About the ballet ‘Anna Karenina’. Boris Eifman’s ballet ‘Anna Karenina’ is a work full of emotional tension. He can extremely accurately grasp the expression of characters’ psychology. He has set aside all the subplots of Leo Tolstoy’s novel and focused on the love entanglement among Anna, Karenin and Vronsky. Eifman outlines a woman’s rebirth with the language of dance. He believes that the thirst for love and passion is a human instinct. It prompts the heroine to rise up and resist the laws of life at that time, makes her maternal love lost, makes her inner world collapse, and makes her recklessly squander her passion regardless of the cost, submit to it and finally be destroyed by it. Eifman believes that his ballet is not telling about the past, but telling about the present. The emotions in the play transcend time and space and echo reality. Even modern audiences can be aroused resonance by it. The superb dancing skills of the troupe’s dancers and Eifman’s amazing choreography vividly show us the spirit of Tolstoy’s novel.
Boris Eifman. The founder of Eifman Ballet, he has created his own personal ballet style and ballet world and is known as ‘one of the important choreographers in the world’ and ‘the master of theatrical magic’. Eifman was born in Siberia in 1946. Since childhood, he has expressed his feelings and thoughts in dance with body language. He himself once said: ‘Ballet is not only a profession for me. It is the meaning of my existence and the mission that I come to this world. I can’t restrain myself from wanting to convey the inspiration received from a high place through ballet. Most likely, if I don’t have the possibility to express them through artistic means, I will strangle these emotions. For me, choreography is an art with profound religious connotations in the broadest sense.’ After ending his study career at the Leningrad Conservatory and the Vaganova Ballet School, Eifman founded his own ballet troupe in 1977 – the Leningrad New Ballet Troupe, which is the predecessor of today’s widely known St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet. He and his dancers not only have a solid foundation in classical ballet, but also continuously actively innovate and enrich ballet dance language. Soon they are regarded as the backbone of the new generation of Russian ballet.In 1977, Boris Eifman founded the St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet (formerly known as the ‘Leningrad New Ballet’), embarking on a new artistic journey. From its inception, the ballet company has revolutionized the concept of Russian classical ballet, pushing the emotional expression and dramatic conflict of ballet to the extreme, earning it the reputation of a choreographer’s ballet theater. The innovative nature of Eifman’s ballets lies in the selection of literary works and music, as well as the boldness of their physical movement vocabulary, which has earned him the reputation of an ‘unconventional choreographer’. From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the company’s unique style gradually took shape, with an increasing number of performances based on the world’s classical literary treasures. Eifman and his company work closely together, combining the rigorous standards, superb technique, and lyrical expression of the Russian ballet tradition with filmic expression, astonishing every audience member. The company explores new dance styles and trends, with new works such as ‘The Struggle,’ ‘Fools,’ ‘Mad March,’ ‘The Marriage of Figaro,’ ‘Legends,’ ‘Twelfth Night,’ ‘The Master and Margarita,’ ‘The Murderer,’ and more, all characterized by their elite choreography, interpreting the passion of ballet characters with high artistic achievement. Today, Eifman Ballet’s works have been embraced and praised by ballet enthusiasts from Europe, America, Asia, and Australia: ‘I, Don Quixote,’ ‘Red Giselle,’ ‘Hamlet in Russia,’ ‘Anna Karenina,’ ‘The Seagull,’ ‘Eugene Onegin,’ ‘Rodin – The Eternal Idol,’ ‘The Brothers Karamazov,’ ‘Requiem,’ ‘Tender is the Night,’ and ‘Tchaikovsky’ are not only the highest level of contemporary Russian ballet art but also contain the immortal spiritual heritage of Russia and the wisdom of world culture. The Eifman Ballet constantly interprets the connotation of culture in innovative ways, leading the audience into a refined artistic world. Over the decades, the Eifman Ballet’s performances in top theaters around the world have been immensely successful. Eifman’s profound understanding and revelation of human nature and his interpretation of complex, sharp contradictions immerse the audience in the boundless world of human passion, establishing a powerful spiritual bond. Through his malleable resilience and astonishing, well-timed energy, he showcases a unique perspective on dance theater and his ability to master it. The entire text is open from 11/14 to 11/15, with performance times and durations subject to the actual event.
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