Ballet “La Traviata” from the Kyiv Modern Ballet Theater: interesting facts, quotes and teaser
At the “Kyivinform” press centre, the official presentation of the new ballet took place, where the creative team presented the artistic concept of the performance and showed the official teaser of the upcoming premiere.
On 16 and 17 October in Kyiv, on the stage of the ICCA, the premiere of the ballet “La Traviata” will take place, presented by the Academic Theatre “Kyiv Modern Ballet” to the music of Giuseppe Verdi, in a production by Radu Poklitaru.
Seven interesting facts about the ballet “La Traviata”
The ballet “La Traviata” was created for the 20th anniversary of the “Kyiv Modern Ballet” theatre.
Radu Poklitaru decided to make something similar to the first performance of “Kyiv Modern Ballet” — “Carmen.TV”. That is, a ballet based on an opera. The choreographer called this connection “an arch between two ballet-operas with a gap of 20 years”. However, the scenography of “La Traviata” differs fundamentally from “Carmen.TV”.
“La Traviata” is Radu Poklitaru’s favourite opera. And he called it “the most balletic opera” — the work that is the easiest to translate into the language of dance.
The ballet’s libretto differs somewhat from the opera, but the main message — about love and self-sacrifice — has been preserved.
The ballet makes use of sophisticated video content, created by Olha Nikitina. The interactive video scenography responds to the artists’ actions in real time.
There are three worlds in the ballet that exist, transform, and evolve over the course of this performance: the world of a hypocritical and cold high-society milieu, the changeable and fragile world of the love between Violetta and Alfredo, and the inner world of the characters, which moves from large-scale video projection to an intimate dimension.
This is the thirteenth ballet in which the artists of Kyiv Modern Ballet come onto the stage in attire created by costume designer Dmytro Kuriata.
Quotations from the project presentation:
Radu Poklitaru: “My Violetta, like her operatic Forerunner, is an extract of the collective image of Woman, pulsing with genuine passion, ready to bring her very self as a sacrifice upon the altar of love. This ballet is a solo confession of the heroine, sounding to the accompaniment of the menacingly enraptured rumble of male society. Alone in a masculine sea, my Violetta confidently and unwaveringly steers the ship of her existence toward physical perdition and the immortal flight of eternal love”.
Dmytro Kuriata: “The director’s idea — one woman amid male surroundings — dictated a unisex approach to the creation of the costumes. This is not the classic form of evening attire, but stage solutions with stylized surrealist elements subordinated to the choreography, for the stage is not a runway. The colour palette is restrained and symbolic. Even within the bounds of a single colour, say red, the emotional register and the subconscious accent of the production change depending on which shade we use”.
Viktoriia Mukha, head of the standing committee of the Kyiv City Council on culture, tourism, and public communications, emphasized the social significance of the premiere: “Culture in time of war is timely. Filled auditoriums prove this convincingly. Since 2018 Kyiv has supported municipal institutions through the mechanism of repayable financial assistance — effectively an interest-free resource that makes it possible to stage striking premieres. The only year without funding — 2022 — had objective reasons; despite the challenges, the institutions return the funds and submit new applications. In view of the quality of the projects submitted, we resolved to increase the volume of the programme’s funding for the coming year. This year the competition committee supported the ‘Kyiv Modern Ballet’ project — ‘Twenty Seasons of Stability and Innovation: the Premiere Events of Kyiv Modern Ballet’. The synergy of municipal support and the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation reinforces the stability and innovativeness of the institutions. After the successful premiere of ‘On the Beautiful Blue Danube’, we look forward to ‘La Traviata’ as one of the key projects of the theatre’s anniversary season”.
What the performance is about
“La Traviata” in the production by Radu Poklitaru is a story about love, self-sacrifice, and the all-consuming power of self-renunciation. It is a choreographic drama in which tenderness and passion collide with society’s condemnation, and self-sacrifice becomes a token of eternal devotion. The choreography, costumes, and video projections merge into a single artistic space in order to lay bare the drama of feelings. Every movement turns into a confession, every stage scene — into a trial, every composition — into a step toward catharsis. This is not a reconstruction of the classics, but a new, profoundly contemporary reading, in which familiar images appear sharply, unexpectedly, and extraordinarily personally.
The project is being carried out with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the budget of the city of Kyiv, within the framework of the programme of repayable financial assistance to cultural institutions.
