07.02.2017
Love is All Around
On Valentine’s Day, Ivan Vasiliev will bring his new choreographic creation, the one-act ballet Love is All Around, to the Mikhailovsky Theatre.
We know him as the resourceful Basilio in Don Quixote and the intrepid Philippe of Marseilles in Flames of Paris. But in his own ballets, Ivan Vasiliev leaves the traditions of classical dance behind in order to examine the issues that concern audiences today.
In this production, Vasiliev once again addresses the question of how our apparently liberal society continues to be hostile towards those independently-minded and unconventional individuals who never seem to fit in. Love is All Around is set in a psychiatric hospital. Two people, surrounded by over zealous nurses and doctors, fall in love with each other. Their love gives meaning to their lives, and opens up a way out of their surroundings, where the dazzling whiteness of the walls and lab coats hurts and blinds their eyes.
The contemporary choreography speaks directly to the audience, avoiding any over-reliance on symbolism, and is underpinned by the music of Stravinsky. In these representatives of different eras and very different musical worlds, Vasiliev has discerned spiritual commonalities: both composers wove their music from the finest cloth, based on a deep sense of kinship with the universe.
Love is All Around will be presented as part of a triptych of one-act ballets by Ivan Vasiliev, together with Morphine and Blind Affair, to be staged at the Mikhailovsky Theatre on 14 and 15 February. The ballet first premiered in May 2016 at the Bolshoi Theatre as part of Faces , a showcase for up-and-coming choreographers.
We know him as the resourceful Basilio in Don Quixote and the intrepid Philippe of Marseilles in Flames of Paris. But in his own ballets, Ivan Vasiliev leaves the traditions of classical dance behind in order to examine the issues that concern audiences today.
In this production, Vasiliev once again addresses the question of how our apparently liberal society continues to be hostile towards those independently-minded and unconventional individuals who never seem to fit in. Love is All Around is set in a psychiatric hospital. Two people, surrounded by over zealous nurses and doctors, fall in love with each other. Their love gives meaning to their lives, and opens up a way out of their surroundings, where the dazzling whiteness of the walls and lab coats hurts and blinds their eyes.
The contemporary choreography speaks directly to the audience, avoiding any over-reliance on symbolism, and is underpinned by the music of Stravinsky. In these representatives of different eras and very different musical worlds, Vasiliev has discerned spiritual commonalities: both composers wove their music from the finest cloth, based on a deep sense of kinship with the universe.
Love is All Around will be presented as part of a triptych of one-act ballets by Ivan Vasiliev, together with Morphine and Blind Affair, to be staged at the Mikhailovsky Theatre on 14 and 15 February. The ballet first premiered in May 2016 at the Bolshoi Theatre as part of Faces , a showcase for up-and-coming choreographers.
