Scorpions в Алматы

21ST-CENTURY BALLETS

21ST-CENTURY BALLETS

An Evening of One-Acts Ballets

PART 1

Raimondo Rebeck’s one-act ballet How Long is Now? is a philosophical reflection on time and its specific moments.

How long can Now last at different moments of life? It seems to the one who is in love that a kiss is as long as eternity, and the memories of suffering can last forever or disappear without a trace... Time flows differently for a person who is painfully passing away, and for people who love this person.

Today is tomorrow’s Yesterday, because what has just happened, immediately becomes the past. Thus, you can answer the question “How long is Now?”, as the White Rabbit answered a similar question of Alice, the heroine of Lewis Carroll’s novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, “Now, like Forever, sometimes lasts just one second”.

In Raimondo Rebeck’s ballet, three pairs of ballet dancers will illustrate the different stages of a person’s life. By means of art of dance, the talented choreographer makes an original attempt to investigate time, its flow and perception.

Music by Max Richter, Harry Escott, Ezio Bosso, Olafur Arnalds and Ludovico Einaudi, who gained special acclaim for his soundtrack to the film The Intouchables, as well as by Les Tambours du Bronx (“the Drums of the Bronx”) percussion band.

 

Choreography – Raimondo Rebeck

Scenography (to the sketches by R.Rebeck) – Victor Carare

Lighting Design – Carlo Cerri

Costume Design (to the sketches by R.Rebeck) – Arassel Dosmuratova

Artistic Director of the Astana Opera Ballet Company - Altynai Asylmuratova, Honoured Artist of Russia

 

 

Raimondo Rebeck (Germany) is a well-known ballet master, teacher, choreographer and winner of prestigious national and international ballet competitions. As a guest choreographer, he has worked with ballet companies around the world.

Since 2008, he has been working as a choreographer. Many international soloists and ballet companies ask him to stage choreographic numbers for them.

His ballet White Dream, created for the Universal Ballet, a Korean-based company, was performed at the Astana Opera as part of the EXPO-2017.

He has collaborated with such renowned choreographers and artists as Roland Petit, Maurice Béjart, Rudolf Nureyev, Yvette Chauviré, Altynai Asylmuratova, Hans Van Manen, Jiří Kylián, Angelin Preljocaj, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Mauro Bigonzetti and others.

Since 2012, he has been working with the Ballet Dortmund as a ballet master. Since 2014, he has been Artistic Director and Choreographer with the NRW Juniorballet Dortmund.

 

 

PART 2

Ksenia Zvereva’s one-act ballet Sounds of Time based on Adam Kapanov’s libretto Celestial Nomadic Travelling to the music of Aktoty Raimkulova. Set design by Riccardo Massironi.

The story of lovers, whose fathers were ordinary people, while mothers were celestial nomads, lies at the heart of the ballet. The main characters Ansar and Nuriya unknowingly possess

the ancient magic and find themselves in a whirlwind of amazing events. On their way, they face good and evil, love and hatred, self-commitment and selfishness. However, this fascinating story, filled with magic and spirit of times, will be transferred to our modern world. Mysterious powers of heroes and magic amulets will take different forms, and the character traits and deeds of the heroes will become recognizable for today’s spectators. The performance will reflect the contemporary world, its current problems, relationship between people, and different layers of society and its values. Thus, the densely eventful plot of the ballet, where myth and reality are intertwined, will eventually lead to the ideas that have always been, are and will remain the main concepts regardless of time and space.

 

Production Choreography – Ksenia Zvereva

Conductor – Arman Urazgaliyev

Set design – Riccardo Massironi

Lighting Designer – Jacopo Pantani

Costume Design – Arassel Dosmuratova

Artistic Director of the Astana Opera Ballet Company – Altynai Asylmuratova, Honoured Artist of Russia

 

 

Ksenia Zvereva (Russia/Sweden) graduated from the Royal Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm. She received her Master’s degree from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, and underwent training at the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT). She won many international ballet competitions and competitions-festivals of contemporary choreography (Sweden, 2006, 2008; Belarus, 2012; Russia, 2014). From 2008 to 2012, she was a ballet dancer with the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus.

As a choreographer, Ksenia Zvereva took part in the Festival O/Modernt in Stockholm (2012-2013). She taught modern dance at the performing faculty of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet (2013-2014). Her miniature The Hovering won the Mikhailovsky Theatre Grand Prix in 2013 and was performed at the Mariinsky Theatre (2014).

Ksenia Zvereva’s ballets Second I to the music of Philip Glass (2015) and Elegy. Ophelia to the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky (2016) are now part of the Mariinsky’s repertoire. Her one-act ballet Memoryhouse to the music of Max Richter was presented at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia (2017).

Ksenia Zvereva is often invited to give master classes, as well as stage productions at the Astana Opera House and the Kazakh National Academy of Choreography.

The world premiere of her production Pas de Petipa to the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky with the participation of principals of The Mariinsky Theatre Oksana Skorik and Xander Parish took place at the Gala Concert “Vivat Petipa! Classics Through the Eyes of Contemporary Choreographers” (Historic Stage of The Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow) as part of the two-day International Ballet Festival Benois de la Danse (June, 2018).