Nikolay Tsiskaridze: "The theater has been showing a "fake" for a long time, the real ballet ended in the 2000s"

“The spectators of the 19th century, who went to look at these fairy tales, which were made on the stage, they were more educated. Those people were very well versed in mythology, in biblical stories, and so on.

Without knowing this, you cannot enjoy the performance itself.

Yes, you can wait for the aunt to twist 32 fouettés, and the uncle will jump like this endlessly, but the ballet is about something else.

Ballet is still an art form, and I, as a person who gave his life to this, want people to still enjoy the other.

And when I realized that it had a response, I was very pleased.

...White ballet is liked by everyone.

George Balanchine said an excellent phrase: "Any ballet, in order for it to be a commercial success, must be called "Swan Lake". This is immediately for sale. Straightaway.

Lots of women in white tutus are a win-win. And if also sentimental music is generally a win-win. Therefore, it will always be good.

The tragedy of today's theater is that the people who come, they see - well, a lot of people are running, others are applauding, well, then everything is fine.

They cannot assess the extent of this and understand that they are already being shown, in principle, a fake. For a long time. They have been showing a fake for a long time.

And this will never be determined by anyone.

There are no more music lovers and balletomanes, they do not have access to the theater...

And this was partly done on purpose in order, well, how to say, to turn around their affairs and so that there was always, like, supposedly "success".

The ballet ended in the 2000s, in the early 2000s. That's it, 2005, when the old theater was closed, they killed.

The last production, outstanding, is only "The Queen of Spades", which has received worldwide resonance and all the awards that are possible. It was a revolution... Well, not a revolution, but it was done with insanely high quality.

There is nothing else that will survive the centuries.

"Swan Lake" and "Spartak" are still leaving, that's all.

Well, traditionally, the Nutcracker on New Year's; it's just that the whole world cannot live without it".

You can listen to the full conversation with Nikolai Tsiskaridze here.