© Mariinsky Theatre 'Golden Age' reviews Kirov reviews Kevin Ng reviews

Noah D. Gelber, born in 1976 in New York City, left the United States at the age of 17 to pursue a career in Europe. He worked as a soloist with the Royal Ballet of Flanders, before joining the Frankfurt Ballet at William Forsythe's invitation. During his eight years in the company he performed a large part of the repertory, notably premiering in "The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude". Gelber has vocal talents too, and performed as a singer in some of Forsythe's productions.

As a choreographer, Gelber created considerable solo and pas de deux material in some of Forsythe's pieces. His ballets have been presented in New York and Montreal. In Britain last summer, in a gala in Dartford, I saw his ballet "Object Ours", with a commissioned piano score, which was premiered with Anton Pimonov from the Kirov Ballet, Natasha Oughtred and Ludovic Ondiviela from The Royal Ballet. His other recent creation "The Overcoat", which I also had the pleasure to attend, was premiered by the Kirov Ballet during the Mariinsky International Ballet Festival in March 2006. This ballet based on Gogol's story, with Andrei Ivanov in the main role, was acclaimed in the Russian media.

Gelber is now responsible for ballet-mastering seven of Forsythe's ballets, and has set these works on 25 ballet companies round the world. Gelber is no stranger to the Kirov Ballet. In 2003 he set for them "The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude", followed by "Approximate Sonata" in 2004.

I met Gelber in mid-June in Washington DC during the Kirov Ballet's one-week season at the Kennedy Center. We spoke one afternoon in the Kennedy Center in between his rehearsals for his new ballet "The Golden Age" which was to receive its premiere in the Mariinsky Theatre two weeks later on 28 June 2006.

Kevin Ng - Mr. Gelber, I understand that you've had very little time to plan and prepare this new ballet "The Golden Age".

Noah Gelber - No time at all. I've been doing as much planning as I possibly can, with my limited amount of time off, from working nine hours a day.

- What was your reaction when you first received this commission to do a three-act ballet?

I think nobody was more shocked than I was.

- But you couldn't have refused, as it's a big milestone in your career.

I didn't see it that way. Throughout this entire process with "The Overcoat" and this ballet "The Golden Age", I've never seen it as something in reference to my career. It's not at all the way I look at it. If truth be told, I've never actually intended to be a choreographer, and I've never worked at being a choreogrpher. I never presented myself as a choreographer. I've never tried to get a job as a choreographer. It's always been something that I've been asked about "Do you choreograph?" And the answer is "Yes, I do, I have done." And the offers seem to have come to me, and I am remarkably shocked that they keep coming to me.

For my last ballet "The Overcoat", it was actually Makhar Vaziev (the Kirov Ballet's artistic director) who offered me the job. And because it was very well received, he then offered me this new "Golden Age". I was given carte blanche, and I've used the dancers whom I wanted to use. I think it was a logical choice. I was the name that was presented in the Russian media at the time, for having done a ballet that was very well received. And they wanted a clear view - a fresh view of someone who is not biased, who did not grow up in the Soviet era, who wouldn't be immediately prone to draw the same conclusions, or come to the same visual images that maybe someone who had grown up in Russia would. They wanted a fresh view of someone who is Western, who maybe has a mixed view. As an American living in Germany, I've a very mixed view. I am half-Russian of descent.

- Have you turned to the other versions of "The Golden Age" for reference?

I saw the Grigorovich version many years ago. I did research and found limited information about the original version. We use it for reference. We have an artistic team. There was a stage designer who had already been decided on by the Mariinsky, and who has a very clear idea of what he wanted. We spoke, and it was clear to all of us that we didn't want to completely recreate the original version. We wanted to do something new with the story, because Russia has changed since then. It's not a propaganda piece about anti-capitalism, it's more about today. So we wanted to update the version to where Russia is now.

- How has the story changed?

