23.05.2022
Marat Basharov: “Ballet is incredibly hard work”
On 5 June, renowned theatre and film actor Marat Basharov will take to our stage for the first time as the Tsar in the ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse. His recent debut in the ballet’s premiere at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre was a resounding success. The Siberian audience clapped until their hands were sore as they expressed their admiration and delight, but few knew that Marat’s main rehearsals were actually taking place in St. Petersburg, right here in our ballet studios.
“I spent ten days rehearsing at the Mikhailovsky Theatre,” the actor told reporters. “I was rehearsing with a chair, with an imaginary object. At first, it was the chair that replaced my partners. Ballet is tough, I’ve always known that. But until you actually get into it yourself, you don’t fully understand just how tough it is. It’s incredibly hard work. Ballet is about slaving away and slaving away, day in, day out, then getting up again and slaving away some more.”
“I’d been told that it’s difficult to act with ballet dancers, that they always have the same look on their face,” the actor continued. “Now I know that’s not true. They can support you, they can crack a joke, they have this brilliant look that’s so full of life. They’re the liveliest people you’ll meet. Now I understand the difference between ballet dancers and actors. Actors sit chatting in the smoking area during the interval, but ballet dancers are always on stage practising, rehearsing something. I’m happy that fate has brought me to the ballet theatre. You’d have to be a fool to say no to something like this.”
Basharov’s debut in Novosibirsk was covered by Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper: “It is impossible to pin his character down,” reads the review published after the production’s premiere. “Is he a despot? Yes! A tyrant and a madman? Absolutely. And yet this ultimately negative character comes across as likeable, amusing, and almost relatable. In what proportion did this stage work mix irony, compassion, observation, and musicality? It is unlikely that the actor himself could answer such a question. When the applause died down, I asked him a simpler one: ‘Marat, tell me, doesn’t the false belly get in the way of your dancing?’ Marat thought for a moment. ‘You know, when I was skating,’ — he was evidently referring to his successful appearance in a popular TV show — ‘I had a partner, and if I had to fall, her soft body would cushion the landing. As it turns out, in ballet, the false belly compensates for the lack of a partner.’”
Let’s hope his character’s romantic misfortune, and indeed the complete fiasco that he experiences, won’t affect the actor too much, because he’ll certainly have the support of his stage partners. In our production, Marat Basharov will feature alongside Angelina Vorontsova as the Tsar Maiden and Nikita Tchetverikov as Ivan. The role of the Royal Chamberlain will be taken on by Leonid Sarafanov, who partnered Marat at the Novosibirsk premiere and formed a brilliant duo with him.
“I spent ten days rehearsing at the Mikhailovsky Theatre,” the actor told reporters. “I was rehearsing with a chair, with an imaginary object. At first, it was the chair that replaced my partners. Ballet is tough, I’ve always known that. But until you actually get into it yourself, you don’t fully understand just how tough it is. It’s incredibly hard work. Ballet is about slaving away and slaving away, day in, day out, then getting up again and slaving away some more.”
“I’d been told that it’s difficult to act with ballet dancers, that they always have the same look on their face,” the actor continued. “Now I know that’s not true. They can support you, they can crack a joke, they have this brilliant look that’s so full of life. They’re the liveliest people you’ll meet. Now I understand the difference between ballet dancers and actors. Actors sit chatting in the smoking area during the interval, but ballet dancers are always on stage practising, rehearsing something. I’m happy that fate has brought me to the ballet theatre. You’d have to be a fool to say no to something like this.”
Basharov’s debut in Novosibirsk was covered by Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper: “It is impossible to pin his character down,” reads the review published after the production’s premiere. “Is he a despot? Yes! A tyrant and a madman? Absolutely. And yet this ultimately negative character comes across as likeable, amusing, and almost relatable. In what proportion did this stage work mix irony, compassion, observation, and musicality? It is unlikely that the actor himself could answer such a question. When the applause died down, I asked him a simpler one: ‘Marat, tell me, doesn’t the false belly get in the way of your dancing?’ Marat thought for a moment. ‘You know, when I was skating,’ — he was evidently referring to his successful appearance in a popular TV show — ‘I had a partner, and if I had to fall, her soft body would cushion the landing. As it turns out, in ballet, the false belly compensates for the lack of a partner.’”
Let’s hope his character’s romantic misfortune, and indeed the complete fiasco that he experiences, won’t affect the actor too much, because he’ll certainly have the support of his stage partners. In our production, Marat Basharov will feature alongside Angelina Vorontsova as the Tsar Maiden and Nikita Tchetverikov as Ivan. The role of the Royal Chamberlain will be taken on by Leonid Sarafanov, who partnered Marat at the Novosibirsk premiere and formed a brilliant duo with him.
