MASTER CLASS WITH EDWARD CLUG

Your chance to glimpse the future

The Bye Bye Ballet school of contemporary dance

April 14, 15:30

From 15.30 to 17.00 on 14 April the Bye Bye Ballet school of contemporary dance (70, 13-ya Liniya Vasilevskogo Ostrova) hosted an open master class with Edward Clug, choreographer and artistic director of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor, gnostic votary of the future, experimenter and maverick genius of international dance. At the age of 18, he completed his studies at the National Ballet School in Cluj-Napoca (Romania), and was then immediately accepted into the company of the Slovene National Ballet (SNG) Maribor. At 22, Clug staged his first ballet, and at 30 was already in charge of the company in which he began his artistic career. Now he stages ballets throughout the world. His distinctive signature style combines abstraction and minimalism, combinations of the incompatible, the germ of genius, and the fluidity of madness. He reboots classical themes using cutting-edge unconventional imagery, forms, and ideas, in part with the help of unexpected musical choices. Edward Clug has been a constant guest of the Dance Open Festival. In different years, he has come to St. Petersburg not just as the artistic director of Maribor Ballet, but also as a member of the jury for the Dance Open International Ballet Award. You could see Edward Clug’s surreal fantasy Hill Harper’s Dream — in which the ballerinas slip their pointe shoes into skis — on 15 April as part of the Slovene National Theatre Maribor’s programme Left Right Left Right.

Le Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Geneve

THE NUTCRACKER

Ballet in 2 actsPremiere in Russia

Choreography: Jeroen Verbruggen Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Alexandrinsky Theatre 12+

April 13, 2018 19:00

The Nutcracker is a winter fairy tale. The Nutcracker is a tale for kids. How does it fit with the values of the Dance Open festival, and what’s it doing on a St. Petersburg stage in April? Well, the thing is, The Nutcracker is an immortal fairy tale. And, like all timeless stories, it attracts many interpreters with a desire to fascinate the audience, to make it gasp with astonishment. This time, that «wow» is ensured by an enchanting magician of the choreographic world, Jeroen Verbruggen, whose brilliant, untrammeled, explosive imagination produces something truly spectacular. He’s generous in everything — in the luxury of texture and style, in triumphant joy, lyrical tenderness and fascinating mysticism. It’s impossible not to be moved by his creativity or charmed by such a familiar and yet surprisingly new story. This Nutcracker is a world of endless reflections, fairy-tale immersion and unbelievable transformations. A world of countless doors, enigmatic gray animals and fragile baroque lanterns. Marius Petipa, whose bicentenary happens to be in 2018, would be proud of his successor, a real

From dance to costumes and decoration, this Nutcracker happily translates the synthese of Tchaïkovski's choreografical aestetics.

A wind of madness crosses the plateau and this fantastic climate reminds some plays by Mark Morris, or the Tim Burton universe.

THE NUTCRACKER Ballet in 2 acts Choreography: Jeroen VerbruggenMusic: Pyotr TchaikovskyScenography and costumes: Livia Stoianova, Yassen SamouilovLight: Ben Ormerod Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève General Director: Tobias RichterBallet Director: Philippe CohenDeputy director and stage manager: Vitorio CasarinAdministrative coordinator: Emilie SchaffterBallet masters: Grant Aris, Grégory DeltenrePianist: Serafima DemianovaTechnical director: Philippe DuvauchelleLighting supervisor: Alexandre BryandStage supervisors: Jean-Marc PingetWardrobe ladies: Caroline Bault, France Durel Performed by: Marie – Yumi AizawaPrince – Zachary ClarkDrosselmeier – Simone RepeleThe King of the rats – Javier JuyonThe queen, the princess, the rats, the young couples:Céline Allain, Louise Bille, Ornella Capece Diana Duarte, Léa Mercurol, Tiffany Pacheco, Mohana Rapin, Sara Shigenari Lysandra van Heesewijk, Madeline Wong. Valentino Bertolini, Natan Bouzy, Armando Gonzalez Besa, Xavier Juyon, Nathanaël Marie, Juan Perez Cardona, Sasha Riva, Geoffrey Van Dyck, Nahuel Vega./p> World Premiere: November 13, 2014, Grand Théâtre de GenèveDuration: 1 hour 50 minutes with one intermission Season partner: PRO HELVETIA

MASTER CLASSES& YOUNG STARS GALA

Yacobson Ballet Theatre

April 13 – 17,2018

The glare of spotlights, standing ovations, flowers and admiration... Grand as that may be, professional dancers know that behind the faultless grace of performance lie exhausting hours of training in rehearsal rooms. The road to perfection is always paved with pain, fatigue and disappointment. Only the most steadfast can keep their spirits up and continue to strive for their dreams. Sometimes the temptation to give everything up gets overwhelming. But some mysterious power forces them to keep going. To keep on striving for perfection. Day by day. Step by step. The power of habit is a great thing. It builds a solid foundation. That’s why it’s important to learn from the best teachers, especially at the beginning: to watch them, to copy them, to try to adopt their skills. Again and again, you have to find yourself, to believe in the future, and to cherish your personal progress. Dance Open master classes aim to set remarkably high standards that young dancers can then strive for years to achieve. That’s why Dance Open tutors are unique, one-of-a-kind, the best in the field. They embody their profession and their art. They have perfect skills themselves, but are also able to discover and nourish talent in their students. Young dancers then just need to summon all their will and keep working. For the sake of the ballet. Day by day. Step by step.