You can tell it's the original story, and it's about a Soviet football team that comes to Europe. We were basing our reference on the original story - the particular story that Shostakovich intended when he wrote the music, which was then set. We are using it as well, because it's about the football team coming to a European sports event. We have changed the focus of the story. It's not about capitalism versus communism. It's not about any political affiliation. We've taken away all of the references to good and bad, in terms of one way of life being good. And then we focused on the love story. We've made it about something that is timeless.

- Your choreography is presumably classically based?

Yes, it's classically based, more classically based in some places than in others. There are elements of my movements, as there were in my earlier ballet for the Mariinsky, "The Overcoat". But it's a completely different vocabulary that I'm using.

- I must say that I find it odd that you've been commissioned by the Mariinsky Theatre to create dramatic ballets, while your background as a ballet master for Fosythe ballets and as a former Frankfurt Ballet dancer is assoicated with pure dance ballets. Have you actually created story ballets before?

My other pieces were plotless. "The Overcoat" was actually my first story ballet; I had never done story ballets before. However my ballet is very emotionally based. It's based on ideas. I don't go into the studio to make movements just for the sake of movement. I always have a clear idea of what I am trying to express, and there is a story behind what I'm doing. It's just that this is more literal now that I'm portraying the story on stage. But this is not something that feels foreign to me at all.

- Can you tell us about the casts for "The Golden Age".

The main roles are Sofia and Alexander. The three casts are Irina Golub with Mikhail Lobukhin (who in the end danced the premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre on 28 June), Daria Pavlenko with Alexander Sergeyev, and Viktoria Tereshkina with Artyom Yachmennikov. After that there comes a series of soloist roles. Alexander's best friend Vladimir is danced by Islom Baimuradov, Anton Pimonov, and Alexei Nedviga. And there is the boyfriend of Sofia in the beginning, Heinrich, who is danced by Dmitry Pykhachov, Maxim Krebtov, and Maxim Zyuzin.

Then there is the movie star Olga who is also a very important character. Olga will be danced by Ekaterina Kondaurova, Sofia Gumerova, Elena Vostrotina, and Tatiana Tkachenko. There are a lot of other soloist roles too, but those are the main characters.

Gabriela Komleva and Sergei Berezhnoi (former illustrious Kirov dancers who are now ballet masters of the company) will be playing the 90-year-old Sofia and Alexander. The ballet begins in the present time. So we see first the old Sofia and the old Alexander, meeting by chance after not having seen each other for 60 years. They had thought of each other as dead. They meet, and now we go back into their memory when they first met in the 1930s, when the Soviet football team came to the European football event.

So we've changed the story in that sense that it's not taking place in 1930 but in the present. And all the elements of the past, the historical events are taking place in their recollection. The sequence of the music has been very significantly changed. We really tried to stay true to the original context of the music. It's impossible to maintain that in its order, if we are going to do something new with the story.

- What's the progress now about two weeks before the premiere in the Mariinsky Theatre on 28 June?

We are about 80% finished, though there is a lot to be done. I've choreographed most of the major scenes. Choreographically, in terms of pure dance choreography, I only have about 1 1/2 more scenes to create. But there is a lot of stage work to do - a lot of transitions, a lot of filling in, a lot of work with the extras, the children.

- So children from the Vaganova Academy students will participate in your ballet?

No, not the Vaganova School. They have actually refused to help us, which is a big surprise. But I am very disappointed because they told me that they have no children available. But two weeks later, in the Mariinsky Theatre, I saw 30 children. I find that very surprising.

Noah D. Gelber
Courtesy of Mariinsky Theatre ©

I've been focusing mostly on the Forsythe programme which is being performed this week at the Kennedy Center, but I've had four rehearsals for "The Golden Age". And I'm hopefully going to have a big rehearsal here tomorrow, if possible.

- But in St. Petersburg, before this Washington tour, did you also have to rehearse the Forsythe programme?

I was rehearsing the Forsythe ballets whenever I could, e.g. taking an hour off between my rehearsals for the new ballet. Billy (Forsythe) has specifically asked me to take a careful look at two of the ballets this time and focus on them - "The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude" and "Steptext" -because there was some concern about the quality of the musicality and the dancing, from some of the performances seen in the past. And he's asked me to take a look at those two ballets.

