© Nina Ananiashvili Ananiashvili reviews London shows in March 04 Ananiashvili and politics interview in 2004 Ananiashvili interview in 2000 Nina Ananiashvili web site Philip Bichard reviews Interview and words by Philip Bichard. Bruce Marriott sat in.

We meet Nina Ananiashvili just before Christmas at her hotel, the famous Brown's in London's Mayfair, a rather fitting choice given it's an elegant and luxurious institution firmly rooted in a classic tradition... Nina is dressed simply in a black trouser suit, neatly set off by gold earrings and rings, but it is her eyes that provide the diamonds, sparkling or flashing dangerously depending on her mood.

Ananiashvili is prima ballerina of Moscow's legendary Bolshoi Ballet and, having danced the classical repertory throughout the world to great acclaim for more than two decades, she has built up a formidable reputation and loyal following for her performances in classics such as Swan Lake and Giselle. Her fan-base in London, who first acclaimed her Raymonda back in 1986, will be delighted to hear that she is returning – and with a self-titled mini-season, a sprinkle of Bolshoi stars, and a company of dancers (Moscow Dance Theatre) created especially for her, no less - but the work on offer is a sharp deviation from the classical norm and she is slightly nervous about how the audience will react.

“I love London – my international reputation comes from London and I have a fantastic memory of *every* time I've been in London and now, when I'm bringing this company, of course I want to keep this feeling! I think it's especially interesting for London to see me in this kind of role. I'm happy because definitely I want to show London what I do now – different things.”

She goes on to explain that the dancing style in these two shows is “neo-classical, not like totally crazy modern! We are on pointe shoes!” She is still retaining the links to her classical background but is actively exploring new artistic directions, an understandable development from a dancer who has achieved almost everything in the classical roles. She emphasises that the new work is not all-consuming. “I'm still continuing to dance classical ballet – hopefully good, not bad!” She laughs, “Because sometimes people move to new work when they've stopped dancing classical but I'm still dancing classical ballet and good, good!” Again, the eyes twinkle teasingly, without arrogance but knowing that few, if any, would disagree.

Part of that artistic exploration has involved works with an international, one could say ethnic, flavour - which seems appropriate for this most widely travelled of ballerinas. Her London shows have Russian influences, obviously, but also French and Italian music, Australian and American choreography, and African, Jewish and Japanese themes. She believes that ballets with an ethnic background, particularly when it comes to the music, have become much more popular in recent years. “I think it's because people want to know about each other more – and this music gives us these possibilities.”

She has even successfully pulled off a feat in ballet that is not entirely unlike selling snow to Eskimos – one of the pieces, 1997's 'Dreams About Japan', was an idea she herself pitched to choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, because she was so taken by her experiences of the country, the art and culture and Kabuki in particular. She has since danced it all around the world - Paris, America, Russia, Georgia, St. Petersburg... and Tokyo, where it is wildly popular.

Nina Ananiashvili in Charms of Mannerism
© Nina Ananiashvili

Ratmansky is a good friend of Ananiashvili who, at only 35 and still Principal dancer at Royal Danish Ballet, has just started work as Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Ballet. The two Sadler's Wells shows feature two more of his works, 'Leah' and 'Charms of Mannerism'. About 'Leah' in particular, created for her in 2001, Ananiashvili is passionate. “I like it very much; it is new work and it is very interesting for me because it is a very dramatic ballet – it's like Giselle – it's like you become crazy; it's really frightening.” Although it uses Leonard Bernstein's original score and Anski's play, The Dybbuk, contractual issues from the original 1974 Jerome Robbins ballet meant a change of name to 'Leah', the main role played by Ananiashvili.

Alexei Ratmansky isn't the only Bolshoi Artistic Director connected with the Moscow Dance Theatre – it is actually run by Ananiashvili's long-time partner at the Bolshoi, former danseur noble Alexei Fadeyechev, who ran the Bolshoi for three years until 2000. “We wanted to invent a small company. When he left Bolshoi it was his idea to have a small company - you can invite choreographers to make special creations - so what was nearly impossible with Bolshoi - they don't like experiments - in this new company we have new possibilities to do new work.”

