Register Your Cart

Media about us

Russian Troupe Poised for a Global Stage

12.11.2014

Russian Troupe Poised for a Global Stage

When we think about Russian ballet, our minds inevitably drift to two companies, the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky. They represent a kind of yin and yang of Russian aesthetics, the cold elegance of St. Petersburg reflected in the extraordinary refinement of the Mariinsky ballerinas, the dynamism and bluster of Moscow in the large-scale dancing of the Bolshoi.

But they do not exist in a vacuum. Large troupes play “Swan Lake” on an endless loop across Russia; smaller ones survive and even thrive in Moscow and St. Petersburg. One of these, the Mikhailovsky Ballet of St. Petersburg, has lately seen its fortunes rise, propelled by the ambitions of Vladimir Kekhman, a Donald Trump-like tycoon who built his fortune on fruit imports. After discovering a sudden passion for ballet, he became the company’s general director in 2007.

On Tuesday, the Mikhailovsky will begin a two-week run at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, followed by three days in Orange County in California. A large contingent of the company’s 140 dancers is coming, as well as its house orchestra. This will be its first visit to the United States. A high level of interest is assured by the presence of two blazing stars, Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev.

Recent reports about his bankruptcy petition notwithstanding, Mr. Kekhman has brought considerable sums into the once-ailing troupe (and the opera company that shares its home). His first major project was the renovation — paid for with his own money — of the company’s neo-Classical home, with its elegant primrose-and-silver interiors. Before the Russian Revolution, French plays were performed there for the pleasure of the czar and his friends. (With just under 1,000 seats, it is about half the size of the Bolshoi.) Today, it once again lures a well-heeled crowd.

Mr. Kekhman has also attracted private and corporate money to supplement city subsidies — which have tripled under his tenure — ensuring his ability to produce lavish new productions and hire away top ballet masters and dancers. In 2011, he enticed the Spanish contemporary choreographer Nacho Duato to come onboard as director. (Mr. Duato has since departed, for Staatsballett Berlin, though he is still listed as choreographer in residence.) The company has traveled to continental Europe, Canada, Japan and, with increasing acclaim, to Britain. Morale seems high. “He is our Napoleon,” one of the company’s principal dancers, Marat Shemiunov, crowed via Skype, “a Medici for the Mikhailovsky.”

Beneath the glamour, though, lies something much more interesting. The impresario’s soundest decision was one of his first: hiring the highly respected teacher Mikhail Messerer as ballet master in chief. In a phone conversation, the veteran Financial Times critic Clement Crisp described him as “a man of refined tastes and extreme knowledge.” If Mr. Kekhman is a symbol of the brash new Russia, Mr. Messerer is a microcosm of ballet’s deep stylistic and familial roots.

Mr. Messerer’s cousin Maya Plisetskaya was a Bolshoi star of the 1950s and ’60s. His mother, Sulamith, and an uncle, Asaf, were members of an earlier generation of virtuosos, avatars of a new, dynamic Soviet style. Both starred (together) in the Bolshoi revival of “The Bright Stream,” a Shostakovich farce choreographed by the innovative Fyodor Lopukhov and set on a collective farm. The ballet had debuted to great acclaim at the Mikhailovsky in 1935.

At the time, its resident company had become a laboratory for new operas and ballets, “iconoclastic, avant-garde experiments on subjects near and dear to the regime,” according to the historian and musicologist Simon Morrison. In a typically macabre twist, “The Bright Stream” was later denounced by Stalin.

But the Messerer siblings also led casts of “The Flames of Paris,” a Stalin favorite. With its scenes of brave men and women storming the Tuileries, it was a thinly veiled allegory of the Russian Revolution. Long neglected, “Flames” is enjoying a bit of a comeback. In 2008, Alexei Ratmansky created a new, ideologically ambivalent version for the Bolshoi.

Mr. Messerer’s more straightforward 2013 reconstruction for the Mikhailovsky is based, to a great extent, on personal recollections of watching his mother and uncle dance it as a child. “Flames” is one of the ballets the company will bring to New York, with the explosive Mr. Vasiliev in the role of the pure-hearted revolutionary.

Under Mr. Messerer’s watch, the company’s repertory has honored the Soviet past while also maintaining the canonic 19th-century works and dipping a toe into contemporary dance. “It is difficult to progress without first understanding your own past,” Mr. Messerer said in an email from St. Petersburg, “and we must make an effort to preserve the finest examples of Russian choreography.”

