danceview
a quarterly review of dance

Interviews

a conversation with Aleksei Fadeyechev
Autumn 1999
by Marc Haegeman
© 1999

Interview with Aleksei Fadeyechev
London, July 1999

By Marc Haegeman

When Aleksei Fadeyechev arrived in London last Summer with the Bolshoi Ballet for a four-week engagement at the Coliseum Theatre, it was in a completely different position than during his previous visits. This time it was no longer as principal dancer but as artistic director of the famous Russian company that he appeared in the British capital.

Aleksei Fadeyechev was in a way destined to devote his life to ballet. One of the most admired exponents of the Moscow School of the last decades, he had joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 1978. A danseur noble of incomparable class, Fadeyechev was a prince among heroes. At 38, his dancing career took a sudden end when at the beginning of the 1998-99 season the General Director of the Bolshoi, Vladimir Vasiliev, appointed him artistic director of the ballet company.

After an absence of six years from the London stage and a much-discussed changing of regime, nobody really knew what to expect from the ‘Bolshoi Ballet-new style.’ For Aleksei Fadeyechev, just finishing his first season, it was without doubt a crucial, yet difficult moment in his new career. In the middle of the busy London tour, he kindly consented this interview to me.

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MARC HAEGEMAN:   Aleksei Fadeyechev, can you remind me briefly your career as dancer.

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  I was born in a family of dancers. Both my parents were dancers. My father, Nikolai, had a great career at the Bolshoi and danced with ballerinas like Ulanova and Plisetskaya. Now he is working as teacher in the company.

My father didn’t want me to be a ballet dancer, because he thought it was too difficult. Also, when I was young, the proportions of my body weren’t considered right. Yet, my mother took me to school. Personally, I had no opinion about all this. I didn’t care about ballet. They just put me there and I started working, politely doing what they asked me to, but it wasn’t until my fifth year that I began to have a clear idea of what I wanted to do. My teacher was Alexander Prokofiev, who helped me great deal and taught me the heroic, masculine manner in ballet.

When I finished school, Yuri Grigorovich noticed me and I was accepted for the Bolshoi Ballet. At the graduation performances I danced a variation from Swan Lake. The Bolshoi administration told me I had twenty days to prepare Swan Lake. I was nineteen. I can’t remember how I finished this performance, my legs were gone, but after this people were saying: “Yes, he can dance!” So, that’s how it all began. During my career I worked mostly with my father and danced almost all the major roles with the Bolshoi. I guested among others with the Royal Ballet, with the Boston Ballet, and the Royal Danish Ballet.

In Russia, it’s considered normal that one dances for twenty years. When I had reached that time, the General Director of the Bolshoi Theatre, Vladimir Vasiliev, offered me the position of director of the Bolshoi Ballet, under the condition that I stopped dancing. The two jobs are too hard to combine. I considered this very carefully. Of course, this offer came at the right moment. To put an end to your career is a very difficult moment for a ballet dancer: you are thirty-eight or so and dancing is all that you can do. It’s a hard decision. So, I could stop my career as a dancer and immediately continue in the same business. The same building, the same people around, but a very different position and a very different life.

MH:  But you accepted. How do you enjoy the life as artistic director?

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  My first season is finished now. It’s definitely more difficult in some situations. As a dancer I was responsible for myself and for my partner on stage, now I am responsible for the whole company. As a dancer I was freer. Being a director is a nervous job. Watching the performances is like dancing with everybody. I want it to look good. Also, you have to tell the truth to people. Dancers come up to me saying they are very good and therefore wonder why they cannot dance this particular role. It’s very difficult to say to them that they are not that suited for that part. The truth can sound hard, but I think it’s still better that way.

Dancers are like sick babies, you know. Especially principals. They are always complaining. It’s difficult to work with them. Of course, they can have family problems, or there was a car accident…, so getting them on stage at the right moment sometimes demands a little performance of myself (laughing). This is my life now.

What’s interesting about this new job is that I can see the results of what I did. My first season was a successful one. In my opinion this is the best company in the world, because they can do everything. They are true professionals and they are working great. In this season we did the Balanchine evening -- Symphony in C, Agon, and Mozartiana – in less then twenty days, and during these twenty days we were performing six days a week. The opening night was a huge success in Russia, and John Taras and Suzanne Farrell, who staged the ballets, were pleasantly surprised. Even in Agon, which is really different for the company, the dancers did very well.

This London season is important for all of us. I can see they want to do it and show what they can do. They are working very hard; we have twenty-nine performances in twenty-eight days. We have seven different ballets here and there is no time to rehearse them. It’s difficult to change the program without rehearsals. But they do their utmost, and I’m happy about that.

MH:  Before this London tour we could read in the press that “the new Bolshoi Ballet” was coming. Do you agree with this?

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  It is a new Bolshoi Ballet, because the generation is changing. And with every new generation there is a new power, a new spirit in the group. Of course, we have our tradition and we are still doing ballets that the previous generations did, like Spartacus.

