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Busy, busy are the Mariinsky Ballet who in the last few weeks, besides touring to Washington and Hong Kong, have been giving performances in St Petersburg and also preparing for their 10th Ballet Festival, a major international event, which opens shortly in mid-April. And amongst all that the company also found time to visit Tromsø, in northern Norway, for the annual Nordlysfestivalen - The Northern Lights Festival - which is where I caught up with them and Yuri Fateyev, their much-travelled director.
Fateyev has been with the Mariinsky a long time, 27 years, and for 15 years he was a coach, training dancers from the corps de ballet all the way through to principals. At the end of 2008 Valery Gergiev appointed him Ballet Director after Makhar Vaziev left. “My main focus”, explained Yuri Fateyev, “was to rebuild the artistic discipline.”
Does the Mariinsky’s long-standing tradition and history create more pressure for you?
First of all I would like to point out that I was a student at the Vaganova academy and had outstanding ballet teachers like Semyon Kaplan, Constantin Serguyev and Natalia Dudinskaya. They are the greatest names in the history of the Russian classical ballet and this history entered my blood. From early childhood I have been taking this into my training, into my performance. I see it as something I am born with, so I don’t feel any pressure from such an historical background.
How do you work to introduce modernity in such a classical company?
My goal is to continually improve the company. The Mariinsky Ballet has been famous historically and stands for academic classical performance and it’s exactly in this tradition that we are developing. But I intend to achieve it in connection with the times we are living in. I don’t think the Mariinsky ballet should be a museum of dance. We should look around at how the ballet world is evolving and apply this to the company.
Ulyana Lopatkina and Ivan Kozlov in Francesco Ventriglia's Contradictions
© Thierry Guenin
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As a ballet master, I was very interested in the way Western companies combine tradition with a contemporary understanding of movement. I was especially very curious to observe the approaches of the major American companies and the Danish school.
If we compare the dance of today with dance from the beginning of the 20th century, the mid-20th century, and even the 70s, there has been a marked transformation, first because of the physical ability of the dancers. The current generation of dancers is striving for physical perfection, which brings a lot to the dancing, and of course in performance.
While working with the dancers I try to implement any relevant element I would find. At the moment I’ve succeeded in making the company capable of performing ballets by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Forsythe and many other choreographers to standards that incorporate these contemporary developments and this new physical perfection. And I hope that we will be able to do that with other choreographers we are planning to work with.
Was the introduction of Balanchine in the repertoire a key step?
We started doing Balanchine in 1986 when we staged the Scotch Symphony and Themes and Variations. Oleg Vinogradov initiated this. And of course his artistic vision helped to bring this ballet into the company. But at this period we did it in the Russian style, the traditional Russian way, and I think we were not fully exact with interpreting the Balanchine style. In 1990, the next ballets were Apollo and Tchaikovsky Pas de deux. And that was, I would say, transition steps for the company. Because young dancers like Igor Zelensky and Yulia Makhalina took this ballet in a more perceptive way. They had more understanding though they didn’t have that much experience. In 1996, we moved on towards Symphony in C and this was the point when the company really coped with what Balanchine style was and is. And then in 1998, we came up to a full understanding of his conception of dance with Serenade, Apollo, Symphony in C. This 15-year-long work really made the company more mature and helped us to get to other choreographies and address them with a very professional and profound approach.
Igor Zelensky with Ekaterina Osmolkina, Nadezha Gonchar and Olesya Novikova in Apollo (from November 2008 photoset)
© John Ross
How do you work with the dancers?
I use the unique experience of a ballet master who has been working for years at the Mariinsky, one of those who brought up internationally renowned dancers. For me, the first thing in the ballet is the visual beauty. Of course the concept of beauty varies according to people but when we relate to professional ballet everyone understands what real visual beauty means. We speak about musicality; we speak about the purity of line and ease of interpreting even the most difficult technical steps.
What do you expect a soloist to be?
One of the main issues is appearance. Visually the dancer has to conform to the role he’s presenting. The physique of the dancer is very important as well as his strength because it’s a huge load of work to perform a solo part.
For the Mariinsky ballet, technique is not the main essence of the dance. The core element is the story, what is behind it, what from the story is going to be implemented in the dance.
For me it is also very important to understand that every dancer is unique. Those who enter the Mariinsky Theatre are really dancers with great potential. They are the best of the best. So my main concern is then to use the specific talent of each person and develop it. It’s like an instrument. Each instrument has its own vibrations.
Yuri Fateyev
© Thierry Guenin
Who are the choreographers you would like the company to work with?
Working with Alexei Ramantsky is very interesting for me. He has already staged three ballets for the company and I hope this cooperation will continue. He’s one of the leading choreographers in the world. He’s a Russian personality and he is capable of creating huge productions, which is very important for us.
I would be happy to work with Prejlocaj or Kylian.
And I think it’s also my duty to find young choreographers in Russia. But without giving them the opportunity to stage one piece, it’s very difficult to identify who is talented and who is not. Ramantsky introduced workshops at the Bolshoi theatre where young talents had the opportunity to stage one-act ballets or short pieces. We implemented the same concept in our festival and added a young choreographers’ evening - there will be pieces choreographed by Yuri Smekalov, Emil Faski and Edwaard Liang.
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