"Genius is not a curse, but a heavy burden"
Boris Eifman compares his performances to children: everyone is born at the cost of many years of life, and parting is never easy. Almost half a century after creating his own theater, the outstanding choreographer is still waiting for his troupe to find a permanent home - the Dance Palace in St. Petersburg. Boris Eifman, People's Artist of Russia, spoke in an exclusive interview with Izvestia on the eve of his 80th birthday about the voluntarily chosen sacrificial fate of the artist, the censorship attacks of the past, the saving precepts of Dostoevsky, and why it is so important to be able to return from the creative looking glass in time.
"I regularly faced censorship attacks and deprivation"
— You are celebrating your anniversary on July 22 in Moscow. Your ballet "Crime and Punishment" will be shown on the stage of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater. Why was Dostoevsky's plastic adaptation chosen for this important day? Does this have a special symbolism for you?
— "Crime and Punishment" is a milestone performance for my theater. I've been working on it for decades. Literally, my entire creative life. The work on the ballet was difficult and painful (which is probably natural, because we are talking about Dostoevsky, whose characters experience the infinite depth of suffering). The troupe coped with the challenge with dignity. As a result, a performance was born that opens up new possibilities for ballet theater.
Dostoevsky is a key author for me. I drew spiritual wisdom from his writings when I was a very young man. In 1980, he composed the ballet The Idiot. Later there were productions of "Karamazov", "Beyond sin". Now, it seems to me, Dostoevsky's moral and philosophical precepts resound with force.
— In our last conversation, you said that the modern audience goes "to ballet, not to classical music" and comprehends Dostoevsky through choreography. It sounds like a cultural diagnosis to the public. Doesn't it frighten you that ballet is becoming not an addition to great literature, but its complete replacement for a new generation?
— I don't think that dance will one day replace literature for new generations of viewers. There is a clear exaggeration here. Although, as a choreographer, the trend you mentioned pleases rather than scares me. If young people, after visiting our performances, begin to be interested in the legacy of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, then they did not come to the theater in vain.
Psychological ballet art is able to convey large-scale intellectual ideas to the audience. Moreover, we do not retell literary masterpieces, but give them a different, sometimes unexpected, meaningful and artistic dimension.
— This year, Crime and Punishment was awarded the prestigious Golden Mask Award. What does this recognition of colleagues mean to you and how do you feel about your own awards?
— I have many awards, titles, and titles. I will not hide that it is pleasant to receive them. (Boris Eifman is a Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation, a full holder of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, and a laureate of the State Prize. — Izvestia). This is satisfaction for the sacrificial, hard-labor life to which I voluntarily condemned myself. But still, I'm not creating for the rewards.
At the beginning of my career, there were no official recognition marks. But I regularly faced censorship attacks and hardships. And still he didn't stop working. But for artists, especially for young people who are hungry for success, and for the theater itself, prizes and titles are extremely important. They give the dancers confidence in themselves and the correctness of their chosen path.
"Faith in the vocation gave strength"
— You started staging ballets back in Soviet times, when the limits of what was allowed were very narrow. Do you feel today, in the era of an open information space, that creative freedom has become absolute, or have new, invisible censorship and ethical restrictions appeared?
— In the Soviet era, censorship was not just total — it sometimes took frankly absurd forms. I remember that at the art councils, people who didn't understand anything about dance seriously taught me how to stage ballets. Today, no one dictates to the choreographer what the performances should be about and from which side the soloist should approach the ballerina. There remains self-censorship, which any artist must remember. I define the boundaries of what is permissible very simply: there are ten commandments of God, and they clearly state what is permissible and what is not.
Boris Eifman, Artistic Director of the Ballet Theater and the Dance Academy
— You created the Boris Eifman Ballet Theater in an era when it seemed almost impossible. What has become your main source of self-confidence in times of overcoming difficulties?
— First of all, I always knew from a young age that my mission was to compose choreography, to realize the God-given gift of expressing emotions and thoughts through the language of dance. I have never doubted my purpose in life, no matter how difficult it may be for me. Faith in the vocation gave strength even in absolutely hopeless situations. After all, how many times has the theater been on the verge of closing! In addition, we were inspired by the sincere support of the audience. We simply would not have survived, we would not have saved ourselves if we had not felt the boundless love of the audience.
