‘BALLET’ ?

ARTBALLET

21 Feb

Recently, I watched the movie-serial about Mathilde Kschessinska’s life, in which I found incredible inspiration.

It felt like opening the door to the past and taking a look into the roots of the imperial ballet. This knowledge helped me to realize that I could never dance “ballet” if I didn’t understand the origin of it, where all came from, the meaning behind each movement.

Working at the Mariinsky nowadays, the comparison was especially perspicacious: same place, one theater, but different time.

I found many differences between past Russian ballet and present Russian ballet, that may be at first obvious evidence for the outsider eyes, but not only.

We usually believe in changes as an evolution for the best. Indeed, we can notice how physical potential has been pushed like never (extensions, feet, extreme en-dehors), as well as technical (pirouettes, jumps, cleaner movements, virtuosity).

But what about the emotional aspects ?

What about the artistry ?

“Nowadays there are many incredible dancers, but how big is the lack of actors. Where are our artists then ?”

— Vladimir Vasiliev

And this is the key point from which the ballet starts.

Ballet is not only movements at the athletic level; it is more than simple mechanical movement; it is poetry from the soul, and for the souls, it’s an alive performance to remind us of our aliveness, of our divine self, that we are more than a simple cell.

“ What is ballet ? It’s music that we can see.”

— Gennady Selyutsky

Gennady Selyutsky’s vision gives us the idea that our body must sing while dancing and that our body is our language and music; otherwise, the movements will be simply empty.

Dancing ballet used to be a prestige, an honor, and a privilege, and the chosen ones who gave their lives to this art, did it by choice and passion, not for money.

Great artists like the famous couple Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maxima are the incarnations of this truth, and this is why their creations and their paths as artists are so exceptional.

This dimension is particularly relevant to the Russian ballet of the imperial period until the Soviet period.

I observe how living in a capitalistic society, where everything is monetized, influences the purpose of many things, even everything.

But, tell me, is it possible to create something that has a soul for the purpose of money ?

Don’t you notice the difference between a dancer who does his job and a dancer who dances his passion ?

I am not going to hide the fact that my inner self cries when I watch some contemporary ballet “performers”, but how my soul dances when I watch and listen to these ballet artists of the past…

Thankfully, there are still artists fulfilled by love for the grandiose traditions and passion for the beauty of Russian Ballet, and they are the ones who will determine the future of ballet.

I am lucky to learn from one of the great masters of the Kirov ballet, Yulia Makhalina, and I hope that one day I will be able to share with the public the essence of ballet.

For now, please enjoy these pictures and feel the harmony, beauty, purity and poetry of their expressions and lines