Red Giselle (Eifman Ballet)

Sony Centre for Performing Arts, Toronto.
May 12-13, 2017. Eifman Ballet Of St. Petersburg

Cast:

Balerina: Daria Reznik / Maria Abashova
Commisar – Sergey Volobuev
Teacher – Oleg Markov
Partner – Oleg Gabyshev

RED GISELLE is choreographer Boris Eifman’s moving love letter to one of the greatest Russian ballerinas of all time, Olga Spessivtseva. She became famous dancing Giselle,and was also fated to a tragic end due to mental illness. Life during the 1917 revolution became near impossible and Spessivtseva was forced to flea Russia. Her career spanned 20 years where she travelled the world and received rave reviews, but her fears and anxieties always followed.

"Our ballet is dedicated to Olga Spessivtseva, one of the greatest ballerinas of the twentieth century. I was astonished when I learned the details of her life: the unique actress, bathed in glory and worshipped by fans and critics, spent 20 years in an asylum outside New York…The tragic emotions I felt, became the impulse for creating the ballet." – Boris Eifman

With only one Canadian stop on their current tour, Eifman Ballet will return to Toronto for their third time since their first appearance in 2013. A seminal work of Eifman’s expressive dance language, RED GISELLE is "exuberant theatricality, boldly expressive movement and extraordinary dancing." (Vogue).

When founding Eifman Ballet St. Petersburg in 1977, Eifman broke the rules and resisted the trends to develop his own personal form of expression that combines classical and contemporary dance and theatre. Now, celebrating their 40th anniversary, Eifman and the Eifman Ballet continue to push boundaries for ballet lovers in Asia, Europe, the Americas and Australia, while remaining true to the form developed four decades ago.

All pictures:

Part 1: flic.kr/s/aHskVS4ruJ
Part 2: flic.kr/s/aHskVAKmYM
Part 3: flic.kr/s/aHsm16SCds