— The repertoire of your theater is unique. There are practically no fictional, easy characters in it — you always choose historical figures with tragic fates: Rodin, Spesivtseva, Tchaikovsky, Pavel I. Doesn't this constant concentration on someone else's madness and pain tire you? How do you recover after diving into their dark worlds?
— I don't collect tragic stories, I don't revel in other people's pain. For me, a world devoid of drama, conflict, and inner movement is sterile, dead. As an artist, I have nothing to say about this reality. Reflecting, immersed in the most intense emotions and passions, the characters will allow you to see the complexity and versatility of the human spirit. I'm not trying to shock or devastate the viewer, but to fill him with hope. To give people the bright emotional energy that everyone needs.
As for recovery... You know, the main thing is to be able to return from the looking glass, not to repeat the terrible fate of ballerina Olga Spesivtseva, who was forever lost in the realm of visions.
— Studying the biographies of great creators and thinkers, you probably wondered: is genius a gift from above or a curse that condemns a person to loneliness and misunderstanding?
— Both a gift and a curse at the same time. More precisely, not a curse, but a heavy burden that forces a person to overcome numerous weaknesses. This is the only way — by resisting the imperfection of one's own nature — to create a creation capable of outliving ourselves and remaining in the ages. For some, this burden turns out to be unbearable, and then the unfortunate person dies. And sometimes a person does not recognize the gift in himself and lives a meaningless life, indulging in self-destruction, burning with overflowing energy.
"I'm not a retrograde. I'm interested in everything new"
— You spend your whole life exploring the psychology of genius through dance. Is there still a figure in the history of mankind whose secret you dream of solving, but have not yet decided to transfer to the ballet stage?
— Many of the ideas of the productions remain unfulfilled, "fall under the carpet." I subsequently return to some of them, while I completely abandon others. For example, I have started composing a ballet based on the novel "Crime and Punishment" more than once. And every time I stopped, because I realized that I wasn't ready to bet yet. It had to be a while before I matured.
Of course, there are brilliant personalities, themes, and stories that are still interesting to me, waiting for choreographic interpretation and solutions. If the ideas — and, most importantly, the desire to implement them —had dried up, then I would have ended up as a writer.
— Do you think artificial intelligence and digital technologies will ever be able to become a full-fledged assistant to the choreographer in the search for new forms? Or maybe AI will become a rival?
— Technology serves the choreographer as a tool, an additional support. I'm not a retrograde. I'm interested in everything new and relevant — something that helps make artistic ideas more vivid. However, no AI can replace the unknowable mystery of creativity, filled with a living nerve and the thrill of the soul.
— Looking back, what is the most fundamental achievement of your theater over the past half century?
— We have managed to create an unparalleled competitive ballet repertoire in modern Russia, which is in demand from audiences all over the world. We are successfully developing the original choreographic art of the 21st century and reuniting dance with the fundamental laws of theater. No other troupe is doing anything like this today. And don't forget: we live and create, still without a theater house, wandering through other people's scenes.
— How do the prolonged status of a "homeless troupe" and the fact that the president of the country is personally engaged in your stage get along in the current reality of the theater? Will this special control by Vladimir Putin serve as the main incentive to accelerate construction work so that Russia's leading cultural brand can finally find its home?
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Boris Eifman, Artistic Director of the Academic Ballet Theatre.
— I am deeply grateful to the president for the sincere concern with which he treats the Dance Palace project. In general, no other government leader pays as much attention to cultural issues or delves into them in as much detail as Vladimir Putin.
I hope that the support of the head of state will help to complete the construction of this innovative dance art center on time. Not only our homeless troupe awaits the appearance of the palace, but also hundreds of thousands of ballet connoisseurs. In September 2027, the theater will celebrate its 50th anniversary. We must celebrate the significant date within our own walls.
"Dance is a universal language of spiritual communication"
— Do you easily part with your old productions or are you ready to rethink them for years?