She also believes MDT is proving useful for the young dancers who make up its ranks, to have the opportunity to do work other than the classics so often performed in Russia. She admits to having thoughts of life after dancing and would like to think she might one day even run MDT. She already takes rehearsals and passes on her extensive knowledge and experience to these dancers.

Despite the great breadth of her work and penchant for travel, one gets the distinct impression that Ananiashvili's ballet world is a small, intimate one, with companions rewarded with great loyalty when they have finally earned her trust. She gives all the credit for the tour to Fadeyechev (“Really, he's doing it, I am like “just ballerina” so I don't do any other work so of course he is doing everything.”), her husband Gregory on the organisational side and a small but productive group of people around them. “To do it alone is impossible. So you need to have people around you. We're family.”

Nina Ananiashvili and Giuseppe Picone in Leah
© Nina Ananiashvili

As we discuss the recent creation of Leah she reveals how she likes to approach all new work. “This is a very interesting story. I knew this story but not this reading and tried immediately to read about this drama... and I find out about Jerome Robbins and his ballet and it was not so successful... and I read about the first actor who played Leah – a famous Jewish actor in Russia, Hannah Rovina, and this story ...and she starts talking with this man's voice and I found these pictures of how everybody looks and moves. For me, it is interesting to know the background of something... and then you have these pictures and then you try to get a feel for what *you* need to do. In ballet it is different, you cannot talk, you need to go inside. I try with my make-up person to think how I need to look, to get close to that period, what I need to wear. And this is what I love, it is my favourite period.”

This desire to research the background of a role in order to get things as right as possible includes even the classic roles she is famous for, such as Romeo & Juliet, Sleeping Beauty or La Bayadere. “I like to go and read what others are doing, what this ballet is about; about Bayadere, because we have this very good library at home, we have this old book and I went to read it immediately. What does it mean, Bayadere? Who was there, what is Indian dance, what is Petipa talking about, how is Petipa doing this ballet? And after that you have ideas... “Oh, that is interesting, so that is why Bayadere is like this...”.”

Authenticity is an issue that Ananiashvili is very concerned with when it comes to roles in ballet. “Sometimes I ask people questions and they do not even know that Sleeping Beauty is not a Russian ballet.... Aurora is a French girl and it was just that Petipa was working in Russia and staging this in Russia. Nobody knows Swan Lake is a German story - they thought it was also a Russian story, and I don't understand and I'm a little bit sad because you *need* to know.”

There are difficulties, of course, with creating something new. “It is hard because when you work with a choreographer you never know if it is good or not, you never know...sometimes they have a block – “I do not have anything in my mind... I cannot show you anything.” but we have one day for stage rehearsal and we cannot change something if it is not right. We have to get it right *before* then. It is difficult with this {London show} because everything goes around me and I know that if something will be wrong with me then everything will crash down! So this is a very difficult period but at the same time it is wonderful.”

Despite all this new work Ananiashvili is at pains to say that she is still very much a Bolshoi dancer, it's just that she has her own interests and her own schedule to follow as well which her contract with the Bolshoi allows for. As well as meeting her rehearsal and performance commitments with the Bolshoi, and travelling the world as a guest artist and with her own small troupes, she has been dancing regularly with American Ballet Theatre for over ten years. She was still excited by her recent (December 4^th) appearance in La Fille mal Gardee with Sergei Filin – her debut in the role on the Bolshoi stage, despite first dancing it with Stuart Cassidy at Covent Garden back in 1991. Did she enjoy it? “Very much, very much. I'm thinking, “I'm dancing this in America, I do this some time ago in London and we have now this production in Bolshoi”. So I don't know how many years we can have this production. So I say, “Why am I not doing it for my own audience if I have this in my repertory? So I force Sergei to do it and we had a really fun and wonderful time.”

This naturally leads to the question of whether she considered including some more well-known pieces in the upcoming shows. “Yes, and I'm really nervous about it! It's really new works and although we do this once in Moscow nobody sees these ballets often, except 'Dreams about Japan', and I'm really nervous, but at the same time I'm so happy this has happened because I don't know how many years I can continue to dance, really, I don't know, time passes so quickly - I really wanted to bring these ballets to London. So we'll see! But you know, when I finish my career, I can think, “I'm so happy, at least I showed those ballets in London!”

