| Julio Bocca showed Moscow his Basil American Ballet Theater does not raise its own stars - it buys strangers. It’s enough at a high take-off, when it’s already clear that a person is an event, but he still has fifteen years of a career ahead of him. This happened almost twenty years ago with Julio Bocca - after a fantastic victory at the Moscow competition in 1985, he was invited to ABT (the troupe was then led by Mikhail Baryshnikov). The Argentine, unknown to anyone before the competition, accepted the invitation and took the premiership in American ballet for 20 years (periodically supporting the troupe of his native country with personal participation in tours). Our producers could not afford his fees - the dancer did not appear in Russia for a long time. But now, when Bocca decided to say goodbye to his favorite role of Basil in Don Quixote (it was this role that brought him success in 1985), he chose Moscow for his farewell. And the Bolshoi Theater.
It would seem like a farewell tour. It would seem that the biography has a lot of injuries, the knees have been patched up. Before the performance there were several interviews in which the dancer insistently said that he was no longer the same, due to his age (37 years) and health. After the performance it became clear: all this talk is a tribute to artistic superstition. Bocca danced Basil as if he was giving an account of his 20 years at ABT. He explained why they called me, why they love me so much and constantly renew the contract. And one more thing - why are they not trying to drag our current stars into this ballet diamond fund?
Virtuosity goes without saying, but the main thing is stable virtuosity. Having completed an extra pirouette (actually seven instead of the usual three or four), the dancer does not distort the following movements; the tricks, condensing the text in one place, do not force it to break in another. The duet does not become an annoying obstacle on the way to the solo variation - even at that moment when the dancer pressed the ballerina up on one hand, he clearly did it with pleasure - he did not just lift and lower, but also carried him around the stage, showed the audience (her - didn’t show himself: look how deftly the girl lies in the air, I... well, what are you talking about, I just put my palm up). And Bocca had a love for the simple-minded ballet acting, so important for Don Quixote, but often trampled on at ordinary Moscow performances (despite the fact that during his career he danced more than one hundred of these “Don Quixotes”), he could have been stamped out , and everything is alive). How Basil made his Kitri (Marianna Ryzhkina, getting excited from action to action) jealous! How he tried to persuade the angry innkeeper to give him his daughter - he stroked him soothingly, tried to put his head on his shoulder, like a daughter (I’ll be your son, dad)! The Bolshoi troupe gathered at the performance of a visiting guest performer and tried to work as best as possible - but, without “pulling the blankets over themselves,” without begging for applause and without trying to outshine anyone, Bocca simply showed our people what it means to be a star. Generous. Virtuoso. Loving and able to play simple games. It would never occur to anyone that she is planning to retire. Anna GORDEEVA |
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