The Academic Kyiv Modern-ballet Theatre (, fully titled Communal facility 'Theatrical and entertainment establishment of culture "Academic Kyiv Modern-ballet Theatre"') is a Ukrainian theatre of modern choreography, which was designed as authorial, with the repertoire and artistic priorities being determined by the production of one, single choreographer.
This theatre seeks to create an artistic laboratory of modern dancing with its daring experiments, with the original, unconventional interpretations of world-famous theatrical plots, and with the renovation and enrichment of the form and language of modern dancing. It performs on a tour quite a lot, both in Ukraine and abroad. The founder and the head ballet master of the Theatre is Radu Poklitaru — the Honoured Worker of Art of Ukraine, the winner of the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine, the People's Artist of Moldova.Указ Президента Республика Молдова от 13 сентября 2016 года №2335 О присвоении господину Раду Поклитару почётного звания «Artist al Poporului»
History
The history of Kyiv Modern-ballet begins on December 19, 2005, with the first night of the production Le forze del destino (), commissioned by Volodymyr Filippov's Art Foundation, which involved the main creative resources of the would-be theatre – choreographer Radu Poklitaru, scenographer Andriy Zlobin, costume artist Hanna Ipatieva, lighting producer Olena Antokhina, sound producer Oleksandr Kuriy, choreographer assistant Anatoliy Kozlov, and a number of performers who later became a part of the permanent company.
The one-act production Le forze del destino reproduced the atmosphere of the old theatre of the 1930s – 1940s, with its diverse soft scenery; in which the new interpretation of the classical opera hits (the arrangement of Pavlo Shevchuk) was performed by Olena Hrebeniuk (soprano), and the intense action was described in reviews as follows: "It is difficult to discern the precise contents of the production; the title, however, comes the closest to it. This collage of opera airs is "cemented" by the leit-motif of Verdi's opera La forza del destino, which sounds each time in different modifications."
The company Kyiv Modern-ballet Theatre Ltd. with Radu Poklitaru as its head was registered on July 18, 2006, and supported by the patron of art Volodymyr Filippov. In the course of all-Ukrainian casting, 16 young dancers were selected. The academic ballet education was not a necessary criterion for being admitted to the company; however, all the performers were professional modern dancers, knowledgeable about classical dancing and capable of conducting a classical lesson.
The two-part ballet Carmen.TV to the music of Georges Bizet was first presented on October 25, 2006, at the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater. The production was awarded two prizes of The Kyiv Pectoral contest – in the nominations The best production of the year and The best plastic interpretation of the production. Olga Kondakova who played the part of Carmen was nominated for The best female performer. In 2008 the Theatre was awarded The Kyiv Pectoral prize in the specially established nomination The event of the year for the selection of illustrious new productions: The Verona Myth: Shakespearements to the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, George Handel and the Renaissance music (2006), Bolero of Maurice Ravel (2007); Rain to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and folk music of the world (2007), and The Nutcracker of Pyotr Tchaikovsky (2007).
In collaboration with the National Opera of Ukraine the ballet-triptych The Intersection to the music of Myroslav Skoryk was produced; the one-act ballet Hereven to the music of Vladimir Nikolaev is the co-production with the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre (both in 2012).
The year of 2013 turned out to be critical for the company when the Theatre found itself on the verge of closing down. The ballet Swan Lake of Pyotr Tchaikovsky was thought to become the last production in the history of the Theatre. For financial reasons (exceedingly low salaries) 9 out of 21 performers of the company had to quit. They were replaced by new ones, and the whole repertoire had to be renewed almost from scratch. The productions were made owing to the patrons' support. The ballet Giselle was supported by Ludmyla Rusalina (the founder of the Petrus-Media holding), a number of projects were assisted by Volodymyr Borodiansky (the then Director General of the STB (TV channel), the head of StarLightMedia group); the direct participation of the businessman Andriy Demydov made the production of Swan Lake possible.
In March 2016 the productions of Kyiv Modern-ballet (he ballets Swan Lake, Women in D-Moll, The Long Christmas Dinner and the ballet-triptych The Intersection) directed by Radu Poklitaru were honoured with the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine in the nomination Musical Art. The application of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine specifically pointed out that The semantic polyphony of dancing created by the maestro reproduces the intense dynamics and the vocabulary of "encoded" metaphors and sophisticated symbols, highlighting the dramatic depths of existence in the first place.
From 2009 until 2017 the Kyiv Modern-ballet company was incorporated into the Kyiv Municipal Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre for Children and Youth, with most of the company's ballet productions being performed on its stage.
