What Radu Poklitaru’s new ballet “DiscrimiNATION” will be like
On October 21 Kyiv will host the premiere of the contemporary ballet “DiscrimiNATION” staged by director Radu Poklitaru. The musical basis of the performance is the music of George Handel, as well as chamber piano works by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov.
On 21 October, Kyiv will host the premiere of the contemporary ballet "DiscrimiNATION" staged by director Radu Poklitaru. The musical basis of the production is the music of George Frideric Handel, as well as chamber piano works by the Ukrainian composer Valentyn Silvestrov.
Discrimination — seemingly not the simplest theme to embody in a ballet performance, yet choreographer Radu Poklitaru, founder of the renowned Kyiv Modern Ballet theatre, does not look for easy paths. In its form the new ballet "DiscrimiNATION" is a choreographic fantasy made up of several unconnected novella-parables. The director considers it important to speak about prejudice, intolerance and various forms of condemnation in the modern world precisely through dance, since ballet offers the chance to raise topical themes, yet to do so without unnecessary moralising.
"At first glance, an exploration of discrimination may seem a non-obvious choice for the theme of a dance performance," the director explains. "Yet at the heart of discrimination there always lies a conscious or unconscious desire to make another person’s life unbearable. Dance, however, is very emotional by its very nature. So everything vividly emotional in our lives, even with a negative tinge, is a wonderful object for study through dance."
The musical "canvas" of the production unites the Baroque works of George Frideric Handel with the contemporary works of Valentyn Silvestrov. This is the first time in history that Silvestrov’s piano music has become part of a ballet production. According to the director, this premiere is a kind of "bridge" between Silvestrov’s music and contemporary dance.
"I am very fond of contemporary Ukrainian music," Radu Poklitaru says. "I like what is happening in it: the freshness of its musical language and the originality of its technical devices. That is why I turned to the music of Valentyn Silvestrov. He is an absolutely contrasting composer; he has large symphonic works that could by no means be called calm, and he has an enormous cycle made up of small piano pieces, all of them recorded in the author’s own performance. That is over 30 hours of minimalist music. It is incredible contemporary music — from this cycle I used six bagatelles."
Silvestrov’s compositions in the production are organically complemented by Handel’s music, created at the beginning of the 18th century.
Visually the production is conceived in the aesthetic of industrialisation and urbanism. The dancers are dressed in contemporary leotards and costumes of a strict architectural cut, mostly grey and brown in colour. This is the colour of "asphalt, concrete and brick," notes costume designer Dmytro Kuriata. According to his concept, the dancers’ clothing reflects the cosmopolitanism and urbanisation of the modern world. "The costumes are inspired by the structurality and geometry of architectural forms. The shapes and silhouettes of the costumes will reflect the metaphor of the outer shell in which the human being is imprisoned," says Dmytro Kuriata.
