On October 13 in Kyiv, Radu Poklitaru will present his new work — the ballet “The Queen of Spades”

The premiere by Kyiv Modern Ballet  will take place on the stage of the ICCC (the «October Palace»). Rehearsals are currently under way and, as the theatre’s director, the renowned choreographer Radu Poklitaru, promises, the performance will be shown both offline and online, in order to reach the widest possible audience. For the choreographer’s work has a great many admirers not only in our country but also abroad. It has already become a tradition that every new work by Radu Vitaliyovych leaves no one indifferent. He knows how to surprise and captivate with his talent, and so all his  premieres provoke considerable resonance among critics and balletomanes! Let us recall that the realisation of the «Queen of Spades» project became possible thanks to the financial support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the Department of Culture of the Kyiv City State Administration.

— Staging a ballet is a little life made up of the most unexpected moments, — says Radu Poklitaru. —  You never know in advance what the performance will turn out to be. And it is only in the ballet studio, during the staging process, that the ideas are gradually brought to life. From a literary standpoint, my «Queen of Spades» is a creative and rather free reinterpretation of Alexander Pushkin’s well-known  novella. The musical backdrop of the ballet consists of two movements of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Second  Symphony, which  are imbued with Ukrainian folk melos and have become the foundation  of the first act, while the classic’s Sixth Symphony will be  performed in full — this is the second act of the ballet.

This is already the fifth time we are working together with costume designer Dmytro Kuriata. For the ballet he created two separate worlds — Versailles and Saint Petersburg, reinterpreting the historical costumes of the «Rococo» and «Empire» eras. You know, the difficulty of working with a dance  company is that, besides the stylisation of the era, the performers must be comfortable. Especially in contemporary dance.

Responsible for the stage design and video content is Olha Nikitina, with whom we are doing our third project already.  In rehearsals  we search for something interesting and new. I am confident that  in Ukrainian dance theatre we  will be  the first to use such «augmented reality» objects. We are even holding separate technical rehearsals now, because there are complex interactions of the performers with the projections...

I wanted to tell the story that usually remains beyond the scope of a ballet reading. For example, the «Queen of Spades» by the legendary Roland Petit, which he staged back  in 1978 especially for the grand dancer Mikhail  Baryshnikov and his company  Le Ballet de Marseille — his audience was expected to come to the auditorium already knowing the story of the countess who lost at cards in Parisian Versailles and, in return for certain favours, received the secret of the three cards from the Count of Saint-Germain. «The three, the seven, the ace» — in R. Petit’s ballet  it was not explained why it was precisely this old Lady who possessed this secret... I believe that the audience should not have to be specially prepared and have a thorough knowledge of the plot of Pushkin’s novella. The Kyiv Modern Ballet version  offers an integral creative «product», so that the audience does not leave the auditorium with the feeling that «I didn’t understand something about this story»... For the most part, all the main characters of the ballet have come over from A. Pushkin’s novella and the eponymous opera by P. Tchaikovsky. But we will also have new characters. Without giving away the intrigue, I will only say that some characters have grown larger compared to the original source...

The role of Hermann  is being rehearsed by Vladyslav Detiuchenko, a young ballet dancer who  became memorable to audiences  for the role of Khoma in the ballet «Viy». Vlad is a wonderful dancer and choreographer. His style is completely different from mine, it is more radical, more contemporary, more Western... The role of Liza will be performed by Kateryna Kuznetsova, who is distinguished by an unusual natural organic quality, incredible coordination and the ability to convey the director’s intent as precisely as possible, through living through the character on stage. The role of the countess will be performed by Olena Saltykova. This ballerina has  very good classical training. This is exactly what distinguishes her from the other artists of our theatre, who are high-level soloists in contemporary dance but do not hold a ballet diploma. Saltykova made an incredible leap in the field of contemporary dance and became a multifaceted, many-sided actress. The image of Saint-Germain — an amazing, enigmatic and mystical figure — I entrusted to Artem Shoshyn, an artist who has performed all the leading roles in our repertoire and who, just like Vladyslav Detiuchenko, is a choreographer, but of the neoclassical school... That is why my choreography, combined with the individuality of various talented artists, takes on the shades that are close to the creative individuality of one or another dancer of Kyiv Modern Ballet.

So let us keep our fingers crossed that the coronavirus and the severe lockdown do not wreck the creative plans of this popular company, and we eagerly await the premiere.

Tetyana POLISHCHUK, «Den»
Newspaper: No. 125-126, (2021)
Section: Culture