Big little brother

The Palace on the Yauza makes itself known with American ballet tours

DC of the electric lamp plant; after the war - the habitat of the Mossovet Theater; in the 60s - the Teletheater, where KVN was filmed. An exemplary cultural center, like all these imperial buildings, guided by the designs of another empire, yearning for the Bolshoi Theater (the quadriga is noticeably missing). Now, after renovation, it is called the Palace on the Yauza and is set to become a fashionable rental venue; in any case, the director of the palace, Grigory Papish, really hopes so. The 2009 season should cement the new name of the concert hall in the minds of the public and convince them that going out to Elektrozavodskaya in the evening is stylish.

This hope has some chances to come true: well, firstly, the program for the 2009 season looks really impressive - from “New Year with Teodor Currentzis” (see “Vremya Novostey” of January 12) to the Chicago Jazz tour. Secondly, the palace is really a three-minute walk from the metro (albeit along an alley, not a single inhabitant of which knows the new name of the building, and there are no signs). Thirdly, there are not many venues in Moscow with an orchestra pit (and during the renovation, one was restored in the palace). But the palace still has problems - and some of them are easy to fix, and some are not so much.

The most serious of them is the too densely packed rows of seats in the auditorium. If your neighbor is sitting, there is no way to pass him by, but even if he gets up, after you have squeezed through, he, as an honest person, should marry you, you have become so close to each other. It is clear that people who come to look at modern dance will not tolerate anything like that, but if we are talking about opera, classical music and prestigious names, what lady in an evening dress would risk feeling like a passenger on the Biryulyovsky bus for the second time? Moreover, there are no side passages in the stalls and you have to walk far? It is clear that the reasons for such crowding are economic: the more chairs in the hall, the greater the revenue. But, in my opinion, with such savings you will lose more than you gain. Everything else - a camp buffet with a poor assortment, an uncomfortable foyer (designer here, designer!) and doors that, in the Soviet style, open only one way, which causes a crush at the exit - are easily overcome.

But let's talk about the event with which the management of the palace decided to begin a new era in its history, that is, the actual tour of the Doug Varon troupe.

This small American theater already came to us nine years ago and then created a sensation; Today, when the Moscow public has already seen many troupes engaged in modern dance, Varon’s students no longer make a sensational impression, but still work very well. Varon's language is not very varied, but the few techniques put into action work with the precision of a clockwork mechanism. Thus, he loves micro-pauses, second stops of text: the eye gets the opportunity to capture the beauty of individual poses, the silent dialogue of sculptures. Of the three ballets that Varon brought on tour this time - Lux with music by Philip Glass, Boats leaving (which used Arvo Pärt, Te deum) and Alchemy by Steve Reich - this technique is used to the greatest extent in the second. Which is understandable: a plotless ballet implies the story of the end of one life stage and the beginning of another, and the viewer, along with the characters, is invited to slow down for a second and look back.

Another distinctive feature of Varon is very soft plastic. He writes not in graphics, but in watercolors - even in “Alchemy,” which is dedicated to the journalist Daniel Pearl who died in Pakistan and, strictly speaking, is a requiem. The male victims and the women mourning them seem to slide through space, only occasionally indicating a sharp gesture, a graphic spasm. And even when practicing with Philip Glass (in the first ballet - Lux), he turns rather aggressive music into the accompaniment of light plastic chatter, a carefree party.

Will we go to Elektrozavodskaya? If quality things continue to appear in the palace's posters, well, why not. In the end, cramped conditions can be tolerated. Or will the management still have the courage to remove a couple of rows and rearrange the chairs slightly?

Anna GORDEEVA