, the kingdom of the Snow Queen is not a specific point on the map, it can be found inside each of us…

The new “Snow Queen” will take a lot of traditional classical ballet - but this is a modern classical ballet that looks with envy towards the musical, has a passion for new opera directing and regularly visits museums of avant-garde art.

The world premiere of the performance took place in December last year, the Snow Queen will drop in St. Petersburg on April 13 for the first time.

On April 15, the program will continue with perhaps the most esoteric experiment in the modern history of dance art. For many years, the Israeli dance company Batsheva, led by Ohad Naarin, has remained not just the headliner of contemporary dance, but the ideologist and developer of one of the most powerful philosophical bodily practices - the improvisational technique Gaga. True, Ohad Naarin himself believes that this is not about technology, but about the latest language of corporeality: having mastered it, a person frees himself from the artificial shackles of gravity, reaching the eternally sought balance of matter and spirit, which begin to work in co-creation.

On the main stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater, Dance Open will present the famous play “Naarina Virus” (premiere in Russia). Strictly speaking, it cannot be called ballet in the traditional sense. Its basis and point of inspiration is the text of Peter Handke, one of the key writers of the second half of the twentieth century, the “great troublemaker” of the European “new wave”. The play “Insulting the Public” was written back in the 1960s and became almost a programmatic work of neo-avant-garde: the lack of plot, action and even characters allows us to clear “any given moment of time at a given point in space” from any semantic impurities dictated by words.

Photo: Gadi Dagon

The world premiere of Virus took place on March 14, 2001 at the Susanne Delal Center in Tel Aviv. But even a decade and a half after, he looks stunningly innovative and “different.” Because from time to time the process of staging the performance continues. With dancers and spectators in the title role.

On April 17, Dance Open spectators will see the Cinderella of the Perm Ballet. The artistic director of the troupe Alexei Miroshnichenko and his creative laboratory will present, perhaps, the most original interpretation of the tale: its plot was transferred to Moscow in the late 50’s, to the "Main Theater of the country." They put Cinderella there, and a whole tangle of intrigue and passion is rapidly spinning around the production. Aging prims are friends against the young star, the young choreographer wins the creative fight of the mossy master, the powerful minister decides the fate of art, the overseas prince appears on the horizon, and intelligence agents zealously monitor the cleanliness of the citizens.

Photo: Anton Zavyalov

This play has it all. Full-scale classical ballet with magnificent music, an abundance of scenery, "big" choreography and original direction in the spirit of Ryazanov’s "Carnival Night" or even "Spring" by Grigory Alexandrov. There are choreographic signs of “ballet realism” of the 30s and “ballet symphony” of the 50s, a dynamic change of paintings, hundreds of costumes, a delightfully nostalgic atmosphere. There is sparkling humor and dramatic language rich in allusions… And also - an intelligent, subtle and humanly powerful ending: not thanks, but contrary. Other than in a fairy tale. And, of course, a genuine aesthetic pleasure from the work of the Perm troupe - especially warmly received in St. Petersburg.

On April 19, the Polish National Ballet will present the play “The Tempest” based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare. The upcoming premiere in Russia in many ways claims to be the culmination of the season.

Photo: Ewa Krasucka

Judge for yourself. Fairy-tale-philosophical plot of the parable of the genius of the Renaissance. Worthy of directing: an intoxicating mix of emotions and meanings. The neoclassical choreography of Krzysztof Pastor is the quintessence of modern rethinking of classical canons. A strong academic troupe, exquisite scenography, expected theatricality and a real breakthrough in the application of modern technologies. Video scenography of the Iranian artist Shirin Neshat, named in 2010 as the “Artist of the Decade”, created in collaboration with Shoj Azari. Costumes of "extremely theatrical" Tatyana van Walsum. A musical series drunk with the rhythm of Iranian folk melodies and passing through a single mental space of European culture - from Shakespearean contemporary Tallis to young and impudent Michel van der Aa…

For two consecutive evenings, on April 21 and 22, an exceptional event awaits the audience, which the festival team has been preparing for several years: a tour of one of the leading modern ballet companies in the world - the Netherlands Dance Theater / NDT 1.

Photo: Rahi Rezvani

The program includes three famous one-act performances: “Reaching for the Stars” (“Shoot The Moon”) and “Silent Screen” (Paul Silent Screen) and Sol Leon to the music of Philip Glass, as well as the mini-ballet “Thin Skin” (“Thin Skin”) Marco Göke to music by Patti Smith and Kate Jarrett.

Mixing the lyrical beauty of the movements with a convulsive buffoon of inner insanity, deliberately skipping the metaphor of panic and passion through a tape of repeating frames of black and white film, combining dance with theater, cinema, music, innovative visual art experience, Lightfoot and Leon created an endless series of reflections of eternal history… about a human. His love, loneliness, path, care and return. Stories, each time immersing the viewer in the plot without a trace.

The traditional Gala Dance Open will bring together only the stars of the ballet world. The program of the concert, which will be held on April 24, announced the soloists of leading ballet companies and their most striking performances.

Off-program Dance Open will give a chance to meet with the choreographers of the program performances of the XVI season. During the festival, lectures and open professional discussions will be held with the participation of authoritative choreographers and leading ballet critics.

This year the international educational program for students of ballet schools of the world will be held from April 20 to 24 in the classrooms of the St. Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theater named after Leonid Jacobson. Among the teachers of the workshops are leading world-famous ballet soloists, tutors of the Mariinsky Theater, A. Ya. Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. On April 23, the reporting Gala concert of young stars will take place on the stage of the Hermitage Theater.

Additional information on the events of the XVI season of the Dance Open, as well as the sale of tickets for performances, can be found on the website danceopen.com .