Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman began his career in ballet at the age of ten as a student at the Royal Swedish Ballet School. After completing his studies, he becomes a dancer at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, then for three years he performs as part of the Nederlands Dans Theater troupe. As a dancer, he worked with choreographers such as Nacho Duato,. The year 2005 becomes a turning point in his creative destiny: being a dancer with the Cullberg Ballet, he first proves himself as a choreographer, presenting in Hannover at the International Choreographic Competition the first part of his ballet trilogy "Sisters" - the production of "Sisters Spinning Flax". At this competition, he took second place, and also won the prize of criticism. Since that time, Ekman, having completed his career as a dancer, devotes himself entirely to choreography.
Along with the Cullberg Ballet, he collaborates with the Gothenburg Ballet, the Royal Flanders Ballet, the Norwegian National Ballet, the Rhine Ballet, the Bern Ballet and many other companies. Although he started his career as a classical dancer, as a choreographer he gave preference to modern dance with its freedom, not constrained by any rules and established traditions. It was in this style that the choreographer felt the opportunity to achieve the main goal that he always sets for himself when creating this or that production - “to say something” to the viewer, “to change something in people, even the way of feelings”. The main question that a choreographer asks himself before starting work on any production is “Why is it needed?” It is this approach, according to Ekman, that is appropriate in art, and not the pursuit of fame. “I would rather work with a less talented but work-hungry dancer than with a jaded star,” says Ekman.
“Mastering the ballet” (this is how Alexander Ekman calls his work), the choreographer, in an effort to “change the way of feeling” of the public, always creates something unexpected - even the music for some productions was written by him. Ekman's productions are always unusual, and therefore attract the attention of the whole world - for example, the ballet "Cacti" was presented on eighteen stages. The use of music seems to be a particularly unexpected solution, and on this basis a witty production is built, embodying a slightly ironic look at modern dance. No less famous was his first multi-act ballet - Ekman's Triptych - Teaching Entertainment.
But, although Ekman chose modern dance, this does not mean that he does not look at all towards classical traditions. So, having received an offer in 2010 to create a production for the Royal Swedish Ballet, in 2012 he presented the ballet "Tulle", which is a kind of "reflection" on the themes of classical ballet.
But even if Alexander Ekman refers to the popular masterpieces of the past, he gives them a fundamentally new interpretation - such is the "Lake of Swans", an innovative interpretation of "Swan Lake", presented by the choreographer in 2014. The dancers of the Norwegian Ballet had a hard time, because they danced ... on the water, the choreographer created a real “lake” on the stage, filling it with water, for this it took more than one thousand liters of water (according to the choreographer, this idea came to him during his stay in the bathroom). But not only this was the originality of the production: the choreographer refuses to present the plot, the main characters are not Prince Siegfried and Odette, but the Observer and two Swans - White and Black, the collision of which becomes the culmination of the performance. Along with purely dance movements, the performance also contains such motifs that would be appropriate in figure skating or even in a circus performance.
In 2015, "Lake of the Swans" was nominated for the Benois de la Dance award, and Alexander Ekman would not be himself if he had not surprised the audience at the concert of the nominees. Despite the fact that he had not performed as a dancer for quite a long time, the choreographer himself went on stage and performed a humorous number, specially invented by him for this concert, “What I Think About at the Bolshoi Theater”. The laconic number captured the audience not with virtuosity, but with a variety of emotions - joy, uncertainty, fear, happiness - and, of course, there was a hint of the choreographer's creation: Ekman poured a glass of water onto the stage. In 2016, another creation of the choreographer, A Midsummer Night's Dream, was nominated for this award.
The work of Alexander Ekman is many-sided. Not limited to ballet in its traditional incarnation, the choreographer creates installations with the participation of ballet dancers for the Swedish Museum of Modern Art. Since 2011, the choreographer has been teaching at the Juilliard School in New York.
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The programs are named after the choreographers. Following the first - “Lifar. Kilian. Forsythe" - they showed the dance quartet: "Balanchine. Taylor. Garnier. Ekman. In total - seven names and seven ballets. The ideas of the persistent Frenchman, ex-etoile of the Paris Opera, are easy to read. Hilaire is in no hurry to lead the team entrusted to him along the historically established path of multi-act plot canvases, he prefers a serpentine of one-acts of different styles to them (two more programs of a similar format are planned). The troupe, which in the recent past survived the departure of almost three dozen young artists, recovered in record time and looks worthy in premiere opuses. The progress is especially noticeable, given that Hilaire does not yet open the gates of the theater to "invited" artists and diligently nurtures his own team.
