On January 17, the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater will show the most marvelous and New Year's performance of the Kyiv Modern Ballet by Radu Poklitaru - The Nutcracker.
Photo: Kyv Modern Ballet Fcebook page
The Nutcracker by P.I. Tchaikovsky is the most famous and original production in the Kyiv Modern Ballet repertoire. A familiar plot finds a non-trivial rethinking in it, and a kind Christmas story turns into a complex mystical fantasy. The ballet amazes with the luxury of costumes and scenery, the inhuman plasticity of the characters' movements, and overwhelms with non-trivial directorial decisions.
"For adults, the inner world of children is a carefree realm of fantasies and games. I don't know about you, dear viewer, but I clearly remember how often as a child I swore to myself that when I become an adult, I will remember what it's like to be a child. Unfortunately, it didn't work out … The loss of this knowledge is one of the most important losses of our lives. Perhaps this is due to the very nature of man, the properties of his memory?" - Radu Poklitaru
Radu Poklitaru is the Principal Ballet Master at Academic theatre "Kyiv Modern Ballet", Producer, Ukraine's Honoured Art Worker, Laureate of Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine, People's Artist of Moldova, laureate of international competitions.
Poklitaru reinterprets the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" in a completely unusual way. He does not get a sweet Christmas story at all, but a multifaceted, mystical fantasy of the authorship of the great romantic, "painter of the inner world" E.T.A. Hoffmann. Combining classic and modern art gains attention from the first scenes.
"After rereading Hoffman's tale "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", I was amazed: how accurately, piercingly, and sometimes ruthlessly, the great romantic analyzes the movements of the child's soul. His research (long before Freud) removes the conditional idealization of child psychology and allows a much deeper look into the eyes of the miracle called "CHILDHOOD". Besides, our "Nutcracker" is, first of all, a fairy tale." - Radu Poklitaru
The goal of Poklitaru is to make ballet a genuinely bright, emotional show that can pierce the heart.
His fantasy turned the choreography into a cascade of incredible plastic techniques. The troupe's works prove that it is possible to infinitely saturate the ballet with action, emotions, and continuous unusual movement …
"A tale about little Marie, who seeks happiness and love, about dreams that magically allowed her to move to the house of Counselor Stahlbaum, about Councilor Stahlbaum and his wife, transformed by Mr. Drosselmeyer into king and queen of mice, about Mr. Droselmayer, who gave Mare a charming doll, for some reason strangely similar to itself, about a doll (we will call her the Nutcracker) who became Marie's first true love. And most importantly, everything in this story is not really what it seems at first glance." - Radu Poklitaru
The secret of the incredible popularity of the play "The Nutcracker" among the audience is hidden in the magical mixture of the beauty of the fairy tale with the tragedy and the deep psychological nature of the production. Giant mice, which threaten the happiness of lovers, are their best friends. Unlike people, who slowly but relentlessly lead the main character to an inconspicuous and terrible death.
Odessans will be able to see an incredibly plastic, touching, and tragic fairy tale in the Nutcracker ballet already on January 17th at the Opera House Theatre.
