© John Ross 'Elsinore' reviews 'Misericordes' reviews recent Bolshoi reviews more Wulff reviews Discuss this review (Open for at least 6 months) Gallery of Bolshoi Photographs including Elsinore

As posted on our Postings pages...

From the very first it appeared that he had not anticipated how wide was the cultural gap between the Bolshoi's and his own practices when it came to the creation of new choreography. The Bolshoi dancers expected to be taught "steps", which would have been all very well if the choreographer had been a de Valois or Balanchine, but Wheeldon's more "Ashtonian" approach in coming to the studio with no more than a thorough knowledge of the score and a general idea of what he wanted to do, and then expecting to construct the ballet in a collaborative effort with the dancers, had his Bolshoi cast properly flummoxed. Add to this the unfamiliariy of the score and the nature of Wheeldon's movement style blending the classical and the "modern", and the atmosphere became positively opaque.

In addition, after several weeks of unproductive rehearsal, it became apparent to Wheeldon that his original idea of a "Hamlet" ballet was slipping away and becoming increasingly unrealisable, and the only alternative left to him was the creation of a more abstract ballet, and that in a relatively short time.

To top it all his principal male dancer Nicolai Tsiskiradze was treating Wheeldon and everyone else to an incredible display of diva-ish temperament. The sulks, the frowns, the lyings-down on the floor, complaints about the music, complaints about being made to feel ill, not turning up to rehearsal etc., etc: Nicolai ran the whole gamut of a performance worthy of Norma Desmond. Finally, when he heard that the ballet was not going to be specifically about Hamlet and that he was not going to play the Prince, this was the last straw and he withdrew with a fever.
 

It was very fortunate that the Ballet Boyz were around and filming the process since eventually, because time was pressing and the other dancers were still having difficulty in giving Wheeldon what he wanted, and indeed in having full confidence in him, he decided to use Michael Nunn on whom to work out his ideas and then teach the results to the Bolshoi dancers. Fortunately this method worked, confidence was at last established, and the Bolshoi dancers were able to give Wheeldon what he wanted and put their own stamp on the movements he had created for them.

It was certainly a long and difficult creative journey, and one in which failure was for a time never far away, but ultimately the ice was broken and the Bolshoi dancers felt able to accept, and indeed to become enthused by, a new way of working.

At the end of the film, at the party following the premiere we see Wheeldon being embraced by a spectacularly unshaven Tsiskiradze and being asked to come back one day and create a ballet for him - alone.

In the final part of the film there is a full performance of the finished ballet (cut in half by some horrendous commercials). Unfortunately, because of the low stage lighting levels, it comes over on TV looking rather more gloomy than it did in real life, and the costumes appear almost entirely drained of colour.