The first in the premiere was George Balanchine's Serenade, which the Stanislavites had never danced before. With this romantic elegy to the music of Tchaikovsky, the American period of the great choreographer, who opened a ballet school in the New World in early 1934, begins. For his first students, who had not yet mastered the grammar of dance well, but dreamed of the classics, Balanchine staged the Serenade, Russian in spirit. Crystal, ethereal, weightless. The artists of the Muztheater lead the performance in the same way as the first performers. It is as if they are carefully touching a fragile treasure - they also lack internal mobility, which the choreographer insisted on, but the desire to comprehend something new is evident. Submission and reverence for a poetic creation, however, is preferable to vivacity and courage, with which the troupes, confident in their skill, dance the Serenade. The female corps de ballet - the main character of the opus - comes to life in the dreams of a sleepless night, when it is already receding before the dawn. Erika Mikirticheva, Oksana Kardash, Natalya Somova, as well as the "princes" Ivan Mikhalev and Sergey Manuilov, who dreamed of their nameless heroines, look great in the plotless mood composition.
Three other premiere productions are unfamiliar to Muscovites. "Halo" is a sunny, life-affirming gesture by Paul Taylor, a modernist choreographer who talks about the nature of movement. The dynamic spectacular dance is constantly transforming, reminiscent of an independent disposition, breaks the usual poses and jumps, the arms either braid like branches, or jump up like gymnasts jumping off sports equipment. The choreography, which was perceived as innovative half a century ago, is saved by drive and humor, lightning-fast switching from serious maxims to ironic escapades. Barefoot Natalya Somova, Anastasia Pershenkova and Elena Solomyanko, dressed in white dresses, demonstrate a taste for elegant contrasts in the composition. Georgi Smilevsky, the pride of the theater and its outstanding premiere, is responsible for the slow part, able to bring dramatic tension, style and festive beauty to the solo. Dmitry Sobolevsky is a virtuoso, fearless and emotional. Surprisingly, Handel's ceremonial music is easily "accepted" by Taylor's fantasies, unfolding a real dance marathon on stage. Both performances, recreating different styles of American choreography, are accompanied by the theater's symphony orchestra conducted by the talented maestro Anton Grishanin.
After Tchaikovsky and Handel - a phonogram and a duet of accordionists Christian Pache and Gerard Baraton "accompanying" a 12-minute miniature of the French choreographer Jacques Garnier "Onis". The performance to the music of Maurice Pasha was rehearsed by Brigitte Lefebvre, ex-director of the Paris Opera Ballet Company and associate of Laurent Hilaire. In the Theater of Silence, founded by her together with Jacques Garnier, in a series of experiments with modern choreography, the first show of Onis took place forty years ago. The choreographer dedicated it to his brother and performed it himself. Later he reworked the composition for three soloists, whose dance in the current presentation resembles tart homemade wine, slightly hitting the head. The guys, connected if not by kinship, then by strong friendship, provocatively and without any whining talk about how they grew up, fell in love, got married, nursed children, worked, had fun. An uncomplicated action to the unpretentious enumeration of nuggets-“harmonists”, which usually sound at village holidays, takes place in Onys, a small province of France. Yevgeny Zhukov, Georgi Smilevsky Jr., Innokenty Yuldashev are youthfully direct and with passion perform, in fact, a pop number flavored with folklore flavor.
Swede Alexander Ekman is known as a joker and a master of curiosities. At the Benois de la Danse festival, for his Lake of the Swans, he wanted to install a pool with six thousand liters of water on the stage of the main Russian theater and run dancing artists into it. He was refused and improvised a funny solo with a glass of water, calling it "What I think about at the Bolshoi Theater." A scattering of eccentric finds was also remembered by his "Cactus".
