Masterpieces by Leonid Yakobson at the Bolshoi

The Petersburg Ballet Theater named after Leonid Yakobson continued its tour in Moscow with a performance dedicated to its founder “Out of Time. Choreographic masterpieces by Leonid Yakobson.

The same age as George Balanchine, a graduate of the St. Petersburg ballet school (class of Vladimir Ponomarev), a follower of Mikhail Fokine, he always went “against the current”. The maestro turned to the choreographic miniature, which accompanied him throughout his creative life. Leonid Yakobson drew motives from the history of world art, Russian and Jewish folklore, and most importantly, he developed a dance free from canons and rules. According to Maya Plisetskaya, the movements invented by Jacobson did not exist before, the choreographer himself called his dance language “choreoplasty”.

“He worked in different styles, in different genres. I saw everything in an innovative way. He was a recognized reformer. Broke traditions. I blew up the ballet space, ”said the artistic director, director of the Ballet Theatre. Leonid Yakobson, Honored Artist of Russia Andrian Fadeev in a conversation with reporters.

The dress rehearsal took place on the Historical Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre.

Yakobson was the first choreographer in the Soviet Union to dress dancers in nude costumes. He needed the nude effect in Rodin’s miniatures. The choreographer revived the sculptures of the famous Frenchman in a dance. Jacobson came up with his own story for each sculpture: from the innocent Kiss to Ecstasy, the Minotaur and the Nymph.

“The most difficult thing is to convey this very ecstasy. It seems that it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s important how you do it, how correctly you convey the feeling that Jacobson himself put into this choreography, ”said the corps de ballet dancer of the Ballet Theatre. Leonid Yakobson Murad Kerimov before the rehearsal.

In the programs there are portraits of ballerinas on which Yakobson staged.

Teacher-repetiteur at the Ballet Theatre. Leonid Yakobson Vera Solovieva now teaches dancers the nuances of the master’s choreography, and half a century ago she herself danced the Rodin cycle. He remembers how the Leningrad officials banned five of the eight miniatures, citing the abundance of sex in the production.

“Sensuality, and in every movement, in every turn of the eyes, hands. When we danced, we didn’t even realize it. When we began to rehearse, we realized that there is every gesture, every turn of the head – everything plays on the image, ”said Vera Solovyova.

Both sections opened with a multi-figure mise-en-scene: the dancers dispersed in space froze like statues that came to life in subsequent episodes. Having told their stories, in the finale they again froze in expressive sculptural poses.

Thematic cycle “Classicism-Romanticism” (it includes selected miniatures: “Pas de quatre”, “Pas de trois”, “Sextet”, “Pas de deux”, “Flight of Taglioni”) – as a continuation Fokine’s “Chopiniana”. Canonical pas are presented in completely new, unusual combinations. The famous “engraving” mise en scene depicting the legendary romantic dancers: Maria Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Cerrito and Lucille Grand. Without opening their hands, the heroines begin their intricate dance, and natural motives are guessed in the movements. The interlacing of the hands and bodies of the performers resembles either snowdrop petals, or a star, or the wings of a moth, or bursts of waves, or breezes of the wind.

In unthinkable supports, sinuous lines of the hands, deep pliés, half-bent knees, combined with classic pas and beaded finger technique, the viewer sees the image of the dialogue of times and the “play” in the classics.

“There are classical movements, but when you dance, you don’t think about them so much, you think about what image you need to create,” the leading soloist of the Ballet Theater named after A. Leonida Yakobson Svetlana Svinko.

“The Wedding Procession” is the music of Shostakovich and the paintings of Chagall. A tragic story about an unequal marriage – ten minutes of dance add up to an airy story, movements in which are beyond understanding and beyond the laws of gravity. The ritual course of the motorcade becomes a symbol of the endless road along which the heroes “float”.

In Rodin, the works of the famous sculptor come to life in the bodies of the artists and their sensual dance, which is impossible to tear yourself away from the perception of.

All miniatures of the cycle are dedicated to love, embodying its different facets: from the first timid feeling and exciting touches, to excruciating passion and irresistible attraction of bodies and souls. Amazing poses, Apollonian beauty of lines and forms, stunning lifts, confrontation between static and expression – all this is in the sinuous pattern of the dance.

Program “Out of time. Choreographic Masterpieces by Leonid Yakobson” convincingly demonstrated to Muscovites and guests of the capital that the Master’s works are worthy of preservation and restoration, preferably on their own stage.

Vladimir Sabadash.

Photo by Svetlana Yurieva