It’s early for the theater, let’s start with the Actor’s House

#StagePlatforma started in 2018 with several events at the Actor’s House. Then the initiator of the project, Oleg Ivenko, was asked if it was safe for professionals to dance on the parquet. Colleagues from the opera and ballet theater appeared with him at the festival – Alessandro Kaggeji, Koya Okawa, Midori Terada, Anton Polodyuk. At the same time, flamenco dancer Anna Fedorova and freestylers Marcel and Maria Nurievs joined the project, since then traditionally representing the Kazan part of the festival on behalf of non-ballet dancers. Master classes were also held in the studio of Ivenko BalletRoom. The first festival is always a test: for example, here, in addition to dance, they taught theater and artistic photography.

The experiments continued in the summer, when the festival was held in the Black Lake Park, on the Kaban Embankment and in the Kremlin near the Kul Sharif Mosque, with contemporary dance classes, ballet stretching and yoga.

At the third festival of 2019, a native of Ivenko and many participants of the Tatar Opera and Ballet Theater named after Musa Dzhalil appeared in its program, where rehearsals and a gala concert took place. A small budget appeared with the support of the Ministry of Culture.

Due to the pandemic, the fourth festival, with the theater as the main point, was held in November 2021, with incomplete seats, but a stopped composition. One of the concerts was programmatically called Ivenko&Friends and showed how ballet professionals dance – rarely seen classics, such as the adagio from “Shurale” and the pas de deux from “Esmeralda” and “sovremennka”.

And the next day, the guests danced, with education and experiences. Among them — Alexander Mogilev, the winner of the Tantsuy show and one of the choreographers of the Dancing on TNT project, a graduate of the choreographic department of the Karelian School of Culture and Arts, State University of Culture and Moscow Arts and the European Ballet Conservatory. Also – Vladimir Varnava, in the past – a ballet dancer in the Musical Theater of the Republic of Karelia, who moved to St. Petersburg and has since worked with the Mariinsky and the Russian Engineering Theater “AHE”. Soloist of the Boris Eifman Ballet Theater, Oleg Gabyshev.

Then Alessandro Kaggeji remarked that “so far there are not so many projects in Kazan that promote modern choreography. The thing is that we don’t have a school and a good troupe that would deal directly with modern plastics.

At the same time, a regional competition for choreographers was held within the framework of the festival, its winner Aigul Buzayeva performed on the stage of the Opera and Ballet Theater with a number based on the biography of Edith Piaf. You may have seen her on the Tantsy show. She was not on the program this year.

Best for kids

In 2022, the festival is implemented with the support of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives. And the main innovation is that within its framework was organized a regional competition for children and young people of performers of modern choreography, in groups of 7-12 and 13-6 years old. Therefore, during the November holidays, there were a lot of teenagers on the site of the MOÑ theater during the master classes of Alexander Mogilev, Vladimir Varnava, Oleg Gabyshev, Alessandro Kaggeji, Marsel and Maria Nurievs, Nurbek Batulla, Ivenko lui -same.

So, on the one hand, the festival is growing. But that remains the idea of ​​Ivenko, who has become even busier: this year he even showed at #StagePlatforma a performance of “Milligan Personalities” to music by Elmir Nizamov with choreography by Oleg Gabyshev. The production suddenly interested Kazan’s parents, who, after reading online about who Milligan was, but not watching the premiere itself, bombarded the Ministry of Culture with letters calling for it to be banned. As a result, the performance with the age limit of 18 and over was held to thunderous applause, and its theme was in line with the protesters’ concerns: it’s about how a boy n was not liked by his parents, suddenly, a mess started in his head, and he directed all his rigidity towards his father.

The gala concert with 12 premieres was full of the marks “premiere” and “premiere in Kazan”. However, it is impossible not to notice that for 5 years in its excellent program, the number of local artists outside ballet has not increased.

“I don’t think there’s much to brag about, we don’t have our own theater or modern dance school yet, so we can talk about full-fledged development, but we’re still moving forward in the right direction,” Ivenko told Realnoe Vremya.

There’s not much to brag about

Interestingly, there are two other similar festivals in Kazan. The first is the international dance performance festival “Telovision”, which has existed since 2008. It is directed by Nail Ibragimov, the director of the Panther Chamber Ballet. In 2020, he was nominated for the Golden Mask in the categories “Best performance in modern dance”, “Best work by a choreographer-ballet master”. Literally in September, “Panther” gave a concert at the Kariev Theater.

There is a younger, but no less notable festival, “Freedom Square”. In November 2021, it took place for the seventh time. By the way, on the same MOÑ site — with a lecture, a public lecture, a laboratory and performances, which were notably presented by the same Nurievs and Batulla. Marsel, Maria and Nurbek were lucky in a way. They are involved in both the contemporary and the classic. Nuriev graduated from the theater department of the Kazan National Institute of Culture, studied at the Vaganova Academy of Russian ballet. Batulla studied at the Kazan Choreographic School, worked as a ballet dancer at the Tatar Academic State Opera and Ballet Theater named after M. Dzhalil, and also went to the St. Petersburg Conservatory for 2 years to study the master – ballet choreographer, until he left for the Institute of Performing Arts to study theater and film acting.

At the same time, Ildar Alekbayev, the organizer of the Netantsy project, a teacher in a private kindergarten, a choreographer, a participant in the program “New Dances” on TNT, and Venera Galimova, a teacher of the choreography studio, do “ Liberty Square”.

Probably, all these people know each other at least a little. Why don’t they “visit”? It turns out that there are several worlds of Kazan dance that do not particularly intersect. Professionals who make their living with the classics, but constantly dabble in the contemporary. People without academic training, doing the same thing and not knowing how to do batman tandu. “Weirds” who know no bounds.

On the other hand, can you imagine contact improvisation or total improvisation on the stage of the Musa Dzhalil Theatre? And does such a dance need a ramp, spotlights and a dress parade? Maybe they should go back to the Actor’s House?

But as the experience of the Context festival shows. Diana Vishneva, who began with productions close to ballet, and now hosts a variety of choreographers, such an event needs time. If only this time was enough for Oleg Ivenko’s enthusiasm.

Radif Kashapov Photo: Ramis Nazmiev. Provided by the theater press office

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