“A Minute Before Christmas”: a bright and instructive fairy tale
What could be better than watching a good old fairy tale? Only a pleasant acquaintance with an interesting new one — with bright characters, unexpected twists, understandable even without words.
Kyiv Modern Ballet presented the premiere of the fairy tale “A Minute Before Christmas” a few days before this radiant holiday. It begins, as it should: “Once upon a time…”. Only these words take shape in your head – they are formed by what is happening on stage. There a little mouse turns the crank of a film projector that casts onto a large screen the plot of a silent film – a small fragment of a story that then “steps” off the screen and grows into a vivid and instructive fairy tale.
The authors’ imagination sweeps the audience into a whirl of pre-Christmas events from different times. The action unfolds very dynamically; the settings and the characters change. And yet the only piece of scenery on stage is a huge antique clock. Everything else is handled successfully by the screen, on which there appears now a cosy room with a big sparkling Christmas tree and snow falling outside the window, now a calendar shedding its pages, now wondrous fairy-tale landscapes.
This company’s choreography is, predictably, impeccable. And, as always, the inventive touches astonish. For instance, have you ever seen a dance of bikers on motorcycles? Not a motor show, but precisely a dance. And all of it to the whimsical music of the 19th-century composer Camille Saint-Saëns!
I would like to mention the costumes separately. Literally just before the performance I learned that they had all been remade from those used in older productions. By all appearances, they were remade by very skilful hands: they are stylish, beautiful, with interesting details, as if they had stepped off the runway of a top fashion designer.
And, of course, every fairy tale has a moral. In this one it is, I would say, the most relevant of all. For happiness lies not in gifts, not in pretty tinsel, but in a friendly shoulder, in support, in like-minded people. You may not realize their significance to you until you lose them. And if you do lose them – you must not let grief consume you so completely that you lose your balance and begin to bring misfortune upon other innocent people.
I would also like to say a little about the venue chosen for the performance: it is the renovated, modernized Kyiv cultural cluster “Krakiv”. A beautiful, cosy and safe place (with a spacious shelter – which is very important these days).
Nataliia Kriazh
IMPROVISATOR