— I can compare my performances with children. You dedicate yourself to them, put your strength and love into them. And then the "children" grow up. Some productions are destined to remain in the past. Believe me, it's not easy to part with them. Some are experiencing a rebirth and are turning from museum artifacts into ballets of the new millennium. This was the case with "Karamazov", "Tchaikovsky", "Russian Hamlet", "Red Giselle". Every stage work has its own destiny.
— The Moscow tour opened with the production of The Moliere Passion, or The Mask of Don Juan. This is the second appeal to Moliere's personality since 2001. Why did you need to come back to this topic after 20 years? What determines the need for a new version of ballet?
— Moliere is one of the artists closest to me. Like me, the French comedian devoted his life entirely to his theater, laying health, personal happiness, and peace on its altar. The 2001 song was very well received by both the public and critics. But over the years, something happened to her that inevitably happens to all performances — she became outdated.
You see, both myself and my theater are constantly evolving — choreographically, technically, and ideologically. The performances do not keep up with this continuous development and eventually leave the stage. If I decide to revive a production that has fallen out of the repertoire, I do not revive it in its original form, but actually compose a new ballet that is adequate to the current professional and creative level of the troupe.
— Now you are actively engaged in editing film versions of the plays "The Passion of Moliere, or the Mask of Don Juan" and "The Seagull. Ballet history". Next up is the post—production of this year's film adaptation of the ballet Crime and Punishment. Besides ballet, you are also immersed in filmmaking. Why would you do that? Wouldn't it be easier to hire a specially trained person?
— That's a good question. I've actually spent many months editing the ballet films we've shot in recent years. It's a hell of a job. For 10 hours a day, you stare at the monitor, watching dozens of takes and trying to find the most acceptable one. Would it be easier to attract a cinematographer from the outside and send him to this Golgotha? Perhaps. But what would I get in the end? I don't even want to try to imagine.
No one knows the choreography of the play better than its author. That's why I always direct and produce my own films, as well as direct their editing. I have no one to entrust this job to, and I have to spend years of my life on it. But then, not primitive video recordings of performances appear on the screens, but works of a special kind of art — plastic cinema. And this kind of direction really attracts viewers. For example, our ballet film "The Brothers Karamazov" was shown in dozens of cinemas in Russia, the USA and Europe.
— The Boris Eifman Theater has always been an essential element of Russia's "soft power" abroad.
— Our theater actively participates in Russian humanitarian diplomacy and is proud of its status as one of its undisputed leaders.
— Now it is obvious that the vector of foreign tours has shifted. Over the past year, your artists have traveled to Istanbul, China, Vietnam, India, and Egypt. How much is an Oriental audience raised on other cultural codes ready to accept the "Russian psychological ballet theater"?
— I do not divide the audience by geography or other criteria. Today, many things separate people and increase antagonism. And only high choreographic art, overcoming any contradictions and barriers, helps representatives of different cultures and religions to gain mutual understanding. Dance is a universal language of spiritual communication. Its unifying potential must be used as effectively as possible.
"It is impossible to rely on the educational standards of the last century"
— In May, Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree of the Government of the Russian Federation on conducting an experiment in secondary professional ballet education at the Boris Eifman Dance Academy. According to the new program, general education subjects will help the student's creative development, rather than conflict with hours-long rehearsals. What will this do for the Russian ballet in practice?
— Now the academy has officially become the flagship of the reform of the Russian ballet education system. The innovative teaching methodology we are developing and approving has been supported by the state at the highest level, which I am very pleased about.
In the context of the global ballet crisis, it is impossible to continue relying on the educational standards of the last century, since they do not take into account the real professional needs of modern theaters. Troupes and choreographers are in dire need of a new type of dancers who are confident in a variety of techniques and styles. Such versatile artists are trained only by our choreographic school. And we will continue to improve the unique program of the academy. I am convinced that Russia's future creative leaders and choreographers are our students.
— All your thoughts are full of concern about the theater, about ballet. And what kind of anniversary gift are you waiting for yourself?
— I pray to the Lord to give me health and time and allow me to see my family happy, and the theater successful and developing. (He smiles).
— We wish you this with all our hearts!
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
