"My whole choreography is to seek a wider space for ballet, to find a body language that can express the spiritual life of human beings" (Boris Eifman)
<h5>Boris Eifman</h5>
When the literary classics "Anna Karenina" and "Brothers Karamazov" were put on the ballet stage, the intense emotions that were wrapped up in the characters were as spicy and powerful as spirits.
From September 26th to 29th, the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia, will perform the double ballet "Anna Karenina" and "Brothers Karamazov" at the Guangzhou Grand Theatre, which is also the first time that the company will take the stage in Yangcheng with two prestigious ballets.
The Eifman Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia is the world's top company with the title of "one of the Russian ballet troikas", along with the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet and the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet. The company's artistic director and choreographer Eifman, known as the "new business card of Russian ballet", broke the barriers of classical ballet programming and explored the limits of human body movements with an original "psychological ballet" technique, and the dance contained a shocking power like a deep water bomb.
"Supermodel" ballet
Boris Eifman selected actors are slender: the actress is not less than 1.72 meters, the male actor is not less than 1.83 meters. He once said: "Dance is the art of line movement, good height is more tense, can more abundant expression of emotions", any group of dancers' appearance and body conditions are admirable, dancers in addition to a solid foundation of classical ballet, but also know how to use the body for emotional expression.
Eifman stretches his artistic fists and feet as long as the arms and legs of the actors, and the unimaginable lifting shapes, fast-forwarding speeds, blood-pumping dance rhythms, and the burning enthusiasm of love and hate like a fiery fire are represented by the slender and stretched dancers of the Eifman Ballet.
Eifman's dance is a feast for the senses, a tsunami-like dance that envelops everyone present. A professional dance review described Eifman's work as "volcanic eruption from beginning to end".
"Philosophical" choreographer
There are many famous ballet companies in Russia, and there are many ballet stars, but there are not many choreographers with a truly innovative spirit, and the Eifman Ballet founded by Boris Eifman is considered to have reached a new height of contemporary Russian ballet.
In 1972, Eifman graduated from the Choreography Department of the Leningrad Conservatory of Music, and in 1977, at the age of 31, he left the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet to lead a large group of young talents with the same ideals to create the Eifman Ballet. Since its inception, the company has been seen as a revolutionary force in ballet, and its artistic creation has renewed the concept of classical Russian ballet, pushing the emotional expression and dramatic conflict of ballet to the limit. Since its establishment, the company has only rehearsed Eifman's original contemporary ballets, such as "Tchaikovsky", "Red Giselle", "Requiem", and rarely rehearsed "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty", "The Nutcracker" and other traditional plays.
In 1988, the Eifman Ballet debuted on the European stage and made its debut at the Champs Elysées theatre in Paris, forming a new trend of ballet development with a unique style that not only maintains the rigorous norms, skill and lyricism of the Russian ballet genre, but also integrates the stage art of the twentieth century with the film expression method.
In the eyes of outsiders, Eifman is a "philosophical" choreographer, he pays attention to modern social issues, is keen to explore the nature of human nature, and dance for him is not only a physical expansion, but also a spiritual exploration. Based on the deep heritage of the traditional Russian ballet genre, he adds sculptural plastic arts and externalized catharsis of psychological emotions, and conveys complex love-hate feelings and hatreds through extreme body language without dialogue and subtitle prompts, reaching the hearts of the people.
From novel to dance: "Psychological ballet"
In the process of creating the dance drama, Eifman did not simply move the plot and main line of all the novels to the stage, but used psychoanalysis to dig deep into the spiritual world of the protagonist in the play, creatively externalize it into a dance image, and define his choreography style with "psychological ballet". "All my dance creation is to seek a broader space for ballet, to find a body language that can express the spiritual life of human beings", the fierce emotions that are wrapped up in the characters, as spicy and powerful as spirits.
Known all over the world for its psychological ballet, the Eiferman Ballet combines stage art and cinematic expression, making full use of all the elements of stage theater production to present a montage feast of dance. The core and primary artistic task of Boris Eifman and his troupe is to create a unique and innovative new repertoire based on the rich traditional Russian psychological drama, and to establish a new way of choreography that meets the needs of the 21st century.
Leo Tolstoy's famous book "Anna Karenina" has also been adapted in different forms such as films and operas. The novel occupies a special place in Eifman's heart, and the tragic nature of Anna's character, her struggle between reason and emotion, conscience and desire, and the dark and destructive side of her soul all make Eifman very interested.
Readers of any era can clearly see the contradictions depicted in Tolstoy's pen. In this play, we focus on the philosophical and psychological aspects, through the modeling and stage techniques, to show Anna's broken and broken soul. Eifman put aside the story side line in the original book, focusing on the emotional entanglement of Anna, Karenin, and Vronsky, outlining a woman who was reborn by the passion and instinct of love, and also carving out two different faces on Anna's body.
On the stage, accompanied by Tchaikovsky's ups and downs, under the rendering of the light and dark changes, the dancers show their vigorous vitality with highly expressive limbs and strong and sincere feelings.
The first "Karamazov Brothers" in the dance world
The Brothers Karamazov is one of Dostoevsky's masterpieces and his last, telling the story of a moral struggle between lust, faith, reason and free will. Almost in the form of a howl, Dostoevsky shouted out the voice of pure goodness or pure evil in the depths of everyone's heart.
Due to the intricate character relationships and hidden lines of the work, it is almost impossible to present the work in a dance-like manner. In an interview with reporters, Eifman was clearly proud of it, "The Brothers Karamazov is one of Dostoevsky's most comprehensive novels about psychology. Our Ballet Theatre was the first in the world to pay attention to and produce Dostoevsky's works. ”
The ballet "Brothers Karamazov" has a unique and charming artistic expression of people's ideas and concepts through fascinating and ingenious choreography, a variety of classical music styles, and a rich ballet vocabulary. The music is based on the works of three great composers: Richard Wagner, Modest Mussorgsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff. The sins of human nature are cathartic in fiercely contradictory music, the redemption of the soul rises in the ethereal and gentle female chant, and the specific melodic portrayal sets off the identity and temperament of specific characters.
Boris Eifman said that the karamazov brothers dance drama developed the art of psychological ballet and is a study that explores human happiness. Although we cannot attain absolute truth in the process of seriously thinking about the power of human nature, through this process we can better understand ourselves.
How does dance express the power and soul of human beings? In September, let's follow Eifman's Anna Karenina and Brothers Karamazov to the theater to find answers.