In "Tulle" Ekman dissects not the dance, but the theatrical life itself. Shows its sweaty inside, ritual basis, ironically over the ambitions and clichés of the performers. An overseer in black at Anastasia Pershenkova's wobbling gait on pointe shoes, from which her troupe heroically does not descend, mows down under a coquettish model diva. The artists are concentrating on the stupidities of naive pantomime, again and again repeating boring steps of exercise. The tired corps de ballet falls into despair - exhausted artists lose their synchronism, bend in half, stomp their feet, slap the stage heavily and with full feet. How can you believe that they recently slipped on your fingertips.
And Ekman never ceases to amaze with eclecticism, bringing to the stage either a couple from the court ballet of the “Sun King” of Louis XIV, or inquisitive tourists with cameras. Against the backdrop of mass madness that has engulfed the stage, the orchestra pit “jumps” up and down, the screen images of unknown eyes and faces change, the running line of translation rushes at a gallop. The score, compiled by Mikael Karlsson from hit dance rhythms, crackling and noise, the clatter of pointe shoes and claps, the score in the rehearsal room and the lowing of the corps de ballet practicing the swan tread, is dizzying. Excessiveness harms the harmony of a humorous plot, taste suffers. It is good that artists are not lost in this mass choreographic fun. Everyone bathes in the elements of a playful game, joyfully and lovingly making fun of the crazy world behind the scenes. The best scene of Tulle is the grotesque circus pas de deux. Oksana Kardash and Dmitry Sobolevsky in clown outfits are having fun with their tricks, surrounded by colleagues counting the number of fouettes and pirouettes. Just like in the movie "Big" by Valery Todorovsky.
The Music Theatre, always open to experimentation, easily masters the unfamiliar expanses of world choreography. The goal - to show how the dance developed and how professional and audience preferences changed - has been achieved. The performances are also arranged in strict chronology: 1935 - "Serenade", 1962 - "Halo", 1979 - "Onis", 2012 - "Tulle". In total - almost eight decades. The picture turns out to be curious: from the classic masterpiece of Balanchine, through the sophisticated modernism of Paul Taylor and the folkloric stylization of Jacques Garnier, to the brawl of Alexander Ekman.
Photo on the announcement: Svetlana Avvakum
Again Laurent Hilaire arranges an Evening of one-act ballets, again studying the choreography of the 20th century to go to MAMT. In two trips, it is now possible to cover seven choreographers - first Lifar, Kilian and Forsyth (), and then Balanchine, Taylor, Garnier and Ekman (premiere on November 25). "Serenade" (1935), "Halo" (1962), "Onis" (1979) and "Tulle" (2012) respectively. Neoclassical, American modern, French escapism from neoclassical and Ekman.
The Musical Theater troupe is dancing Balanchine for the first time, and Taylor and Ekman have never been staged in Russia. According to the artistic director of the theater, the soloists should be given the opportunity to express themselves, and the corps de ballet - to work.
« I wanted to give young people the opportunity to express themselves. We do not invite outside artists - this is my principle. I think that the troupe has amazing soloists who work with great appetite and reveal themselves in the new repertoire from a completely unexpected side.(About "Onis")
…Great choreography, great music, twenty women - why turn down such an opportunity? In addition, having prepared two compositions, it is possible to occupy most of the women of the troupe.(about "Serenade")" from an interview for "Kommersant".
Photo: Svetlana Avvakum Balanchine created "Serenade" for adult students of his ballet school in America. " I just taught my students and did ballet where you can't see how bad they dance". He denied both the romantic interpretations of the ballet and the hidden plot and said that he took a lesson at his school as a basis - then someone will be late, then he will fall. It was necessary to take 17 students, so the drawing turned out to be asymmetrical, constantly changing, intertwining - often the girls hold hands and braid. Low light jumps, mincing dashes, blue translucent chopins that the dancers deliberately touch with their hands - everything is airy marshmallow. Not counting one of the four parts of Tchaikovsky's serenade "final on a Russian theme", where the dancers almost start dancing, but then the folk dance is veiled by the classics.
Photo: Svetlana Avvakum After the neoclassical Balanchine, the contrast is the modern of Paul Taylor, who, although he danced with the first in Episodes, worked in the troupe of Martha Graham. "Halo" to the music of Gendal is simply a textbook on modern movements: here are V-shaped hands, and a toe on oneself, and a jazz preparatory position, and a pass in the sixth from the hip. There is also something left of the classics here, but everyone dances barefoot. Such antiques already look more like in a museum, but the Russian public took it even too enthusiastically.
