19.10.2016
Sacred and profane
Recreating the ballet La Sylphide is a complex process involving multiple factors, presenting the ballet company and other creative departments of the theatre with challenges, sources of inspiration, and reasons to rejoice. Ballet Master in Chief Mikhail Messerer, who is busy reviving the classical choreography, expressed his take on the production: “The Mikhailovsky Theatre, which has been performing Bournonville’s creation as part of its repertoire for 40 years, has a duty to preserve this ballet treasure in its proper form while striking a delicate balance between light and darkness, the sacred and the profane.”
According to Messerer, La Sylphide presents the dancers with a unique set of challenges. “This ballet may be compared to a precious seed which has yielded a great harvest”, he says. “The second-act grand pas was the prototype for the form which prevailed in ballet over the next several decades of the nineteenth century and gave rise to such masterpieces as the second act of Giselle and the Kingdom of the Shades in La Bayadère. In the twentieth century, George Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony also owes its origins to La Sylphide. And these are just a few examples. For the audience to experience the true charm of the vintage choreography, the performers must showcase the ensemble — dance and breathe ‘as one’. And this breathing should be easy and light. Ivan Bunin has a short story, called Light Breathing — those two words are evocative in my mind of La Sylphide.”
Behind these poetic observations, there are some quite practical aspects to the production. Much of the long-celebrated charm and allure of La Sylphide, the features which have made it last through the ages, are created by theatrical effects. The audience gasps when the heroine rises through the chimney, seemingly inconceivably, like a cloud of smoke, or when she disappears from the massive armchair in which she was sitting, hidden underneath a tartan blanket, or when she pretty incredibly, effortlessly, overcomes gravity to reach the branches of a tree and return a fallen baby bird to its nest. Scenic wonders such as these are, of course, produced with the help of clever theatrical devices. But, unlike the choreography, these contrivances, invented by talented craftsmen in ages past, were always destined to become modernized.
“La Sylphide will remain the same and be completely revamped at the same time”, says Stage Department Director Olga Alymova. “Where there was once a brawny stagehand turning the handle of a lifting device, there will now be modern hydraulic mechanisms. And now we can guarantee that Sylphide’s appearance in the window or flight across the stage won’t be accompanied by any screeching or creaking noises. But I won’t reveal all our staging secrets — when Sylphide’s wings shudder, as her strength wanes, and then fall off entirely, an astonished gasp sweeps through the audience — I cherish that moment too much.”
According to Messerer, La Sylphide presents the dancers with a unique set of challenges. “This ballet may be compared to a precious seed which has yielded a great harvest”, he says. “The second-act grand pas was the prototype for the form which prevailed in ballet over the next several decades of the nineteenth century and gave rise to such masterpieces as the second act of Giselle and the Kingdom of the Shades in La Bayadère. In the twentieth century, George Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony also owes its origins to La Sylphide. And these are just a few examples. For the audience to experience the true charm of the vintage choreography, the performers must showcase the ensemble — dance and breathe ‘as one’. And this breathing should be easy and light. Ivan Bunin has a short story, called Light Breathing — those two words are evocative in my mind of La Sylphide.”
Behind these poetic observations, there are some quite practical aspects to the production. Much of the long-celebrated charm and allure of La Sylphide, the features which have made it last through the ages, are created by theatrical effects. The audience gasps when the heroine rises through the chimney, seemingly inconceivably, like a cloud of smoke, or when she disappears from the massive armchair in which she was sitting, hidden underneath a tartan blanket, or when she pretty incredibly, effortlessly, overcomes gravity to reach the branches of a tree and return a fallen baby bird to its nest. Scenic wonders such as these are, of course, produced with the help of clever theatrical devices. But, unlike the choreography, these contrivances, invented by talented craftsmen in ages past, were always destined to become modernized.
“La Sylphide will remain the same and be completely revamped at the same time”, says Stage Department Director Olga Alymova. “Where there was once a brawny stagehand turning the handle of a lifting device, there will now be modern hydraulic mechanisms. And now we can guarantee that Sylphide’s appearance in the window or flight across the stage won’t be accompanied by any screeching or creaking noises. But I won’t reveal all our staging secrets — when Sylphide’s wings shudder, as her strength wanes, and then fall off entirely, an astonished gasp sweeps through the audience — I cherish that moment too much.”
