Ivan Vasiliev to choreograph for Mikhailovsky Ballet

Posted on February 11, 2016

The Mikhailovsky Ballet will dance three works by its star dancer Ivan Vasiliev, the theatre has announced. The three ballets will have their premieres at the Hermitage Theatre, St Petersburg, on April 15, April 17 and June 6.

Ballet No. 1, created last spring and performed at the Barvikha Luxury Village concert hall, is danced to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. Vasiliev is currently working on two more ballets, Morphine and Blind Affair.

Morphine is inspired by one of the stories in Mikhail Bulgakov’s collection A Young Doctor’s Notebook. The semi-autobiographical collection draws on his experiences as a doctor in rural Russia before and during the Russian Revolution of 1917. In Morphine, Bulgakov’s narrator tells the story of a colleague, a doctor who becomes dependent upon drugs to function under extreme conditions. Vasiliev will dance the leading role in the ballet, which will be set to music by Gustav Mahler.

Blind Affair, to music by Max Richter, will explore modern society, “where everyone is glued to their smart devices and no one sees anything else.”

The Mikhailovsky Theatre has set up a new facebook page, documenting the rehearsal process, which will have input from Vasiliev himself. 

For more information about the new programme, visit the Mikhailovsky website. 

Picture: Ivan Vasiliev. Photograph: Damir Yusupov, courtesy of the Bolshoi Theatre

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.