She's not sure she will be dancing with the Bolshoi at Covent Garden in the summer because she already has prior engagements, so this short season of two different shows may be the UK's best opportunity to see this great dancer this year. A typically busy 2004 so far sees her start the year in Moscow at the Bolshoi with Don Quixote, Giselle and Swan Lake on the radar. Then a short stint in Tokyo beckons before coming directly to London for the Sadler's Wells season. After that she is going to Denmark with the Royal Danish Ballet to start work with Ratmansky again on a full evening work of 'Anna Karenina' in early April. Then it's off to Chile to do Swan Lake, for an unusual reason – her husband's best friend is Russian Ambassador there. “And then my ABT season starts in New York in May. So May and June I am there with ABT and at the end of June maybe I can have a few performances with the Bolshoi.”

A busy first half year then! Hang on, there's more. “Then we have some festivals – it's really interesting because we do not make really much promotion of our company {MDT} but somehow it happens by itself. Like somehow people really know... it's good for me – they don't just want DonQ or Swan Lake, but interesting new work so I am so proud of that.”

Another choreographer Ananiashvili is working with on new work is an Australian, Stanton Welch, the new Artistic Director of Houston Ballet, whom she met while guesting there. She found his work to be “very musical, very lyrical” and so invited him to create a new work for MDT. He ended up creating a half-hour piece which is “neo-classical without any story. He made this ballet by colour. He said, “I want to stage for you a green ballet!”. So it's called 'Green'. In Russia it was so funny. They say, “Why 'Green'?”. Because in Russian if you translate 'green' the word means 'dollars', like 'greenbacks'. So we say, “no, just *green*!”. So now in Russia we don't translate it, we just use the English word, 'Green'.”

Laughing at the way this ballet that almost got lost in translation she expands on the background to another piece born out of Texas, Choreographic Associate Trey McIntyre's 'Second Before The Ground', a feel-good piece based on an African tribal belief that all a person's happiest moments are re-experienced just before death. “It was absolutely a shock in Russia because it was all bright and with lovely music. And when Trey was in Moscow people asked him, “Why did you choose this music and why are you staging this ballet?”. And his answer was, “Every time I go to the ballet it is all “deep” and “dark” every time - why does nobody put on happy ballets any more?! My idea was just to make a happy ballet.” I'm not dancing this ballet because I cannot do everything. But when I see this ballet and listen to this music in the wings I cannot stay still and start doing it myself! You cannot stop moving – I think it's a wonderful ballet.”

This experience of people believing that all ballet should be a certain way, somewhat “deep” and “dark”, led us on to a discussion about the present and future of ballet. Ananiashvili's extensive travel schedule puts her in a good position to see what is happening to classical ballet as both a form of art and entertainment around the world and she holds strong views on the importance and continuing relevance of classical ballet in particular.

“I tell you one thing: I'm 'classical ballet Nina', and I like classical ballet, definitely. New work is important for us, for dancers, to find something new. Many years ago Petipa's ballet was also new work, right? Fokine was new work but it's classical now, MacMillan was totally new work, and if you remember what people were writing about him at that time it gives you a shock now, but now it is classical.” She says it is important to work with new choreographers but it is vital to keep pure classical ballet at a high standard – in fact, “Without classical ballet it is impossible to be a great company like Bolshoi or Royal Ballet.”

She becomes more animated and passionate as she continues with this theme. “You can change the decoration, change costumes – but dancing, you need to keep this - it is necessary and important, very very important. And what is very interesting: everywhere in the world, even in New York, the Metropolitan Opera House - 4000 people – when you have {she beats out the points with her finger} Swan Lake, DonQ, Bayadere, Corsaire – full house. Full house. You can't go *in* if it's Swan Lake. Full house. Everywhere. Triple bill: difficult to sell. So what are we talking about? People want to see classical ballet.”