I didn't really have time to focus on "Steptext", because there are already two ballet masters responsible for that - Alexei Miroshnichenko and Yuri Fateev. So I trusted them, and they rehearsed it very well. But at the end I did look at some rehearsals, and made a comment here and there, though I have not really been responsible for them.

- Do you think that the Kirov have really mastered Forsythe's choreography? They haven't Russified Forsythe's style, have they?

I would say that they are very true to the spirit. But Billy's stuff is adaptable, and will look different on whoever is dancing it. There is a set choreography of course, but there is room or leeway for a personal interpretation. Billy has always been of the opinion that if something looks better on somebody, just let them do it that way, provided that it doesn't destroy the entire peicture. Billy has always encouraged me to adapt his choreography to other people.

- Returning to your new ballet "The Golden Age", have you been pleased with your chosen dancers?

They have been amazingly dedicated to the most part. Having now worked several times with the Mariinsky Theatre, and especially now recently on my own on two of my own productions, I am amazed at the amount of work that the dancers carry. The diversity of the repertory, the number of performances that they have to perform withing a short period of time is almost impossible to uphold, because there are not enough rehearsals in one day that can actrually prepare for some many different programmes, as well as simultaneously learning a new premiere.

A new three-act 2 1/2 hour ballet in two months, with tours going on, and with the White Nights Festival when they had 18 different performances in a month. The dancers have just been amazingly dedicated. I salute them for actually coming to rehearsals in view of their schedule!

I've never seen anywhere in the world a schedule that's so demanding. The dancers are in the theatre from 10 o'clock in the morning till midnight, and then they have to be back at the Theatre at 10 o'clock the next morning. And they don't have a free day; very often it goes on for three weeks without a free day. If necessity demands, they will just not have a free day for three weeks. I've gone to companies whwere people are only working from 10 o'clock in the morning till 5 o'clock in the afternoon. And they are free on Saturdays and Sundays too, and yet they complain that they are working too much. And I just don't accept that any more, not having worked this way with the Mariinsky, where dancers go for three weeks without a free day and work from 10 am till midnight.

So that is something I have to say that I admire them for, and my heart goes out to them. But I've been maintaining the same schedule too. I can be pitied as well! I am losing hair; my hair is falling out from this production, and sleep deprivation too. But I agreed, and so I cannot complain, because I knew what I was getting into when I accepted this.

- Have you got good cooperation overall from the Mariinsky Theatre?

The scheduling woman, Elena Serapina, I love her to death. She's been absolutely amazing in giving me what I want. And she basically without fail every day makes miracles happen, because she has probably the most difficult job that I've ever seen, since everyone makes demands on her. She's got the most amazing job. She just sits in her office and patiently takes all the requests from all the people in the company who are asking for their studio time. It's impossible what she does. But she's been giving me my 9 hours every day without break. I got the studio all day long. She's been great. There have certainly been people who have been ready to help for the most part. I've no help whatsoever from Gergiev however.

When I first came into this production, they promised me two full technical days on stage, because there is going to be a considerable set. And already they have taken away one of them. Because Gergiev's new concert hall is not finished, they want to put on a concert the evening before the premiere at 7 pm on the Mariinsky stage, which means that I will have no dress rehearsal. They are taking away my dress rehearsal, and this is at Valery Gergiev's request or order - to sacrifice on the day before the dress rehearsal that should happen for any premiere. I am still fighting to have it, but he is asking to take away the general rehearsal.

- Is there anything more that you like to add?

I would like to ask anybody who's going to see the premiere in the Mariinsky Theatre or in London. Please keep in mind that this ballet was made in an extremely short amount of time, and that given more time it might be a different piece. Perhaps a little bit of understanding that it's going to be what it is. And in light of the limited amount of time and the conditions under which we had to work, the extreme lack of time during the White Nights Festival when the dancers were performing an unbelievable schedule, that they should just give us a little bit of leeway with their opinions. Don't expect a masterpiece. Don't expect something that has been worked on and perfected for six months to a year. It's basically going to be a premiere over two months. The premiere is going to be thrown together at the last minute.