Prepare for takeoff

New dance project in St. Petersburg

The idea of ​​producer Lev Shulman is two years old. For two years now, children living in St. Petersburg orphanage No. 9 have been seriously studying modern dance - different types of it, different techniques. This is not a “circle” - we are not talking about proper leisure time here. This, rather, refers to the vocational education program - it is assumed that then graduates will be able to continue their studies on an equal basis with “home” children and find a job in their specialty. The project is called “Green House” - and the name has many meanings. Green is the color of hope and development, says the project declaration. Home - well, it’s clear what this means for children left without parental care. It also means green house, that is, “greenhouse”. Cover from the weather and give it the opportunity to grow without breaking.

Like any school, the Green House shows at the end of the school year what the children have learned. Last summer there was just a concert with separate numbers, this one is much more serious - they invited the Dutch choreographer Melissa Ellberger, and she staged a full-fledged performance called “The Wing” for seven students, who are from nine to twelve. (The project was supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Russian Federation and the Van den Ende foundation).

Ellberger is clearly interested in the “new circus” - that which flows and flows from modern dance and which made itself known most loudly in France. No trickery, a series of poetic sketches and an interest in the “picture” - almost every scene can be turned into a postcard. The “picture” is revealed to us immediately when the curtain opens - the entire stage is filled with white balloons. Of standard size and the usual slightly teardrop-shaped shape, they are crowded in rows, covering the floor and filling the space of the stage to about a quarter of its height. Some hang a little higher, some lower, very close to each other and you get the feeling that a giant fish has laid eggs here. Several children, also dressed in white, make their way through these balls (some run on all fours, others crawl backwards; their own move has not yet been found and not defined, it is generally unclear whether you are a fish or maybe a bird). A metaphor for the first step, the very beginning of earthly times.

And then experiments begin, the small people understand themselves, those around them, and the forces of nature. A little boy enthusiastically jumps like a frog. An older girl carries a boy on her shoulder like a vase. Slowing down movements is like growing up: before the energy there was darkness and it spilled out completely mercilessly, but time passes and everything takes on meaning and weight. Pure dance pieces are diluted with a humorous scene: a baby in a formal white suit stands on a stool and opens his mouth significantly, like Pavarotti; There's a funny bass gurgle in the soundtrack.

The balls either disappear or appear on the stage, always trying to fly away and take away something important with them: some have a bouquet in their hands, and some have a chic hat. (Everything is white and white, everything seems high-society lacy and flying.) And it’s as if they are giving this desire for flight and the opportunity to fly to people: one of the best scenes in the play is when the girl simply stands on one leg, slowly setting the other one “into a swallow” “- and the leg doesn’t seem to be attracted to the ground at all, and stretches somewhere into the heavens, the girl can barely cope with it.

There is also in this story the courage of a simple journey (all the people are moving from the right wing to the left, and from this very left wing a strong wind blows, moving the boys and girls, obstructing the path; but, falling in the wind, they rise and walk again), and a second the bitterness of disappointment (when one of the girls suddenly desperately makes the balloon in her hands burst), and calm hope in the finale. It is difficult to say whether the Dutch dance composer is familiar with the poetry of Bulat Okudzhava, but the performance ends with a scene that instantly evokes a line from our poet. The entire performance on stage was almost exclusively white (with the exception of the dark hair of the girls and the hem on the shorts of one of the boys). In the finale, the girl sits and cherishes the blue ball. She has a piece of heaven in her hands. Everything will work out.

Anna GORDEEVA