We agree that a “classic classic” such as Swan Lake is still popular, but what about future generations? How will classical ballet continue to appeal to the MTV generation and beyond? “Don't forget that audiences change every time. Classical ballet, like classical music, like old books, is *necessary*. You can't kick out different things – “don't read a classical book because now we have stupid detective books or, like I don't know, about sex, because “this is our life now”. No! You need to *read* everything, you need to start from the beginning to read – and then if you want you can continue on and read new stuff. And it's the same with classical ballet. You need to have classical ballet for your next generation. You need to teach the young generation to love classical ballet. And this is now our problem for our generation because they love this, they follow this and they go there and they give their own money. My problem is to keep classical ballet for the next generation because without classical – I mean without, not just ballet, classical music or the classical part of our life - what do we have? Nothing. We can't live for one day. I'm talking about this everywhere, but especially in Russia, because in Russia we are classical in the first place, but young people now follow new things, at a bad level. So definitely we need classical arts and classical ballet. We need to keep these very strong, especially the big houses. You know you can have a thousand modern companies but classical ballet, big companies... it's important. “

The discussion moves on to discuss the dearth of current choreographers creating new classical ballets, especially full evening works. She cites Ben Stevenson and Pierre Lacotte, David Bintley is proposed from within the UK, and then Christopher Wheeldon is mentioned. “I don't see Wheeldon as classical ballet, more neo-classical, Balanchine. One thing, because he was at Royal Ballet School, he learned a lot of things in America, freedom, to be free. At NYCB he is doing what they want. Maybe one day, when he has the company with people around who are more classical... I hope so because he has this talent, definitely, and humour.” Anyway, all is not lost forever. “It will continue like this and so maybe somebody can be born or grow older who will do some new work.”

One unexpected potential source of new classical work is Ananiashvili herself as she reveals a desire to create some new versions of her favourite ballets in the future. Laughing, “One day I want to stage *my* Swan Lake! I had this idea a long time ago, I *really* want to do a classical Swan Lake, because Swan Lake is one of my favourite ballets and my first big ballet. Maybe one day when I stop dancing I will do this. “

Ananiashvili doesn't approve of ballet “updates” that purport to be the real thing, but then go off the rails into territory never imagined by the original choreographer, composer – or the audience. She believes it is disrespectful, pointless and misleading. “When you listen to Mozart, Bach, Stravinsky, Rachmaninov or whatever, do you want to change this music? You listen to this because you like to listen, right? And you don't want to mix Puccini with somebody just because it's new. If you want new music you can go and buy new music and listen to new music. Why in ballet does everyone want to destroy classical ballet? Everybody tries to do something with classical ballet so that we forget it. Thank God it's still survived and we still have these classical parts. So don't touch this. Do something else yourself. Why don't people touch opera – you cannot take this music and put something else in... but in ballet everything is possible.“ She is noticeably unhappy while speaking about this and clearly has strong feelings on the subject.

She goes on to illustrate her point. “I also love Giselle very much and sometimes it makes me so sad when people totally change and destroy Giselle. If you must do it, totally change it. In Russia it is a little bit more open, before it was a little bit conservative. But in Russia we say, “If you want to do Giselle, don't tinker with the music, do something else, don't call it Giselle. Just say “Pretty Girl” or something, and do your own ballet, why they say “Giselle”?!”

This does not mean that all “cover versions” are artistically worthless. She uses Mats Ek as an example of a choreographer who is producing different looks at classic ballets that still remain valid and worthwhile. “When I see Mats Ek's Swan Lake on TV I was just shocked, first, and second, it was very interesting to watch because I thought, “How did this guy listen to the music?” It's totally different, so I then I start looking and he sees it with a totally different eye. He's very talented and somehow he did it.”

She also gets riled when people criticize her for performing the same classical roles, such as Kitri or Odette over and again, feeling that they are missing the point. “Nobody asks you this question about opera: “Why are you always singing Aida?” if you have this voice. Nobody asks this question about any singer, but in ballet, “You don't want to dance Swan Lake... every time a Swan Lake.” No! I don't know how many Swan Lakes in my life I have danced but I always do something new. I think I have two or three performances this year, next year I have two. It's not much. Every time you do something else and different, like new. I am even a little bit *hungry* about this ballet. My feelings are like, “*Now* I can do this!”.

The hunger for her roles is partly due to her deep understanding of them and her desire to give a heartfelt performance each time, but Father Time must also, inevitably, be a factor. “Ballet is difficult. I have been on stage for a long time. And you know what is interesting? Every time I am on stage and I take a bow I feel, “Oh my God, it's gone so quickly. And maybe one day it's over.” I understand this so well now because I feel this time goes so quickly. And I may never again be in this situation, in this time, in this theatre.”