In addition to “Flames,” the dancers will perform the crowd-pleasing “Don Quixote” (mainly as a vehicle for Ms. Osipova and Mr. Vasiliev’s bravura) and “Giselle,” in a meticulous staging by Nikita Dolgushin. A triple bill combines Asaf Messerer’s “Class Concert"— an idealization of the ballet class he taught at the Bolshoi — with the 19th-century Petipa curio “Cavalry Halt” and Mr. Duato’s “Prelude.”

The company’s productions have been lauded for their clarity, liveliness and musicality. Mikhail Messerer teaches the company’s morning class several times a week. “We take character dance and mime very seriously,” he said. “And at the same time, I believe it very important to preserve pure academic traditions and a clean style of classical dance.”

His “Flames” is filled with raucous folk ensembles, including a clog dance and a rousing Carmagnole. It’s a style of dance that has become a rarity in the increasingly globalized world of ballet. More recently, the company has been able to attract promising young dancers early on in their careers, like the elegant Victor Lebedev (a recent graduate of the Vaganova Academy) and the Bolshoi-trained Anastasia Soboleva. The troupe has also provided a safe haven for Angelina Vorontsova, the Bolshoi beauty whose boyfriend was convicted of orchestrating the acid attack last year against their former boss, Sergei Filin. Mr. Messerer likened Ms. Vorontsova’s dancing to “sparkling wine.”

Little by little, the Mikhailovsky is beginning to look like a viable alternative to its larger rivals, particularly in this period of artistic retrenchment. Its size and relative independence have allowed it to carve out an identity all its own. Well funded and guided by the steady hand of one of ballet’s most respected conservators, the Mikhailovsky seems ready to take on the world.

The New York Times

USER AGREEMENT



1. GENERAL PROVISIONS

1.1.    This User Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Agreement’) defines the procedure for accessing the website of the St. Petersburg State Funded Cultural Institution, the St. Petersburg Mussorgsky State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre – Mikhailovsky Theatre (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Mikhailovsky Theatre’) located at the domain www.mikhailovsky.ru.

1.2. This Agreement regulates the relationship between the Mikhailovsky Theatre and the users of this website.



2. DEFINITION OF TERMS

2.1. For the purposes of this Agreement, the terms indicated below shall have the following meaning:

2.1.2. Mikhailovsky Theatre Site Administrators – those employees authorized to manage the website, acting on behalf of the Mikhailovsky Theatre.

2.1.3. User of the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site (hereinafter the ‘User’) – a person having access to and using the website via the Internet.

2.1.4. Site – the Mikhailovsky Theatre website located at the domain www.mikhailovsky.ru.

2.1.5. Content of the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site – the protected results of intellectual activity, including extracts from audiovisual productions, their names, forewords, annotations, articles, illustrations and covers, with or without text, graphic, textual, photographic, derived, composite, and other works, user interfaces, visual interfaces, logos, and also the design, structure, selection, coordination, external appearance, general style, and placement of the Content making up the Site and other intellectual property whether together and/or separately contained in the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site and the Personal Area, from where it is then possible to purchase Mikhailovsky Theatre tickets.



3. SUBJECT OF THE AGREEMENT

3.1. The subject of this Agreement is the provision to the User of access to the services available on the Site.

3.1.1. The Mikhailovsky Theatre Site shall provide the following services to the User:

- access to information about the Mikhailovsky Theatre and information about how to purchase tickets

- purchase of electronic tickets

- discounts, promotions, concessions, and special offers

- receipt of information about Theatre news and events, including via news and information distribution services (email, phone, text message)

- access to electronic content, with the right to view such content

- access to search and navigation tools

- the opportunity to post messages and comments

- other services provided through the pages of the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site

3.2. This Agreement covers all services existing (or functioning) at the present time on the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site, and any subsequent modifications to them and additional services which may appear in the future.

3.2. Access to the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site shall be provided free of charge.

3.3. This Agreement is a public offer. In obtaining access to the Site, the User shall be deemed to have opted in to this Agreement.

3.4. Use of the materials and services on the Site shall be governed by the provisions of current Russian Federation legislation.



4. RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF THE PARTIES

4.1. The Mikhailovsky Theatre Site Administrators shall have the right:

4.1.1. To change the rules for use of the Site and to change the Content of the Site. Changes to usage rules shall enter into force from the moment the new version of the Agreement is published on the Site.

4.2. The User shall have the right:

4.2.1. User registration on the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site shall be for the purpose of identifying the User in order to provide Site services, distribute information and news (by email, post, telephone, text message, or other means), and to obtain feedback and a record of the provision of concessions, discounts, special offers, and promotions.

4.2.2. To use all of the services available on the Site.

4.2.3. To ask any questions relating to the information presented on the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site.

