One-act ballets
Choreography and Set and Costume Design: Jiří Kylián
Dance is an art form which easily overcomes national borders, language barriers and mentalities. There is, therefore, nothing surprising in the fact that Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián has spent most of his working life with the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) and has forever changed our perception of how ballet could be in the 20th and 21st centuries. Russian theatre was introduced to his work relatively recently. The first production permitted to be staged at a Russian theatre was mounted by the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Musical Theatre.
An Evening of One-Act Ballets by Jiří Kylián is a veritable jewel box of dance. The ballets La Petite Mort and Sechs Tanze could be called a dream set to Mozart’s music. The age of powdering is embodied here in a literal sense: all of the male dancers wear wigs that create floury clouds at the slightest touch while the women have whitened faces and their hair fluffed up like cooks. Here there is a powerful atmosphere of total flirtation and unavoidable adultery.
Sleepless and Wings of Wax are entirely different – they are mysterious and incredibly serious. Here the understatement is both frightening and alluring. These ballets immerse the audience in a world of reverie, fears and desires.
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes
There will be an evening of one-act ballets as part of the project The Golden Mask Festival in St Petersburg
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