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Russia's largest ballet forum attracts world-famous ballet stars, famous teachers and students of ballet schools from different countries. This year the main theme of the dance is a fairy tale. So the audience will get a fascinating set of fairy tale therapy from the most ingenious storytellers of the ballet world on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater, Saint Petersburg. The 7th Dance Open ballet festival presents the best ballet troupes with very different, but equally powerful powerful and captivating performances based on fairy tales.
What makes a fairy tale plots so meaningful for the modern spectator? The answer is both simple and complicated at the same time: impressive choreography, the projection of a fairy tale, real life and its practical application.
Cinderella
Outstanding choreographer-storyteller Jean-Christophe Maillot and Ballet Monte-Carlo present a very unusual "Cinderella". Their version is the fairy tale of a poor girl, magic shoes and a prince into a touching story about ... Mom. She is the kindest. The ballet highlights the value of the family and all-accepting love, which is more powerful than death even.
The Nutcracker
Another tale about the quest for a kindred spirit will be told by the troupe of the Big Theater of Geneva. "The Nutcracker" in Jerome Verbruggen's choreography, reminds of either a Tim Burton-like blockbuster animation, or an unpredictable quest behind the looking-glass, where a teenage girl Marie is looking for herself and getting lost in hundreds of reflections and dozens of doors. The nutshell of fears and doubts will break only when Marie meets him - the Nutcracker, a man without a skin, the literal embodiment of the "bare soul" idiom. In his defenselessness, sincerity and depth.
Tristan and Isolde
The quest for new meanings has become a brand feature of Dutch National, a frequent and most welcomed guest at the Dance Open. The virtuosity of dance - and unpredictably innovative interpretations! The old pages of "Tristan and Isolde" come to life at the will of David Dawson, who has rewritten them in his own language. This is a surprisingly magical alliance of a surrealistic form and an old fairy tale.
Princess and the Pea
Sometimes a fairy tale goes as far as the abyss of the subconscious: there, under the weight of all that is empty and unnecessary, lies that very pea, which keeps the princess from sleeping. Perhaps after watching the fairy tales from the Slovene National Theater Maribor, viewers will finally unravel their peas.
Alexander Ekman, abiding to his ever ironic and sarcastic musa, will show what "real" time management is, brought to the point of absurdity.
Johan Inger will enclose his dancers in the vertical space of the long wooden wall: "The Madman's Walk" takes a look at their fears, stereotypes and habits.
And finally, Edward Klug presents "Hill Harper's Dream," a surreal tale with all the attributes of insight: vivid images, piercing emotions and deep revelations.
Vain Precaution
In the space of a fairy tale, just like in real life, everything is connected: the past inspires the future, and the future revives and reinterprets the past. A vivid proof of this is the fantastic chain of the reconstructions and restorations of the "Vain Precaution", an oldest masterpiece of the Russian ballet repertoire that has come down to us. The vodevil about lovers' reunion was once revived by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, and a century later modernized by Sergei Vikharev. This proves again that every story has a recipe for immortality. And it is not to be found inside a duck, a hare or Koshchei's egg of eternal life, but rather in creativity and passion.
When: April 2 to 17, 2018
Where: Alexandrinsky Theater at the address 6, Ostrovskogo, Square, next to Gostiny Dvor metro station, St. Petersburg.
See details on the Dance Open website
Sources: http://www.danceopen.com
Author: Vera Ivanova
