08.08.2012
Joint project of the Mikhailovsky Theatre and SKA Ice Hockey Club
The Mikhailovsky Ballet Company and SKA Ice Hockey Club have met to take part in the joint photo project The Triumph of Difference. The photo project was created to unite two contrary kinds of show — ballet and ice hockey and is called to symbolize power and art of Russia.
The idea arose in the course of an informal conversation between Alexander Medvedev, President of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), and a forward of SKA Alexey Yashin, who is an ardent ballet fan and theatre-goer. ‘Despite the crazy work schedule, I’m a real ballet fan and now my colleagues and I are going to be frequent visitors of the Mikhailovsky Theatre. I’ve always felt the likeness of our professions: both ballet dancers and hockey players work for the public and their life is just a constant training’ commented Alexey Yashin.
The romantic aesthetics of power and tenderness has appealed to the Mikhailovsky Theatre and the Theatre was glad to participate in the project. A fashionable photographer Vladimir Glynin conceived the idea of the project as the contrast of brutal sport and transitory art.
Virile hockey players among the arms stand for gladiators after the battle reminding of the ballet Spartacus. Ballerinas dressed as sylphs look like creatures from fairytales, ethereal, celestial nymphs.
[слайдшоу 570 340 Триумф разницы]Nikolay Krusser’s photos from the shoot The Triumph of Diefference
Irina Perren, principal dancer of the Mikhailovsky Ballet, seems to be very interested in ice hockey after the shoot: ‘The guys told us much about sport, showed the way one holds the hockey stick. Ballet is also a kind of sport, though we have different goals in our professions. I’ve never thought before how special ice hockey is, there is a special sort of plastique in the game. Now I’m sure to visit a hockey match.’
Vladimir Glynin: ‘My goal has been a challenging one — to make two different worlds meet. I had to invent a way to incorporate hockey players into the world of ballet or, vice versa, to take ballerinas to ice. The idea of uniting ballet and hockey has been used in cheap ads but always looked too comic. I’ve chosen to reject this way. My project is aimed to evoke admiration, surprise, it’s got nerve.’
The ambitious project is the first step in the long-term relationship of the Mikhailovsky Theatre and SKA Ice Hockey Club that has joined the Friends Club of the Theatre. The participants of the shoot have made friends, the hockey team is going to visit the performances of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, and the dancers have decided to support their new friends during one of the forthcoming matches.
The Triumph of Difference project will result in a photo exhibition in the Mikhailovsky Theatre, a series of calendars and photos published and a great promo-campaign of SKA Ice Hockey Club.
The idea arose in the course of an informal conversation between Alexander Medvedev, President of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), and a forward of SKA Alexey Yashin, who is an ardent ballet fan and theatre-goer. ‘Despite the crazy work schedule, I’m a real ballet fan and now my colleagues and I are going to be frequent visitors of the Mikhailovsky Theatre. I’ve always felt the likeness of our professions: both ballet dancers and hockey players work for the public and their life is just a constant training’ commented Alexey Yashin.
The romantic aesthetics of power and tenderness has appealed to the Mikhailovsky Theatre and the Theatre was glad to participate in the project. A fashionable photographer Vladimir Glynin conceived the idea of the project as the contrast of brutal sport and transitory art.
Virile hockey players among the arms stand for gladiators after the battle reminding of the ballet Spartacus. Ballerinas dressed as sylphs look like creatures from fairytales, ethereal, celestial nymphs.
[слайдшоу 570 340 Триумф разницы]Nikolay Krusser’s photos from the shoot The Triumph of Diefference
Irina Perren, principal dancer of the Mikhailovsky Ballet, seems to be very interested in ice hockey after the shoot: ‘The guys told us much about sport, showed the way one holds the hockey stick. Ballet is also a kind of sport, though we have different goals in our professions. I’ve never thought before how special ice hockey is, there is a special sort of plastique in the game. Now I’m sure to visit a hockey match.’
Vladimir Glynin: ‘My goal has been a challenging one — to make two different worlds meet. I had to invent a way to incorporate hockey players into the world of ballet or, vice versa, to take ballerinas to ice. The idea of uniting ballet and hockey has been used in cheap ads but always looked too comic. I’ve chosen to reject this way. My project is aimed to evoke admiration, surprise, it’s got nerve.’
The ambitious project is the first step in the long-term relationship of the Mikhailovsky Theatre and SKA Ice Hockey Club that has joined the Friends Club of the Theatre. The participants of the shoot have made friends, the hockey team is going to visit the performances of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, and the dancers have decided to support their new friends during one of the forthcoming matches.
The Triumph of Difference project will result in a photo exhibition in the Mikhailovsky Theatre, a series of calendars and photos published and a great promo-campaign of SKA Ice Hockey Club.
