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Ballet.co asks the questions...
...Irek Mukhamedov answers During the run-up to his gala in aid of Kids, Irek Mukhamedov kindly agreed to answer some questions posted by ballet.co readers. Here are the results... | |||||||
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Irek: Each performance is a lifetime. This is it. In every performance I give my all on stage. I cannot describe any particular one. Each performance is the performance of my life. Roddy: What has become of Natalia Arkhipova with whom you danced Nutcracker at the Bolshoi? I really enjoyed both your performances and the production as a whole. What would you say are the main differences between the ballet environment in Russia and in England? Irek: I don’t know. I’m not in touch with Russia much. I know she isn’t dancing anymore with the Bolshoi. She was dancing with the Grigorovich Company and after that I don’t know. Kate: Giselle is the defining role for a ballerina. What role would you say is the defining one for a male dancer? Irek: Any role is a defining role for a male dancer. I like to do dramatic roles, but I don’t mind doing classic roles. Some dancers prefer classic to dramatic roles. Maybe it’s a question that can be put a different way. Which role can lift you up in your career and give you a step further. I think it depends how you do it - and how memorable an audience find it. Rudolph in Mayerling is an incredible role and character. But it does not mean other parts in that ballet are no good. Other dancers may define themselves in other roles. It’s very difficult to say that Giselle is a defining role. Maybe for a ballerina it’s Swan Lake. It is not only Giselle. For a male it could be Rudolph from Mayerling, or Albrecht from Giselle, or any role. For me every role is important. Kate: Do you think that with so many new versions of ballet classics and even more new individual pieces, that ballet is becoming deconstructed? If so, is this a good thing? Irek: I think it is because modern choreographers try to shock audiences with new versions of the story of Swan Lake or Nutcracker. If someone sees Nutcracker for the first time and it’s from a modern choreographer with shocking things on stage, and not the classical version, that’s the one they’ll remember. Afterwards they will not want to see a classical Nutcracker because as far as they’re concerned they’ve seen Nutcracker. It’s the same music, and nearly the same story. And it’s shocking and it will stay forever in their memory. This is what distracts ballet as a classical art. We have to fight very hard to keep classical ballet as it is, not to be ashamed to repeat ourselves and to do classical ballets as many times as possible. Kate: Do you think ballet audiences of today tend to focus on the wrong things? As a dancer, what subtleties in your performance would you hope your audience would appreciate? Irek: Yes. As classical dancers now we have to adapt what’s happening in the dance world generally, not just the ballet world. The ballet world has to do modern stuff as well as revive classical pieces. The dance world is so enormous, but we’re losing audiences. To bring the audience back, dance has to adapt. We need to bring more life, entertain audiences more, and make them smile. Not always with dramatic ballets but also a little bit of fun so that audience can come back to us. Anneliese: I wouldn't expect you to say who your perfect partner has been - but is there anyone you've never had the chance to dance with but wished you had? Irek: I wish I could have danced with Margot Fonteyn. I would like to feel how much I know about Margot Fonteyn. I think she had a romantic soul. There was something special inside her that I would like to have seen coming through on the stage. Lara: Is there one role, other than Ivan the Terrible in Russia that you would like to dance one more time? Irek: I don’t think so. I thought I would do Ivan the Terrible, but I’m now having second thoughts and thinking it may not be such a good idea now. If when I was 40, perhaps. But at 41 or 42? I might try just one special guest performance. But there’s nothing else I see myself doing. Jim: Do you ever feel homesick for Russia? Do you keep abreast of events in Russia? What do you think of Vladimir Putin's policies relating to the arts in Russia? Irek: One important thing I like in the West is the freedom to do the job you want to do. I’m doing art and only art. I’m not mixing politics and art. I don’t care what Putin thinks and what he is doing, because I am so far away from Russia now and I’m not homesick and not missing it. I know that there I went to school, had the beginning of my career, and made my name. But there’s nothing else I can say. Genevieve: My name is Genevieve, and I am 10 years old and I am a big fan of yours. I wanted to ask, as I know you have children, whether they are following in your footsteps and enjoy dancing. Irek: Sasha my daughter, who’s 11 still wants to dance, but she is also very nicely mixing colours, so she might think of being a designer. Max, my son, he’s aged 5, he is sometimes at home copying Sasha and copying me. And I say to him “Max - shall I take you to ballet school?” And he puts on him such a face showing to me “Go to hell!” Marj: You mentioned "Valentino" as a project for 2002. Can you tell us anymore?
Irek: This piece, Four Horsemen, which we’re doing at the Gala, is a piece of
light and easy research, and it’s an experiment more for myself as a
choreographer, to see what can be done in a way to show the passion of tango
on stage. Valentino was a passionate tango dancer.
Marj: You have always invested your dance characters with a sense of soul. As
a choreographer, if your choice was confined to two dancers, one with great
technic but no ability to portray character, the other almost the exact opposite,
who would you choose, and how would you work around it?
Irek: When I read this question I laughed so much that I’ll try to answer in a
cheeky way. Both technical and dramatical dancer, I would say. You never
know. I am always challenging myself to work with a dramatic dancer who
cannot do such and such a trick or not quite technical ability to ensure that he
learns from me. Or technical dancer who has not the dramatic ability, to teach
him to be more dramatic. I would take this as a challenge. I would not want to
choose. I would take both.
Marj: Do you have any plans to keep us British fans up to date with your future
career wherever it takes you. The world is now a very small place and it is
sometimes easier to get to Europe than central London?
Irek: I’m sure if I dance at Paris Opera everyone will know. But I will not dance at
Paris Opera. And for sure if I suddenly dance at the Royal Ballet, which I don’t
think so, they will know immediately!
Viviane: I like to hear some thoughts on ballet-education and vocational
training nowadays. What are the major differences with training in Russia?
Irek: I still think that young dancers who finish at Russian school are trained
much better. When they come to a company they are technically much better.
They know themselves better and are in charge of their lives more. Here in the
West dancers are still children even when they finish school. They come to the
company and they’re still boys and girls instead of already being professional
dancers and taking responsibility for what they do on stage. They don’t think
about what they’re doing on stage. The Russian school is still the best in the
world. The second I would say is the French school, but not the English one.
Something else in needed here - a different attention to how they approach
dancers, how they chose dancers for a school. If a boy or girl is passionate to
dance, it doesn’t mean that they will be very good. You need to check talent,
the technical ability, the strength, extensions, and so many things. And then
artistically it will develop in the school. To say “This girl can’t dance, but she’s
so passionate on the stage” doesn’t mean that she will be very good anyway.
The schools here don’t push students to be responsible for themselves and
what they do at the barre, what they do at the centre. Here students are
spoon-fed. In Russia they have to do it for themselves and the teacher is there
to help them to think for themselves.
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