Ballet dancers and New Russian Image in 21st century

 Yukihiko YOSHIDA

A new image of Ballet has proposed by Russian Dance. Farukh Rizimatov showed their great performance in his stage last fall. He comes to　Tokyo often recently.
 The most interesting piece is the collaboration with Rosario Romero .　That was  dramatic. Framenco is a form of folk dance in Europe. In that work,  Rizimatov acted with framenco dancers. The taste of ballet dancers harmonized with their worldly mood.
 As his repertoire, the most impressive work was “Adagio Albinoni.” The  miserable men appeared while powdered Ruzimatov dances his solo. The  body and tension which comes from inner energy was powerful. In this work, his body was  close to Butoh. The important Butoh artist, Akira Kasai choreographed him.
 I strongly understand why Kasai did that.
 In usual ballet repertoire, such as “Le Spectre De La Rose” by Fokine  “Carmen” and  “Don Quiote”, young Russian dancers show their flesh  acting and dynamic movement. Their stage was the product of NYC or Soviet  Union at the age of Cold War, 20th century. However, it seems that the new image has been  building up. It is said that the origin of ballet is  Middle East. Their movement represents Russia, which is the important node of cultural economy in Middle East. This phenomena shows that the new  Russian image after Cold War: 20th centuryhas been rising. The stage reminds me of  spreading new world cultural economy and order in the  beginning of 21tst century.

Photo (C) Seto Hidemi