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Dancing its way into history

The Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg performs Tchaikovsky. PHOTO COURTESY OF ARTISTS

Next week the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg (聖彼得堡艾夫曼芭蕾舞團) will be performing in Taipei, offering audiences another view into the world of Russian ballet, or at least into the mind of Boris Eifman.

The 59-year old is a rarity in the world of Russian dance. A graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory's choreography department, in 1970 he became the official choreographer of the Vaganova Academy, the school attached to the world-famous Kirov Ballet.

Many people would have been content with that position and the opportunities it afforded to create pieces for the school, other companies and television shows. But Eifman wanted more than the stultifying world of Soviet government-sanctioned ballet could offer. After all, this is a man who says that he knew at the age of 13 that he wanted to be a choreographer.

He battled the bureaucracy for several years until he was finally given permission to form his own dance troupe, the Leningrad New Ballet company. Not only was it not part of the state-funded theater system, relying in part on private donations and what it could earn, it focused on modern choreography.

Over the years, the company's dancers honed their modern ballet technique as Eifman created dozens of pieces for the troupe, which gained a reputation for breathing new life into the world of Russian dance. The company became the St. Petersburg State Academic Theater of Ballet before changing its name once again to the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg.

Starting in 1993, Eifman began to create full-length works that combined Russian history with modern story lines and dance. He is more than just the choreographer and artistic director of the company. He often writes the librettos -- with an emphasis on psychological extremes -- puts together the music, does the staging and often the lighting.

The company is bringing two of Eifman's full-length ballets to Taipei -- Tchaikovsky: The Mystery of Life and Death (next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights) and Russian Hamlet: The Son of Catherine the Great (Saturday evening and Sunday matinee).

Tchaikovsky, which premiered in 1993, was the first of Eifman's full-length ballets. It is set, naturally, to the music of Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, the composer who is so closely entwined with the great classics of Russian ballet.

In Russian Hamlet, which premiered in 1999, Eifman has taken the story of Catherine the Great of Russia and her son Paul and linked it with that of Hamlet and his mother Gertrude, set to the music of Ludwig von Beethoven and Gustav Mahler.

Eifman's action-packed choreography, at least among Western critics, has a reputation for being sometimes less than inspired and too often repetitive and predictable -- charges his Russian fans vigorously condemn. The company, however, has a reputation for technical proficiency and its dancers are certainly among the best in Russia.

All in all, the company is a fitting climax to the National Theater and Concert Hall's Passion of the North series.

Performance notes:
What: The Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg
Where: National Theater of the CKS Memorial Hall, 21-1, Zhongshan S Rd, Taipei City (台北市中山南路21-1號國家戲劇院)
When: Wed, Dec. 7 through Sun, Dec. 11; all performances at 7:30pm, except for the Sunday matinee at 2:30pm
Tickets: NT$600, NT$800, NT$1600, NT$2400, NT$3200, NT$4000 and NT$4800, available through the NTCH box office or ERA ticketing
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