News 2018

5.3.2018 9:47

One of world´s foremost ballet companies, the Eifman Ballet returning to Bratislava!

The magician in the world of theatre, Boris Eifman is a well-known figure to SND audiences. Slovak National Theatre has already staged, to high acclaim, a number of his memorable titles that left Bratislava spellbound – the biographical ballet Rodin (2014), the world première of Up & Down (2015), or the ballet based on the eponymous Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina (2016). Eifman´s Beyond Sin/The Brothers Karamazov is included in SND repertoire since November 2017. It is the first staging of the St. Petersburg-based Eifman Ballet in Slovakia.

Aficionados of fascinating show filled with unconcealed emotions and breath-taking dance performances are about to have a reason to rejoice again: as soon as on 26 and 27 June 2018 the 5th edition of the Eurokontext.sk festival of European theatre brings yet another title that comes from the legendary ensemble from St. Petersburg, the production Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA.

The new grand dance production by the Eifman Ballet is the fruit of years of exploration of the life and work of one of the world´s foremost composers. The St. Petersburg company premièred the oeuvre in May 2016. Within a year it was very well received by critics and lay public. Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA arose from Eifman´s fascination with the composer: “Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is a composer whose music guided me for decades, charging me with creative energy.” The production is an exceptional quest through the mind and soul of the musical giant. At the same time, it is a mosaic of his memoirs filled with imagination, creativity, as well as incessant struggle with himself.

Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA is ballet epic that tells the story of existential challenges, strokes of fate and torments of soul of the composer, as reflected in tragic moments contained in his music.  As Eifman puts it: “His works submerge the audiences in pure flow of sentiments, awaken dreams and imagination, and can change human being. I have always endeavoured to understand why a composer who had achieved such glory and made the most of his talent, made music filled with so much tragedy. There is no doubt that the main source of his pain was the suppression of his subconscious awareness being different, something that Tchaikovsky explained as curse. The enmity of the world and his eternal loneliness stripped him of hope to find peace and happiness. It is always a mystery how an artist creates his masterpiece. It is as difficult to grasp as  it is to try and comprehend his private life.” The inventiveness in the plastic vocabulary that is characteristic for the Eifman Ballet made enabled the use of dance to express the inner conflict that tormented Tchaikovsky. The very torment had was the source of his mental pain, also served to inspire his music.

Hence it comes as no surprise that the Eifman Ballet productions offer unforgettable performances, introducing new dance forms and principles. The same applies to the Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA, with its mesmerising emotional charge and innovation of theatre conventions. Do not miss the opportunity to see the legendary dance theatre as soon as on 26 and 27 June 2018 at 19.00 hrs in SND new building.

Tickets are available in SND Box Office or online.