Halo by Paul Taylor Photo: Svetlana Avvakum As well as "Onis" by Jacques Garnier, who at one time ran away from academicism and plot, focusing on the dance itself and the human body. Two accordionists in the corner of the stage, three dancers are lying. They stretch, sway, get up and start a dashing dance with rotations and stomping and slapping. Here is folklore, and Alvin Ailey, whose technique Garnier studied in the USA (as well as Cunningham's technique). In 1972, together with Brigitte Lefebvre, he left the Paris Opera and created the Theater of Silence, where he not only experimented, but also conducted educational activities and was one of the first in France to include the work of American choreographers in the repertoire. Now Lefebvre has come to Moscow to rehearse Garnier's choreography, which obviously appealed to Russian dancers, and Lefevre herself even discovered new nuances of this choreography thanks to them.
Onis by Jacques Garnier Photo: Svetlana Avvakum But the main premiere of the evening was the ballet "Tulle" by the Swede Alexander Ekman. In 2010 he was invited by the Royal Swedish Ballet to do a production. Ekman approached this matter philosophically and with irony (in other respects, as well as to his other creations). “Tulle” is a reflection on the topic “what is classical ballet”. With the inquisitiveness of a child, he asks questions: what is ballet, where did it come from, why do we need it and why is it so attractive.
“I like the tutu, it sticks out in all directions”, “ballet is just a circus”- say the unknown at the very beginning, while the dancers are warming up on the stage. Ekman, as if with a magnifying glass, examines the concept of "ballet", just as in a video projection on the stage, the camera lens slides over a ballet tutu - there is only a grid in the frame, everything looks different up close.
"Tulle" Alexander Ekman Photo: Svetlana Avvakum So what is ballet?
This is a drill, counting - on the stage, ballerinas synchronously do exercises, in the speakers there is a loud clatter of their pointe shoes and confused breathing.
These are five positions, unchanged - tourists with cameras appear on the stage, they snap the dancers as if in a museum.
This is love and hate - ballerinas talk about their dreams and fears, pain and euphoria on stage - “ i love and hate my pointe shoes”.
This is a circus - a couple in harlequin costumes (the ballerina has feathers on her head like horses) perform complex tricks to the hooting and screams of the other dancers.
This is power over the viewer – the American composer Michael Karlsson has made an electronic adaptation of “Swan” with aggressive beats, the dancers perform snippets of quotes from the ballet-symbol of the ballet with cold-blooded grandeur, and the viewer is nailed like a concrete slab by this powerful aesthetics.
“Tulle” is a light preparation of ballet, ironic and loving, when silent art is given the right to vote, and it argues, ironically, but confidently declares its greatness.
Text: Nina Kudyakova
The program of the XXVII International Festival of Classical Ballet named after R. Nureyev in Kazan included three modern one-act ballets by the Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman, including the ballet Cacti.
The ballets of the German theater, united in the program "Triptych", caused an ambiguous assessment of ballet lovers. We have the opportunity to acquaint our readers with the exact point of view of a professional - a ballerina of the Tatar Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after M. Jalil.
Although the main ballet event of the season is positioned as a festival of classical ballet, in different years artists and troupes dancing modern choreography came to Kazan. So this year the balletomanes were pleased with something “unusual”.
In general, modern choreography, or modern dance, has become relevant in Russia in the last decade. In the West, contemporary dance - another name for modern dance, has long been developing and living a rich theatrical life, it has acquired certain forms. Some directions and styles of different choreographers have become classics of the genre. And yet modern dance never ceases to amaze.
For the Kazan audience, the arrival of the Dortmund Ballet was a pleasant surprise. A troupe from Germany performed four ballets in two festival days. Of these, in my opinion, the ballet "Cacti" can definitely be called the most striking performance.
The play begins with a slightly absurd voice-over philosophizing. The pathetically delivered voice reflects on modern dance and the role of art critics in today's society, and the opinion of one of them can influence the perception of many viewers.
Ekman himself, in one of his interviews, calls the satirical ballet "Cacti" the last comment on the opinion of such critics. He also hopes that the viewer will understand his witty hint. In his opinion, contemporary art should not be taken very seriously.
