The rape of a nymph was shown on the historical stage of the Bolshoi Theater

“In my whole life, I have met only a few choreographers-creators who had a natural gift from God to compose a dance. The Lord God is so stingy with ballet master talent from birth! Jacobson the choreographer was marked by God. His fantasy was bottomless. And that’s all – right there, immediately, without homework, improvising. Almost like Mozart,” these words of Maya Plisetskaya from her book of memoirs perfectly describe the creative method of the choreographer, whose work belongs to the brightest peaks of the choreographic thought of the past century, which determined the development of Russian and world ballet in the current century.

Despite being in demand among the public, only at the end of his life in his hometown did the choreographer manage to fulfill his old dream – to create his own troupe. Thus, in 1969, the Leningrad theater “Choreographic Miniatures” arose.

“Yakobson was both a St. Petersburg academic choreographer and an absolutely free avant-garde artist,” Igor Belsky, who danced in his ballets for many years, identified the talent of the choreographer. Crystal-clear classics, folklore, grotesque – such is the palette used by the choreographer both in large works and in miniature. It was the miniatures that became the favorite and crowning Jacobson genre.

The recent premiere of the theater “Out of Time. Masterpieces of Leonid Yakobson” is a new appeal of the artists of the troupe to the works of the master. Here, in the genre of miniature, different sides of the talent of the artist, which Belsky spoke about, are presented, as well as the choreographer-academician and avant-garde artist. In 1971, the program was staged by the then-created troupe, and now, on the 50th anniversary of the significant date, it has been restored anew.

These works were restored not on a whim, but thanks to the artists who worked directly with Yakobson and, having become teachers, were able to pass on to the next generation of dancers the characteristic features of the master’s work.

Today, the Yakobson ballet troupe is directed by Andrian Fadeev, in the past one of the most brilliant premieres of the Mariinsky Theatre.

– I am very happy that our youth today receives this knowledge under the guidance of those whom Yakobson put on, – the artistic director says to MK before the performance. – He worked with many stars, who always honored his invitations to work. Yakobson bet on Natalia Makarova, Alla Osipenko, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Ninel Kurgapkina, Inna Zubkovskaya, Askold Makarov and many others. He was an unconditional innovator and reformer.

The first part of the evening of the three-part and two-act programs included numbers from the cycle “Classicism – Romanticism” – five miniatures created by Jacobson, leading a dialogue with classical ballet forms: pas de deux, pas de trois, pas de quatre (that is, dance two, three, four). In the Pas de Quatra, to the music of Vincenzo Bellini, who opens the evening, the famous engraving of the 19th century depicting the dance of four legendary ballerinas of the Romantic era Marie Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Lucille Grand and Fanny Cerrito comes to life in Jules Perrot’s Pas de quart”. And the program ends with the famous Jacobson number, in which the choreographer clearly relies on the traditions of the Japanese Bunraku theater. It is called “Flight of Taglioni” and features a unique romantic ballerina flying in the air, set to music by Mozart.

In the first miniature, we see exquisite transitions, when the ballerinas, holding hands, rebuild various figures in the dance. Then each of them dances her own variation, and at the end the performers again dance together, and this neo-romantic style fascinates with its perfection and unsteadiness of forms. The last miniature shows Maria Taglioni (her part was performed by Alena Grivnina), the same ballerina who is credited with the first dances on pointe and in a tutu, literally hovering over the stage with the help of one visible (dressed in white tights and tunic Denis Klimuk) and four invisible in the dark (and dressed in black) partners.

Between the named numbers – a magical Pas de deux to the music of Mozart, beautifully performed by Victoria Vinichenko and Andrey Sorokin; Mozart’s Sextet, mesmerizing in its beauty (an ensemble of six performers; Vyacheslav Spilchevsky, Nuria Kartamysova, Yana Chernoritskaya, Yana Erkina, Alexander Mihirev, Aidar Bikbulatov); as well as the intricate Pas de trois to the music of Rossini (Alla Bocharova, Kirill Vychuzhanin, Dmitry Sobolev) with one among others, but completely amazing variation. In it, the dancer Kirill Vychuzhanin, as a pas, covers the stage with a diagonal of the most spectacular parterre splits: – three splits in one direction, and three in the other, creating an unexpected and impressive combination of movements. All this is very subtle, inventive, permeated with aesthetics and beauty.