Young Stars Gala

Dutch National Ballet

MADE IN AMSTERDAM

Premiere in Russia

Alexandrinsky Theatre 12+

April 10, 2018 19:00

Six little masterpieces by great masters, performed by a ballet company praised as one of the best in the world. A cross-cutting story of the infinity of beauty embodied in movement and human body. This story has five narrators, five brilliant individuals, that speak their own unique language each. The variety of forms and styles will confound the one who tries to develop the general formula for success and find the «golden section» of the up-to-dated ballet, but will give a real pleasure to those who are ready to discover something new and unknown.

CONCERTO CONCORDIA

Choreography: Christopher WheeldonMusic:by Francis Poulenc – Concerto for two pianos and orchestra in D minor

The music is incredibly lively, but also has a ‘yang’ side; a darker undertone. That gives me a world of colour and emotion to work with. One moment, the music sounds playful and sardonic, and the next it’s mathematical. And then there suddenly comes a sublime section, which is so beautiful and so serene that you feel like you’re lying down looking at the stars at night.

Christopher Wheeldon created Concerto Concordia in 2015 for the Holland Festival programme Cool Britannia. Wheeldon was inspired by Francis Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos and orchestra; a composition that interweaves light and dark. The two couples bring to life all the layers, tempi and timbres of Poulenc’s composition, each in their own masterly way. They are surrounded by six other couples, who frame, mirror and reinforce their dancing, or else fulfill the role of counterpart to it, in a very light-hearted and natural way. It is a pleasure to see the ease with which Wheeldon alternates and combines the corps de ballet with the principals, and how he both separates and overlaps the duets, group sections and male and female variations. Many elements of the light-hearted, jazzy character of Concerto Concordia are reminiscent of the work of George Balanchine.

SOLO 5 TANGO'S

Choreography: Hans van Manen Music: Astor Piazzolla

"5Tango’s" premiered forty years ago but it could have been created just recently. Van Manen’s blend of classical ballet and sensual tango passion will never feel dated.

PAS DE DEUX TRISTAN + ISOLDE

Choreography: David Dawson Music: Szymon Broszka – Tristan + Isolde

It’s a fitting subject for Dawson who avoids well-worn paths preferring to carve out pristine galactic highways. His choreography searches for the extreme: ultimate extensions, pointes that skim over the stage and an aching stretch in the arms.

A tale of love, sacred yet forbidden, healing yet destructive, fulfilling yet frustrating, tyrannical yet benevolent, a love that would never die. David Dawson breathes new life into this love story beyond earthly measure. Dawson pursues the extremes of this love in an elegant language of movement carried by the finely aware music of Polish composer Szymon Brzóska, who created an entirely new score for this ballet. In Tristan + Isolde, David Dawson demonstrates a refined use of symmetry and order, continually giving them another twist. The ballet is a feast for the eyes, filled with kaleidoscopic shapes and unpredictable combinations.

DÉJÀ VU

Choreography: Hans van Manen Music: Arvo Pärt

Van Manen works with metaphor, not literal mime. Concentrate on the movement and you see dance geometries arranged in mirror unison, or in partnering, or in sudden frozen postures that seem to listen to the suspended moments of Arvo Part's Fratres for violin and piano.

SOUVENIR D’UN LIEU CHER

Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky

Ratmansky has given Dutch National Ballet a miniature jewel for two couples, so ripe with emotion it seems to compress several novels into 14 minutes...

«The music must have been used before by choreographers. It’s so danceable», says Alexei Ratmansky. «It’s music that stays in your heart and mind. Not in a tacky way, but in a sophisticated one. It’s honest music. Tchaikovsky never tries to please his audience in it." The leading Russian choreographer breathes new life into the Russian romantic tradition, with an exceptionally inventive and refined use of classical ballet technique. Following an adagio filled with melancholy and yearning, the dancers gradually start celebrating their love more exuberantly, transporting the audience in an exciting relay race of virtuosity. ‘Unrivalled’ and ‘an absolute gem’, was the opinion of the dance critics.

MOVING ROOMS

Choreography: Krzysztof Pastor Music: Alfred Schnittke

Pastor’s ballet is about the emotions that can be generated by a space, or by lack of space.

Pastor created the ballet Moving Rooms in 2008, as part of the programme «In Space», in which seven choreographers — from upcoming to established — formulated a contemporary answer to Hans van Manen’s masterpiece Situation. Pastor was inspired by the physical and psychological approach to space expressed in Van Manen’s work. Unlike Van Manen, Pastor uses the entire stage, and his spatial limitations are created not by walls, but by magnificent lighting designs. Trapped in changing compositions of lit squares, eleven dancers create a stirring and compelling chess game of lighting and movement, spurred on by the powerful music of Alfred Schnittke and Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki. At its premiere, Moving Rooms received a standing ovation and the press wrote that it was the best new item in the programme In Space. Some critics praised the strong male solos and sensuous duets, whereas others thought that the virtuoso group sections were the highlight of the evening.