Then the exciting action begins! 16 dancers, seated in a checkerboard pattern on white platforms, begin to do in silence something like yoga breathing exercises, freezing from time to time in bizarre poses.
The musical landscape of the performance is as intriguing as the plasticity of the dancers. A live string quartet playing a collage of the music of the great composers: Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert, gives a special mood and sharpness to the "cactus" choreography. The dancers, in turn, using their whole body and the surrounding space, clap their hands on the floor, shouting to the beat, create an infectious rhythm, becoming an integral part of the human orchestra.
White pedestals measuring 1 meter by 1 meter, on which, in fact, the artists dance, symbolize the duality of freedom and limitation. On the one hand, everyone is limited by their own space, on the other hand, everyone is free to manifest themselves on their small island. The work of light and shadow is especially impressive. Here you need to say "bravo" to the lighting designer, who at the right moment snatched out the right dancer in his monologue.
Hooligan choreographer Ekman seems to love to surprise the audience, and rightfully so. When something extraordinary happens on stage, such as a stuffed cat falling from the sky during a simple dialogue-dance of an ordinary couple, the viewer immediately reacts vividly. Plunging into an unusual performance in this way, people take a break from everyday problems, and perhaps this inspires them to look at everyday things (the same cacti, for example) from a different angle.
Although the modern masterpiece leaves the impression of lightness, irony and ease, one can only try to imagine what kind of physical preparation this choreography requires from the artists. The dancers of the Dortmund Ballet coped with this task brilliantly! The choreography in places resembled the tribal dances of Africans, the energy of the frantic dance was so strong. There was such a feeling that the dancers completely let themselves go into the element of dance, but still skillfully control every muscle of the body.
At the end of the performance, all the characters build an amazing composition from the same platform-boxes, which seemed to defy the laws of gravity and somehow stand on edge. Everyone has a cactus in their hands - a symbol and an allegory for modern people, each living in his own pot, just as prickly and unpretentious, but still strong, ready to break even through the stone ground of asphalt, there would be only a ray of light.
This unusually light, fresh, dynamic ballet, which, like a whirlwind, takes the viewer into the world of the amazing choreographer and artist of his time, Alexander Ekman.
This ballet, the brightest representative of the new art, is recommended for obligatory viewing by both spectators and professionals.
The author of the review graduated from the Kazan Choreographic School (class of I.Sh. Khakimova) in 2011 and was accepted into the troupe of the TAGTOiB. M. Jalil. She is busy in more than 10 theater performances. Most recently, we saw her in the ballet The Golden Horde: in the Oriental dance, she appeared as a Peacock. She danced the part of the Wolf Mother in Spartacus, the Bride in Swan Lake. She went on tour with the theater troupe to European countries.
Aisylu is a 3rd year student of the Higher School of Arts named after S. Saidashev IFMK.
Alexander Ekman. Photo - Yuri Martyanov / Kommersant
Choreographer Alexander Ekman on modern ballet and social networks.
Tulle appeared in the repertoire of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater - the first ballet in Russia by Alexander Ekman, a 34-year-old Swede, the most prolific, sought-after and talented choreographer of his generation, who has already directed 45 ballets around the world, the last of them in Paris Opera.
– You have a rare gift for staging plotless comic ballets: in Tulle, for example, it’s not the characters and their relationships that are funny, but the very combinations of classical movements and the peculiarities of their performance. Do you think classical ballet is outdated?
I love classical ballet, it's great. And yet it's just a dance, it should be fun, there should be a game. I don't distort the classic movements, I just show them from a slightly different angle - it turns out to be such an easy absurdity. And misunderstandings can arise, especially on the part of artists: working like in a drama is not very usual for them. I always tell them, “Don't comedy. It's not you who should be funny, but situations.
- So, the theater is still more important for you than ballet?
“A theater is a space where two thousand people can feel connected to each other, experience the same feelings, and then discuss them: “Did you see this? Cool, huh? Such human unity is the most beautiful thing in the theater.
- You introduce speech into your ballets - replicas, monologues, dialogues. Do you think the audience will not understand your idea without words?
“I just think it's more fun that way. I like to present surprises, surprises, surprise the audience. Consider speech as my trademark.