Shown in the first part of the second section, Jacobson’s “Wedding Procession”, banned during the author’s lifetime, is discordant with the rest of the program, but it is very interesting to watch it. The artist V. Leventhal used the motives of Marc Chagall in the scenography. The artist’s paintings seem to come alive in the marvelous choreography of the master. A young man (Aidar Bikbulatov) and a girl (Yulia Koroleva) in love with each other from poor Jewish families (poor parents – Angelina Grigorieva, Timofey Fedorenko) are deprived of happiness and cannot be with each other. The girl is given to a rich family (wealthy parents – Svetlana Golovkina, Vadim Smorodin) to a rich groom (Alexander Mikhirev), and the tragedy, shown in well-drawn genre scenes, sinks into the soul.

Jacobson’s ballets 60 years ago were welcomed by innovators and outraged by hypocrites. The authorities often branded the choreographer for “pornography and obscenity”, because the body and sculpture are precisely the topics that aroused genuine interest in the choreographer. The style of his ballet Spartacus, which is now performed at the Mariinsky Theatre, was born in the ancient halls of the Hermitage. And in the famous cycle on the themes of Auguste Rodin, he created compositions in which the works of the French sculptor come to life.

Jacobson’s ballet Rodin, shown after The Wedding Procession, continues to be among the most poignant masterpieces of the 20th century today. Sculptures come to life before the eyes of the audience. Standing in poses characteristic of Rodin’s statues, the dancers, drawn into white leotards and overalls, create the illusion of white marble sculptures. The cycle began with an innocent kiss to the music of Ravel, depicted by the sculpture “Eternal Spring”. Reminiscent of Daphnis and Chloe, dancers Nikita Ryzhov and Yana Erkina perfectly convey the feelings of young lovers with their head tilts and body turns. But already in the next number “The Kiss”, beautifully interpreted by dancers Anna Skvortsova and Stepan Demin, the intensity of emotions materialized in stone by the sculptor grows. Jacobson feels this subtly and accurately conveys it with choreographic means.

“There has not been and will not be a master capable of putting a rush of flesh into clay, bronze and marble more penetratingly and intensely than Rodin did,” wrote his colleague Emile Antoine Bourdelle about the sculptor. The rush of flesh in Yakobson’s plasticity is also penetratingly and intensely conveyed. His choreography is woven from nuances, every step and every look is important in it. Such accuracy of performance, musicality, expressiveness, artistry were inherent in the pair Anna Bikbulatova, Lorenzo Lodi in the miniature “Eternal Idol”.

Rodin ends with the climactic passion of The Minotaur and the Nymph in his miniature to the melody of Alban Berg. This sculptural group from Rodin’s “Gates of Hell” was first called “Nymph and Faun” or “Satyr and Nymph”. “Minotaur” she was first named in 1899. Here Rodin, recited by Ovid, draws inspiration from mythology. And Jacobson conveys the highest point of passion and the opposition of male and female. The horror of the Nymph and the animal joy of the Minotaur, who caught her in his arms, is constantly growing, reaching almost the death of the Nymph and the bestial ecstasy of the Minotaur. Here, the innocence of Eternal Spring is already far away: sex and violence, sadistic desire and power, the masochistic pleasure from violence experienced by a trembling Nymph in the hands of a powerful Minotaur, are embodied by Nuria Kartamysova and Denis Klimuk with burning authenticity and imbued with the aesthetics of this choreographer.

The program, created in the early 70s of the last century and now shown at the Bolshoi Theater, not only has not become outdated, on the contrary, it looks very modern and relevant. The fantasy of Leonid Yakobson seems boundless. More than one modern choreographer will envy the innovation of the ideas embodied in it. These thoughts would be enough for every choreographer to create more than one ballet.