A master of movement
Free-spirited choreographer Boris Eifman in tragic tours de force
RUSSIAN CHOREOGRAPHER Boris Eifman, loved by Russians and whose work was officially considered as 'not conforming to Soviet art', will be coming to Hong Kong next month to produce Red Giselle and Tchaikovsky: The Mystery of Life and Death.
He has been described as Russia's most successful choreographer, with a couple of major Russian awards under his belt, including the Golden Mask, Russia's equivalent of the Tony Award, in 1997, for Tchaikovsky, and the Triumph Award in 1996 for a lifetime contribution to the performing arts.
Born in 1946, Eifman's artistic talent was uncovered at the age of seven when his family moved from a communal home in the Siberian town of Rubtsovsk to Kishinev, Moldavia, where he studied dance in a Young Pioneers club. By the age of 13, he knew he wanted to become a choreographer.
He captured the attention of local critics with his production of the ballet Icarus in 1970, when he was enrolled in the choreography department of the Leningrad Conservatory. But at the same time, he was chastised for creating ballets that did not deal with 'Soviet themes'.
In subsequent years, he produced ballets that achieved remarkable success, including Gaianeh for the Maly Opera and Ballet Theatre and Firebird for the Kirov Ballet, before he was allowed to form his own dance troupe in 1977, the New Ballet of Leningrad.
Eifman 'explores philosophical issues through emotionalism and theatricality by fusing the expressiveness of modern dance with the language of classical ballet', according to critics.
As his company was performing pieces that did not conform to Soviet art, government subsidies were not forthcoming and the dance troupe survived on box office takings alone.
When politics finally allowed Eifman's company to tour internationally, its debut at the Champs Elysees Theatre in Paris in 1987 was followed by more tours throughout Europe, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, Israel, Latin America and the United States.
Eifman's company performed Pinocchio, The Idiot and Twelfth Night for its Hong Kong debut in 1990.
Next month it will relate in Red Giselle the emotions of last century's great ballerina Olga Spessivtseva. It tells the tragic story of her living alone and abandoned in a lunatic asylum near New York after fleeing revolutionary Petrograd. It is not just a tale of the ballerina but an attempt to relate the stories of many talented artists forced to leave Russia after the revolution.
Tchaikovsky explores the Russian composer's sense of tragedy that emanates from his works as he grappled with his fate as an exceptional talent who yearned to be ordinary at the same time.
Red Giselle will be staged at 8pm on September 2 and 3 at the Cultural Centre grand theatre. Tchaikovsky will be performed at 8pm on September 4 and 3pm on September 5. A meet-the-artist session will be held on September 4. A free Ballet Master Class is scheduled for September 4 (for enrolment, tel 2268 7323).
Tickets are priced at: $340, $260, $180, $120.
