28.10.2014
Balanchine returns to his alma mater
This year, the Mikhailovsky Theatre Grand Prix is departing from its customary format and taking the form of a special project: on 29 November, the theatre will stage an exclusive programme entirely featuring students from the Vaganova Ballet Academy. The students will perform George Balanchine’s Raymonda Variations to mark the 110th anniversary of his birth, as well as excerpts from Auguste Bournonville’s Le Conservatoire.
Variations, to music from the first act of Alexander Glazunov’s ballet Raymonda, was first performed at the New York City Ballet in 1961. The choreographer considered this score to be an example of the very best in ballet music — „grand, generous, joyous, and playful“ — and, in using it to create a one-act abstract ballet, was certain that „the music itself was more than enough to carry the plot of the dances.“ A year after the world première, the New York City Ballet performed Raymonda Variations during a tour of the USSR. Now, half a century later, the production is returning to Balanchine’s native land: it is the first time that the Vaganova Academy, the great choreographer’s alma mater, has dipped into his artistic legacy. This production of Raymonda Variations is sponsored by the Balanchine Foundation, which oversees all the choreographer’s ballets, as well as by the Open World Dance Foundation.
On the same evening, the budding ballet stars will perform The Dancing School, an excerpt from Le Conservatoire by the celebrated Danish choreographer Auguste Bournonville. This ballet marked the beginning of a whole new trend in choreography on the theme of ballet lessons — in particular, Harald Lander’s Études and Asaf Messerer’s Class Concert. Bournonville’s composition is based on recollections from his student days at the Royal Academy of Dance in Paris. He perfected his choreographic technique there under the great Auguste Vestris, who also taught Marius Petipa and Marie Taglioni. The mid-nineteenth century composition will be staged by Dinna Bjørn Larsen, a Danish choreographer and an acknowledged specialist in Bournonville’s legacy, who has been invited to the Vaganova Academy by Nikolai Tsiskaridze.
Variations, to music from the first act of Alexander Glazunov’s ballet Raymonda, was first performed at the New York City Ballet in 1961. The choreographer considered this score to be an example of the very best in ballet music — „grand, generous, joyous, and playful“ — and, in using it to create a one-act abstract ballet, was certain that „the music itself was more than enough to carry the plot of the dances.“ A year after the world première, the New York City Ballet performed Raymonda Variations during a tour of the USSR. Now, half a century later, the production is returning to Balanchine’s native land: it is the first time that the Vaganova Academy, the great choreographer’s alma mater, has dipped into his artistic legacy. This production of Raymonda Variations is sponsored by the Balanchine Foundation, which oversees all the choreographer’s ballets, as well as by the Open World Dance Foundation.
On the same evening, the budding ballet stars will perform The Dancing School, an excerpt from Le Conservatoire by the celebrated Danish choreographer Auguste Bournonville. This ballet marked the beginning of a whole new trend in choreography on the theme of ballet lessons — in particular, Harald Lander’s Études and Asaf Messerer’s Class Concert. Bournonville’s composition is based on recollections from his student days at the Royal Academy of Dance in Paris. He perfected his choreographic technique there under the great Auguste Vestris, who also taught Marius Petipa and Marie Taglioni. The mid-nineteenth century composition will be staged by Dinna Bjørn Larsen, a Danish choreographer and an acknowledged specialist in Bournonville’s legacy, who has been invited to the Vaganova Academy by Nikolai Tsiskaridze.
