Repertoire

Rain

music by world’s peoples and J.-S. Bachballet in one act

Duration: 0:40 (40 min)
Acts: 1
Age: 12+
Staging: Radu Poklitaru — Honoured Arts Figure of Ukraine

The premiere of the production took place on October 3 2007

Recognition & awards

The ballet was awarded the prize "Kiev’s Pectoral - 2007" in the nomination "The Event of the Year"

The most poetic ballet in the theatrical repertoire, deeply philosophic and realistic at the same time. It is realistic in spite of no stage settings at all used in the performance, and the properties are restricted to one suitcase appearing for a couple of minutes on the stage and white umbrellas displayed for a few more minutes.

Neat hairdos or the hair hidden under the caps, cotton dresses with collars (becoming to all girls without exception!), or pants of the "before-jeans" era with suspenders…. Everything conveyed in "The Rain" dance may be taking place anywhere but in the certain decades. Perhaps, our grandmothers were very young at that time, while half of the world admired the beauty of our great grandmothers.

The life of that time flies fast like rewinding - unceasingly, orderly, like the meaningful and vigorous Bach preludes with fugues of "Well-Tempered Clavier". The people on the stage are divided into the male and the female groups showing interest in each other, everyone has to feel for his or her second half and support. From time to time, this course of events slows down and the separate pieces of music are introduced. Every time, it is a new, bright ethnic song representing a separate history of some couple, some trio, even an individual person in the crowd. By the way, this performance offers countless ways of choreographic problem solution, "a crowd has to be made of 18 people on the stage".

And though the vibrant soundtracks are the most exciting ones, it is better to slow down and feel the tenderness evinced by brother as he lulls his sister to sleep knowing that life will separate them at some point; the exhausting tension of the two men who are trying to win over the heart of the strong woman pursuing her own way; the patience, the playfulness and the quiet happiness. And in the end, as the individuality of all those people yields the life as such, it feels very hard to lose them.

Premiered on the stage on October 3, 2007

About the show

"Rain" is a philosophical story shaped as a choreographic suite, telling us about the fates of people who were involuntarily joined in one space at one time. Ethnic music together with the contrasting it music of J.-S. Bach create the effect of the babel of people speaking different languages and form an excellent foundation for the choreography of Radu Poklitaru.

The creative essence of the performance proceeds from its musical idea, thus embodying the author's conception: various cultures and national mentalities incorporate basic human values.
R.Poklitaru's direction is focused on people and human feelings and emotions.

The ballet "Rain" was presented to the audience in many cities of Ukraine, as well as in Rumania, Moldova and the Netherlands.

Premiered on the stage on October 3, 2007

Radu Poklitaru

This performance in the Theatre repertory was prompted by the need to enrich the repertory of the Theatre with choreographic miniatures. And still, this practical purpose made me think about how to channel the creative energy of the dancers of «KYIV MODERN-BALLET» Theatre to produce something more important than a mere succession of concert turns. Those ideas were conducive to an unusual scenic form: a number of novellas to ethnic or highly pronounced national music, "cemented" with J.-S. Bach's preludes and fugues from his "Well-Tempered Clavier". The human conglomerate, either darting across the stage or feeling their way through the surrounding world obscurity, is breaking up into duets, trios, or solos, who are telling us their lives' stories. Upon finishing the story, they seem to be taken up by the crowd, which effaces the illusive traces of their existence