4.2.4. To use the Site solely for the purposes and in the manner provided for by this Agreement and not prohibited by Russian Federation legislation.

4.3. The User shall:

4.3.2. Take no action which may be considered to be in breach of the normal functioning of the Site.

4.3.3. Avoid any actions which may result in a breach of confidentiality with regard to information protected by Russian Federation legislation.

4.4. The User may not:

4.4.1. Use any device, program, procedure, algorithm or method, automated devices, or similar manual processes in order to access, acquire, copy, or track the Content of the Site.

4.4.3. Circumvent in any way the navigational structure of the Site in order to obtain or attempt to obtain any information, documents, or material by any means which are expressly not provided by the Site services;

4.4.4. Breach the security or authentication systems of the Site or any network associated with the Site. Carry out reverse searches, track, or attempt to track any information about any other User of the Site.



5. USE OF THE WEBSITE

5.1. The Site and the Content contained therein belong to and are managed by the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site Administrators.

5.2. The Content of the Site may not be published, reproduced, transferred, or distributed by any means, nor posted on the worldwide networks of the Internet without the written consent of the Site Administrators.

5.5. The User shall be personally responsible for the confidentiality of the information in his/her account, including his/her password, and for all activity, without exception, which is carried out on behalf of the User of the account.

5.6. The User must immediately notify the Site Administrators of any unauthorized use of his/her account or password, or of any other breach of the security system.



6. LIABILITY

6.1. Losses which the User may suffer in the event of a deliberate or negligent breach of any provision of this Agreement, or as a consequence of unauthorized access to the communications of any other User, shall not be reimbursed by the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site Administrators.

6.2. The Mikhailovsky Theatre Site Administrators shall not be liable for:

6.2.1. Delays or malfunctions in the process of carrying out operations arising as a result of force majeure circumstances, nor for any faults in the telecommunications, computer, electronic, or other related systems.

6.2.2. The actions of banking, transfer, and payment systems, nor for delays connected with their operation.

6.2.3. Improper functioning of the Site in cases where the User does not have the technical equipment required for its use, nor do the Administrators accept any obligation to provide Users with such equipment.



7. BREACH OF THE TERMS OF THIS USER AGREEMENT

7.1. The Mikhailovsky Theatre Site Administrators shall have the right to terminate and/or block access to the Site, without prior notice to the User, if the User has breached this Agreement or the terms of use of the Site contained in other documents, or in the event of the Site ceasing to function, or due to technical glitches or problems.

7.2. The Site Administrators shall not be liable to the User or third parties for termination of access to the Site in the event of a breach by the User of any of the provisions of this Agreement or any other document containing the terms of use of this Site.

7.3. The Site Administrators shall have the right to disclose any information about the User as may be necessary for the execution of the provisions of current legislation or judicial rulings.



8. DISPUTE RESOLUTION

8.1. In the event of any disagreements or disputes arising between the Parties to this Agreement, a mandatory condition before resorting to the courts is that a claim should be submitted (a written proposal for voluntary resolution of the dispute).

8.2. The recipient of the claim shall, within 30 calendar days of receipt, notify the claimant in writing of the results of consideration of the claim.

8.3. If it is not possible to settle the dispute by voluntary means, either Party may apply to the courts for protection of their rights as provided for under current Russian Federation legislation.



9. ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS

9.1. In opting in to this Agreement and leaving his/her information on the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site by completing the registration form, the User:

9.1.1. Consents to the processing of the following personal information: full name; date of birth; telephone number; email address; payment details (if the service is used to purchase electronic tickets to the Mikhailovsky Theatre);

9.1.2. Confirms that this personal information belongs to him/her personally;

9.1.3. Gives the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site Administrators the right to carry out, without limit in time, the following actions (operations) with his/her personal information:

- collection and accumulation

- storage for an unlimited period of time (indefinitely) from the moment that the information is provided until it is recalled by the User by means of an application to the Site Administrators

- clarification (renewal, modification)

- destruction

9.2. The User's personal information shall be processed in accordance with Article 6.1.5 of Federal Law No. 152-FZ dated 27.07.2006 ‘On Personal Information’, solely for the purposes of performing the obligations accepted by the Mikhailovsky Theatre Site Administrators under this Agreement with respect to the User, including those indicated in clause 3.1.1 of this Agreement.

9.3. The User accepts and confirms that all of the provisions of this Agreement and the terms of processing his/her personal information are understood by him/her, and expresses his/her consent with the terms of processing his/her personal information without reservation or limitation. The User’s consent to the processing of his/her personal information is specific, informed, and conscious.