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Modern Ballet Modern Dance Ballet of Boris Eifman"Up & Down" after the "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
World famous Bolshoi Ballet and Opera theatre (established 1776) - Marvellous Main (Historic) Stage

Running time: 2 hours

The performance has 1 intermission

Schedule for Modern Dance Ballet of Boris Eifman"Up & Down" after the "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 2022

Choreography: Boris Eifman
Composer: Franz Peter Schubert
Light Designer: Gleb Filshtinskiy
Composer: Alban Berg
Composer: George Gershwin
Set Designer: Zinovy Margolin
Costume Designer: Olga Shaishmelashvili

Orchestra: Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra

Modern Ballet in 2 act

Premiere of this production: 27 January 2015

Keeping in line with the mission to promote Russian contemporary choreographic art, Eifman Ballet has been actively engaged in touring all over the world. The Company’s touring geography includes, besides Russia, many countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, South Korea, Spain, USA, and others. Eifman Ballet's current repertoire includes world-acclaimed ballets Anna Karenina (2005), The Seagull (2007), Eugene Onegin (2009), I, Don Quixote (2010), Rodin (2011), Beyond Sin / The Karamazovs (2013), Requiem (2014), Up & Down (2015), Red Giselle (2015). The most recent ballet Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA was premiered in St. Petersburg in May, 2016.

Boris Eifman is justly called a “choreographer-philosopher”. However, a much more subtle definition that accurately captures the aesthetic individuality of the Maestro would be a “choreographer-psychoanalyst”. Rightly believing that ballet tools open truly unlimited research opportunities before a dance creator, Eifman plunges into the unknown depths of his characters’ inner worlds and penetrates into the most hidden places of the subconscious.

The quintessence of the choreographer’s psychoanalytic research has become the ballet Up & Down. The semantic space of the performance encompassed between two oppositely directed vectors of the plot (the degradation of the talented young doctor and the ascension of his wife and patient), is turned into a field for surrealistic experiments. With the help of the original plastic vocabulary Eifman depicts the disintegration of characters’ consciousness, bringing their nightmares and delusions to the surface. The choreographer emphasizes rather ironically: the ballet Up & Down is not just a full point but a blot in his many years of psychiatric ballet epic.

The characters’ ups and downs take place in the magnificent Jazz Age – the unstoppable feast of life; the era of freedom, sensuality, and hedonism, masterfully recreated by Boris Eifman and his dancers.


Boris Eifman - Artistic Director of St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet

People’s Artist of Russia, the Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation, the laureate of the Golden Mask and the Golden Soffit awards, the holder of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 2nd class.

Boris Eifman, the founder and creator of his own theater, his own style, and his own ballet universe, who is called “one of the leading choreographers in the world” and an “amazing magician of the theater”, was born in 1946 in Siberia, into a family that was connected neither with ballet nor the theatre. From early childhood, however, he wanted to express his feelings and his thoughts in body language, in dance. He himself would later say, “For me, ballet is more than a profession. It is a means of existence, my mission on this earth. Using its resources, I am compelled to convey what is given to me from on high. Most likely, I would simply suffocate on my emotions if I didn’t have the possibility of expressing them through art. For me, choreography is art that is deeply religious, in the broadest sense of the word.”

The innate sense of movement and the “instinct to compose” brought him to the Leningrad Conservatory, where he studied in the Choreography Department, and then to the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, where he worked for ten years as a choreographer, composing new works for student performances. Finally, in 1977, he formed his own ballet ensemble. This is the moment when the Eifman story began, as, with his talent, with his blood and sweat, with his energy, dedicating himself a full twenty four hours a day, he began to create his own theatre.

Eifman brilliantly combined cutting-edge achievements in the world of ballet with what he learned in the academic school of classical Russian choreography, to which he traces his roots. “What I do can be called the dance of emotions, free dance, a new language, in which classical ballet, modern dance, ecstatic impulses and many other things are interwoven…,” he said at the time. His dancers, who had an exclusively academic grounding, had to acquire a new vocabulary of body movement.  It was a completely different kind of choreography, whose fundamental principle came into being as the troupe was formed by Eifman.

Eifman Ballet was established by Boris Eifman in 1977 (the original name of the company was the Leningrad New Ballet). The concept of the New Ballet was more than innovative for its time: from the first days of its work it was conceived and developed as an experimental laboratory, a ballet theatre for one choreographer.

The company’s first performances such as Two-Voice and Boomerang brought success and stirred intense interest of the audience; ballet critics began arguing about new tendencies in the Russian ballet. Advocates of the traditional ballet school, however, were rather reluctant to acknowledge the young choreographer’s authority. Eifman’s novelty in how he chose literary basis and music for his ballets, the audacity of the body movement vocabulary secured for him the reputation of “a choreographic dissident”.

In late 70s – early 80s Eifman’s theatre is working out its own individual approach to repertoire formation. More and more new ballets based on the world classical literature appear on the playbill. The choreographer and his company, characterised by an outstanding dance intellect, explore new genres. Boris Eifman creates performances whose distinguishing feature is the strikingly sharp choreographic patterns, intended to express the fiery passions of ballets’ characters: The Duel, The Idiot, The Mad March Day, or the Marriage of Figaro, The Legend, The Twelfth Night, Master and Margarita, Murderers etc.