On October 5, 2017, the communal enterprise Theatrical and entertainment establishment of culture "Kyiv Modern-ballet Theatre" was founded according to the decision of the Kyiv City Council as of June 22, No610/2772 On founding the theatrical and entertainment establishment of culture "Kyiv Modern-ballet Theatre" by separating it from the theatrical and entertainment establishment of culture Kyiv Municipal Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre for Children and Youth". It was specifically indicated that the theatrical and entertainment establishment of culture 'Kyiv Modern-ballet' Theatre is the legal successor of a part of property, rights and duties of the communal enterprise the theatrical and entertainment establishment of culture The Kyiv Municipal Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre for Children and Youth.
In November 2017 the Theatre was assigned the rank of academic by the order of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine No1176 On assigning the rank of 'academic' to the company of the communal enterprise "The theatrical and entertainment establishment of culture Kyiv Modern-ballet' Theatre" as of November 8.КМДА Київ Модерн-балет статус Академічного
In February 2018 the Theatre was renamed the communal enterprise The theatrical and entertainment establishment of culture "The Academic Theatre 'Kyiv Modern-ballet' according to the decision of the Kyiv City Council as of February 8 No11/4075 On renaming the communal enterprise "The theatrical and entertainment establishment of culture 'Kyiv Modern-ballet' Theatre. The company numbers 23 performers.
Four productions of Kyiv Modern-ballet were shortlisted for the rating poll The Kyiv Score, which promulgated the list of the best Ukrainian productions of the 2000s in January 2021. 15 Ukrainian drama critics took part in the poll and included the productions The Long Christmas Dinner (2014), Carmen. TV (2006), No 6 Ward in The Kyiv Score.
The singularity of productions Plots
Theatre reviews describe Radu Poklitaru as a wizard of choreography, who inspires a new life in old fairy tales on the ballet stage – The Nutcracker, The Little Prince, Swan Lake.... Every new production of the company is based on the original interpretation of some apparently familiar story through the prism of Poklitaru's vision. Thus, only the characters' names are retained from the classical plot of Prosper Mérimée's short novel Carmen – a village girl Michaela becomes the central figure: this dreamy blond is captivated by the world of television serials (hence the title of the production Carmen. TV); his Giselle is not a sweet country girl, but an unfortunate child of a big modern city; the first episode of Swan Lake begins with the murderous shooting of a swan family and the subsequent care of the rescued cygnet by the infernal Lord Rotbar; the story of the Nutcracker is not focused on a liitle daughhter of wealthy parents – it centers round a teenager, a backfisch who has to go begging in the cold, snow-covered streets of a big city and then has a wonderful dream, falling asleep in the open.
The company has no inaccessible plots for the ballet; Poklitaru translates into the language of plastic arts F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Mysterious Story of Benjamin Button (Up the River); he combines, daringly, the story of The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with Mozart's early music аnd Ukrainian lullabies performed by Maria Pylypchak; he tells Pushkin's story The Queen of Spades using the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, only not the expected one of the opera of the same name, but his Second and Sixth Symphonies. The productions are exciting, up-to-date, ironic and, at times, comic, even bordering on mockery (In Pivo Veritas).
Artistic interpretation The artistic images of the ballets Carmen. TV, Shakespearements, Rain and Underground were developed by the scenic artist Hanna Ipatieva, a graduate of the National Academy of Visual Arts and Architecture (the class of Professor Mykola Storozhenko).І. В. Цебенко. Іпатьєва Ганна Вікторівна (2011) // Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine Hanna's scenery for Giselle is inspired by the prints of graphic works (Mykola Honcharov's) as the imagery language for theatrical costumes. The scenography (Carmen. TV, Shakespearements, Underground) is created by Andriy Zlobin, the Honoured Worker of Arts of Ukraine, a graduate of the Lviv National Academy of Arts (the class of Eugene Lysyk)].І. В. Цебенко. Злобін Андрій Вікторович (2010) // Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine The scenic interpretation of productions is done in modern style (for instance, the action of the ballet Giselle is transferred to dilapidated slums of a present-day megapolis). The scenic artist Oleksandr Druhanov used the engravings of Denis Diderot in the scenery of the ballet-triptych The Intersection (2012) and brought the 3D-animation to the stage. The permanent sound producer of all projects of the Theatre is Oleksandr Kuriy.
In 2014, the costume artist Dmytro Kuriata joined the producing group in the ballets Women in D-Moll, The Long Christmas Dinner (both in 2014), Up the River (2016), The Sleeping Beauty (2018), Viy (2019), The Little Prince (2020), and The Queen of Spades (2021). Since 2019, Olga Nikitina has been the art director of video projections; she developed the 3D mapping for the ballets Viy (2019) and The Little Prince (2020) and the continuum of added reality for The Queen of Spades project (2021), similar to the replenished reality and hybrid reality.
Music