Onegin, al Colón: A jewel of the neoclassical ballet

The title that the Teatro Colón Ballet had announced for September was La Fille Mal Gardée, a fascinating comedy-ballet by the English choreographer Frederick Ashton. But has been replaced by Oneginby John Cranko, an opera that has been part of the Ballet del Colón repertoire for many years, but which has not been revived since 2016.

To do this, he was invited as a repositor Thierry Michele, who was born in France but developed a very important career as a dancer and teacher at the Stuttgart Ballet. He is also a fine connoisseur of the work.

awesome news: Onegin It is one of the most extraordinary works of the neoclassical trend of the twentieth century. and his absence was already being felt on the Colón stage.

A bit of history

The great creator John Cranko (1927-1973), of British origin, was born in South Africa and there he made his first dance training. He started composing works at a very young age and staging them for prestigious international companies.

In 1961 he was appointed Director of the Stuttgart Balletand he gave such a decisive impetus – not only to the company but to the country’s ballet – that it will later be said of him that he achieved the “miracle of German ballet”.

Onegin It is based on the novel in verse Yevgeny Onegin by Alexander Pushkin and account a romantic story with a dramatic ending: the young Tatiana, who belongs to a rich provincial family, falls in love with the enigmatic Onegin, who visits the country house of this family accompanied by his friend Lensky.

This young poet arrives there to see his girlfriend Olga, Tatiana’s sister. Olga will be the involuntary trigger of a tragedy. Tatiana’s naive love is coldly rejected by the cynical and sophisticated Onegin and when they meet again years later, Tatiana is already married to Prince Gremin. Onegin, now in love with her, begs her to run away with him but it’s too late.

Agneta and Victor Valcu were, from the very first time, the official custodians of Onegin in Colombo, always much loved by the dancers of the theater thanks to their wise knowledge of the work, its depth and its subtleties. Now Thierry Michel is in charge.

The following interview was held with him; in it you comment on very interesting aspects of “Onegin” and how to interpret it.

Michel, Cranko’s admirer

“Unfortunately I have not met Cranko – thus begins the speech Michel-. I started dancing around the time he died in 1973 and I was 12. But then I met practically all the people who collaborated with him ”.

-And what have you learned through them?

-Which worked in a very unique way. For example, I would like to arrive in the rehearsal room, set up the step two of the third act in just an hour and he was leaving. He had already prepared a skeleton for the job to be sure what would work; but at the same time, if a dancer did, perhaps by mistake, something different, Cranko could tell him: “oh, this is even better than my idea”. And he incorporated it.

-Was there then an exchange with the dancers?

– Always give and take from them. And he also adapted the role to the different interpreters: he had created a character, for example, for Marcia Haydée, but when he had to pass it to another dancer he said: “no, don’t do it like that, it’s not for you, it’s not for your personality. “.

This is what I find so wonderful in Cranko’s ballets: the choreography is always the same, but there is a kind of freedom of adaptation for the interpreters to themselves.

-And you, as a repository, follow the same line?

-Exactly. When a dancer starts learning the role of Tatiana I tell her: “You are not going to ‘do’ Tatiana; you will ‘be’ the person who experiences what happens to her character. And not only that: I also tell him to interpret it according to how he feels today, which is different from how he was yesterday and how he will feel tomorrow “.

-And does this not imply that the choreography changes?

-No. The steps do not change, but how the emotions of the precise moment in which the artist finds himself are projected; because today we come to the trials happy, another day disappointed, another day sad or angry. Dance is a living art. For certain roles it is necessary to search in one’s memories, in the things experienced.

-What do you think is more interesting than your work as a repository, which is very intense?

– The exchange with the dancers; discover the people in front of me. Maybe after organizing the various casts, a dancer got injured, I have to choose another one and I see that it is even better than the one I had chosen before.

I want to add something: dance is a selfish art; you dance for yourself. Forget the public, who have the privilege of participating only by looking through a fourth transparent wall.

– Do you communicate this kind of thing to dancers?

-Of course. And I also tell them that when they dance they have to rediscover the role every day and every moment. As if they really don’t know what will happen to their characters in the next instant. And I ask them to show me different things, obviously always in the context of the role.

Could you refer to the characters in the play?

-Onegin is a worldly and arrogant man who lives in a big city. His friend Lensky is a poet, in love with Olga; a pure soul inhabiting a perfect world. Onegin and Lensky are friends perhaps thanks to these differences.

Tatiana is an innocent girl in the first act, but appears as a woman grown and matured in the second; she is already married to Prince Gremin, who put her on a pedestal.

-When Tatiana rejects Onegin at the end of the game, how do you interpret him?

There are people who believe it is an act of revenge: thus reject the one who was the love of his life. Not for me; what moves her is her loyalty and respect for her husband, Prince Gremin, a more episodic but by no means secondary character.

I discovered a young dancer David Juárez among the ballet companies, who knows how to interpret this role beautifully. Obviously with a lot of makeup to make him the mature man that Gremin is. There are three divisions with several protagonists in the main roles.

-Did you find any differences between the three dancers who will play Tatiana in the following performances?

– Happily yes! Each had a completely different approach to the role; They also have very different personalities.

Camila Bocca simply “does”, as if she had never reflected on her character. Ayelén Sánchez is a bit shy and she needs to be encouraged: “You can do it, you can do it for sure”. And Natalia Pelayo reflects on every aspect of the role. So in her case my comments are like this: “You don’t have to think, you have to do it!”.

– What about the other characters?

–I don’t want one to look like the other. I don’t want three identical Olgas, or three identical Lenskys, or three identical Onegins. That’s why I don’t even want you to watch versions of the Stuttgart Ballet on YouTube. In any case, the staging, but not the interpretation.

Information

the first of Onegin It is Thursday 1 September, at 8 pm, at the Teatro Colón (Libertad 621, CABA). This cycle of functions ends on 11 September.

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