Today St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet is renowned among ballet lovers in Asia, Europe, the Americas and in Australia for such ballets as Tchaikovsky; I, Don Quixote; Red GiselleRussian HamletAnna KareninaThe SeagullOnegin, Rodin, Beyond Sin, Requiem and Up & Down. These works were generally recognised. Not only they represent the highest artistic level of achievements of the contemporary Russian ballet, but also turn the audience to the immortal spiritual heritage of Russian and world culture that inspired the choreographer and his dancers.

Boris Eifman’s endeavour to engage his spectators in the infinite world of human passions, to form a spiritual liaison with the audience, to amaze viewers by the brilliance and dynamism of his plastique – all this has ensured a decades-long success of Eifman Ballet’s performances at leading venues around the globe.

Boris Eifman is a philosopher choreographer. He is earnestly concerned with the problems of today, with the secrets of creativity. The choreographer speaks openly with his audience about the complicated and dramatic aspects of human life; he defines his genre as “psychological ballet”. The New York Times calls Boris Eifman the leader among living choreographers: “The ballet world in search of a major choreographer need search no more. He is Boris Eifman.”

The company is distinguished by its brilliant technique, unique dedication and high onstage intelligence. Today excellent dancers, winners of international ballet contests and laureates of the Russian Government prizes in the field of culture, holders of the prestigious Golden Mask and Golden Soffit awards, implement Boris Eifman’s ideas: Oleg Gabyshev, Dmitry Fisher, Nina Zmievets, Lyubov Andreyeva, Anastasia Sitnikova, Sergey Volobuev and others.

An important period in the company’s life began in 2011, when the Government of St. Petersburg took a decision to launch the construction of the Boris Eifman Dance Academy – a project originally initiated by the choreographer himself. In September 2013 the Academy announced the start of its first academic year.

Another Eifman-initiated ballet institution is to be built and opened in St. Petersburg in the near future. It is the Boris Eifman Dance Palace envisioned by Boris Eifman as a new world center of dance arts.

Forming an original ballet repertoire of modern Russia based upon the rich traditions of Russian psychological theatre, along with searching for and developing new forms of choreography of the XXI century are among the key priorities within the artistic mission of Boris Eifman and his brilliant company.



Synopsis

Act 1

A psychiatric clinic. A bizarre kaleidoscope of obsessions, fears, and fragments of patients’ minds. A young Psychiatrist is in the center of this phantasmagoric world. Striving to help the miserable, he plunges into the innermost secrets of their fractured souls.

Young female Patient, a new inmate of the clinic, brought there by her millionaire father. The perceptive Psychiatrist manages to earn the confidence of the patient. The established spiritual connection develops into affection. But what is the root cause of the nightmares that torture the girl?

Psychiatrist finds Patients's Father. Under doctor’s pressure he confesses to the sin of incest.

Psychiatrist’s care helps Patient break free from the burden of the past. Psychiatrist suffers the pangs of conscience: doctor’s commandments deny any possibility of intimacy with patients.

Patients's Father – the ominous personification of the power of money – would not mind buying a personal doctor for his daughter. Such fate is unacceptable for Psychiatrist. He has to part with his patient.

Bouts of madness remind of the fragility of the Patient’s regained sanity. Her mind, split by the mental illness, generates a sinister twin that haunts the girl. And yet now, she has never been closer to recovery. Psychiatrist’s love is a salvation for her. Inhabitants of the clinic celebrate Psychiatrist and Patient’s wedding.

 

Act 2

The just married couple’s family life goes within the clinic walls. The insidious disease, ready to return at any moment, saddens their marital happiness. Patient does not want to share Psychiatrist with other inmates, so she makes him leave the clinic.

The couple’s everyday existence is turned into a carnival. However, the never ending feast does not save Psychiatrist from the aching longing for his old life filled with the doctor’s noble work. The flow of luxury that hit Psychiatrist after his marriage to the possessor of millions consumes him rapidly. The corruption of the soul cannot be stopped.

Psychiatrist meets Movie Star. The romance between them does not bring him the harmony he wishes for.

Patient’s illness finally recedes, revealing the cold and power-hungry nature of her blood. Psychiatrist’s marriage falls into pieces. Patient gets closer with Buddy, who has been long in love with her.

Psychiatrist is broken and crushed. Desperate drunken escapades are the ultimate gesture of helplessness. His medical talent is ruined, his will to live has drained, and the mind is clouded with the haze of impending madness. Psychiatrist returns to the clinic that he has left once. From now on he is its new patient.




Schedule for Modern Dance Ballet of Boris Eifman"Up & Down" after the "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 2022


Boris Eifman's Up & Down - Official Trailer
 
About This Video
03:28
A ballet by Boris Eifman
Based on the Tender Is the Night novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Music: G. Gershwin, F. Schubert, A. Berg
Sets: Zinovy Margolin
Costumes: Olga Shaishmelashvili
Light: Gleb Filshtinsky, Boris Eifman

Premiere: January 27, 2015


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