About Watch Russia
Bogdan Korolyok, Assistant Ballet Director at Yekaterinburg’s Ural Opera Ballet Theatre and promoter of ballet and opera arts, talks about where to see good ballet in Russia.
Since 2007, Andrey Klemm, who graduated from the Moscow School of Ballet, has been working as a pedagogue-coach for the Paris Opera ballet company, one of the strongest in the world. Does this mean that the Russian ballet school still dominates the same Paris Opera where Serge Lifar and Rudolf Nureyev ruled for many decades? What is Russian ballet’s authority in the world today?
Teachers from Russia have always been highly valued throughout the world but their work at any particular theatre does not indicate domination, global triumph of the Russian school, or the like. Today, it is hard to define what exactly the Russian School constitutes. Over the last 30 years, Russian dancers and teachers have inevitably accumulated diverse experience, everything from George Balanchine and William Forsythe to Ohad Naharin and Sharon Eyal, plus representatives of other schools and traditions that have worked in Russian companies. It’s a natural openness, while talk of dominating the Paris Opera or being ahead of the world reminds me in general of Yuri Vizbor’s sarcastic song, which we’ve always taken seriously.
You are the Assistant Ballet Director and editor at the Ural Opera Ballet Theatre, as well as a playwright, choreographers’ assistant, and co-author of scripts for various Russian stages. Where is ballet life most interesting in Russia right now? Besides the Bolshoi in Moscow and the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg, where else should tourists, including from abroad, who are interested in ballet, go? Where are the strongest ballet centres in Russia?
I risk appearing like a cook praising my own broth, so let me apologize in advance for my answer: Yekaterinburg. I’m unashamedly proud because I believe our team at the Ural Ballet creates an engaging and vibrant theatre. Of course, it’s worth going to Perm as well: they still have one of the strongest ballet companies in the country. There’s renewed activity and intriguing projects under way at the theatre in Nizhny Novgorod. The Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre in Moscow hasn’t lost its bustle either. And in St. Petersburg, Yacobson Ballet occasionally releases significant premieres. Ultimately, it depends on what the tourist wants: big chandeliers and former splendour or lively theatre.