| Radu Poklitaru staged Carmen Suite “Russian Festival Ballet” is one of many domestic troupes that are officially listed as Moscow, but never perform in the capital. There is a removable rehearsal base here (the Zuev House of Culture at the moment), and performances, premieres and earnings are only abroad. Typically, such troupes carry a “Sleeping Beauty” painted for 16 people or a “Swan” plucked for up to 12 birds. But the Russian Festival Ballet decided to break all traditions of currency exchanges and do everything honestly: invite a choreographer, stage a new performance, then take it on tour.
They are going to Spain. What do they put? "Carmen Suite". Already for this healthy impudence you begin to respect people. The head of the troupe, Timur Fayziev, invited Radu Poklitaru to the production - and it was for this name that ballet observers from all Moscow newspapers gathered at the dress rehearsal (the premiere will be in Spain).
Radu is a thirty-year-old man who studied and danced in Minsk, and then somehow smoothly turned to composing dances. It happens that choreographers start with a scandal - this is not about him: Poklitaru did not quarrel with anyone. A student of one of the most flamboyant and pretentious Soviet choreographers, Valentin Elizariev, he, writing mocking and inventive things, managed not to cause patriarchal discontent. Two years ago, Moscow saw his work for the first time - at the international ballet competition, Poklitaru received first prize for the miniature “Three Georgian Songs.” Prizes were distributed by Yuri Grigorovich; his favorite and untalented student competed in the competition - and everyone said goodbye to the prize. Suddenly Poklitaru became the first laureate, and only the second - that same ward. After which Radu was invited to show a couple more miniatures at the Moscow Footlights festival and compose a premiere for the National Opera of Ukraine . And he gained the status of hope of Russian choreography. (Our Fatherland is Russian ballet; don’t pick on the words, please.)
All these bison at the head of the theaters, ancient aesthetic functionaries in charge of festivals and stages - they don’t feel someone else in Poklitara, that’s what’s strange. It seems to me that the issue is the unevenness of his work. Some compositions are complete, independent, almost flawless - like the old “Georgian songs” or the just released “The Rite of Spring”. And some seem to look around and ask: is this possible? Is it possible - two more steps away from what you, dear friends, consider possible?
In Carmen, everything is close together: the director’s courage and timidity are inseparable. Here are the crowd scenes - and the influence of Mats Ek is too visible (and the screams on stage, and the girls instantly falling on their backs at the sight of a bullfighter), as if the choreographer needed the support of an avant-garde artist, already recognized as a genius and master. But then an excellent duet of Jose (Dmitry Smirnov) and Carmen (Irina Trotsik) appears. She throws a scarlet double flower somewhere in the corner - he rushes and brings it in his lips, she throws it again - he goes after it again, without protest, with silent blissful delight. So she carefully takes away his invisible heart, indicated by his hands folded into a handful, and towards the end she returns it to its place, puts it in his chest and zips up the invisible zipper! And the entire plasticity of the characters is built on the contradiction between the adult-learned softness and smoothness of Jose and the teenage harshness of Carmen - and suddenly some kind of separate, completely ballet-like plot about a girl making a career with the help of two premieres sprouts in the story. Of course, the debutante uses the dreamy prince and then chooses a Hispanic macho (Gulan Polatkhanov, who perfectly parodies the patented domestic “Spaniards”: his eyes are bulging, his cloak is fluttering...). And of course, the new chosen one will not put her in a penny.
Five years ago there was a debut evening on the Bolshoi stage, where Ratmansky made his “Capriccio”, and his international career began to unfold. Then the Bolshoi management missed the chance to keep the ballet in the repertoire, and only this season will the theater get the job of a choreographer, who has already been planning its schedule for a long time. Now there is another choreographer walking under our noses. If the bosses are afraid to sign a contract right away, then let them do a debut evening and see what happens. But the country’s main theater cannot be less sensitive than the Russian Festival Ballet. Anna GORDEEVA |
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