I wasn’t with them when the company was last here in 1993, but I understand that the performing conditions weren’t advantageous: it was a ‘show’ made from pieces from Grigorovich’s ballets and performed in the round. It was like a circus. Many people tell me that the company is much better now. I don’t know if it’s better or not, because I didn’t see the company then. But I can see the company now: for me, and I’m their toughest critic, they are dancing well. Of course, now we bring the ballets full-length, which perhaps makes it easier to judge the company.

MH:  One of the ballets the Bolshoi is performing here in London is a new Don Quixote.

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  There is a funny situation with Russian ballets being shown in the West. After Nureyev and Makarova defected they began to stage their own productions of some of the Russian classics. These productions were the result of what they remembered of what they saw in their native company in Leningrad. And they didn’t remember everything that well, so they made changes. Yet, in the West these productions were long time considered as the standard, as the original versions, which obviously they weren’t. When afterwards some of the original versions were shown, they weren’t immediately accepted by Western audiences, because they looked different from what they were used to see.

But now, about this new Don Quixote. We had Grigorovich’s version of this ballet in the repertoire. Grigorovich added in this basically joyful story some philosophical accents, which shouldn’t have been there. He made Don Quixote and Sancho Panza the central characters in the ballet, while Don Quixote is in my opinion nothing more than the character who connects all the scenes. The real heroes are Kitri and Basilio. The Grigorovich production was also very dark and I thought it would be better to return to the old Moscow-Gorsky staging, which has always been popular with audiences and dancers alike. I edited some scenes from the ballet and in the old version there was an intermission in the second act. Frankly, I don’t know how it will look like here, because we don’t have enough time to rehearse. We have general rehearsal and performance of Swan Lake, followed by two more performances, and then we have general rehearsal and performance of Don Q. There really is no time and we don’t know how the sets will work.

We also recreated the old costumes, that is to say, we worked with different materials, but we did it in the style of the old costumes. Unfortunately, we couldn’t show the live animals here on the stage, the horse and small donkey of Don Q and Sancho.

I see this ballet mainly as fun, there is no idea, it’s just great dancing with some little story. In Moscow we are, compared to the Maryinsky, more open, more exuberant. Gorsky who reworked the original ballet from Petipa made a lot of changes and added some things from real life in the first act. The Maryinsky also has Gorsky’s version, yet it’s quite different from ours.

MH:  Did you edit the modern additions with other music as well?

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  There still is some different music. Of course the music is basically Minkus, but some of the dances which were added later have become an essential part of the performing tradition in Moscow and I couldn’t just throw them out. They would have killed me if I did (laughing). They are classics in Moscow and I had to keep them. But what I did remove was the gig in the tavern scene, danced by a girl and three boys, which was completely useless. Also the fight between Don Q and Basilio in the last Act didn’t make much dramatic sense. Unfortunately we couldn’t show here the dances with the small cupids, because it was too expensive to bring our own girls.

MH:  Let’s have a look at some of the dancers in the company. A few days ago for instance Dmitri Belogolovtsev, who is new to us, danced an interesting Spartacus.

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  Dancing Spartacus now is not that easy, because the ballet was created for dancers with completely different bodies. The older generation (except perhaps Godunov) was much shorter, more muscular. But now, we don’t have boys like this anymore. They are all slim, tall… time changes and people change. Dmitri Belogolovtsev is a strong dancer, and also a very virile one, with good jumps and turns. He dances Spartacus since a few years and is growing in the role. He is an excellent Abderakhman in Raymonda as well.

A dancer can do just the steps. But it’s important that he understands what he is doing. Even the jumps are not just “jumps”. They have a special meaning. Dancing a full-length ballet is different from a gala performance with pas de deux or a competition. Grigorovich’s ballets need a definite dramatic quality. And Dmitri is clearly making progress in that direction. It’s important, too, that he becomes known in London, because London has always been a launching platform for Bolshoi dancers. Our generation started its international career in London in 1986 and I hope that this tour will have the same effect for some of the newest generation.

For example, Andrei Uvarov, who danced his first Spartacus here last week. This was really a great step forward for him. For a dancer like him with romantic qualities and appearance it’s a very difficult job. But I think it is an important moment in his career, because it will influence his other performances, also the strictly classical ones. Dancing Spartacus opens some closed door inside your soul and you approach the other roles in a different way.

We also have Sergei Filin, who already was here in 1993. He is a very good dancer. Completely different by his plastique and style. Excellent in Bournonville and a great performer of Balanchine.

Nikolai Tsiskaridze is young. He has a pure line, even if his dancing is not always that pure. The problem is that he wants to show the best and sometimes it’s too much. My father works with him and he needs to be kept inside the classical frame. Yet he is talented and I’m sure he will develop the right way.

MH:  How about the girls in the company? Who do we have to look out for?

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  Of course, we have Nina Ananiashvili, who is a world star. We danced together many years – what can I say more? We have Nadezhda Gracheva. She is a real star of the Bolshoi and this London tour was very good for her. In my opinion she is more a dramatic than a purely classical ballerina, and maybe for western audiences this is not so appealing. She did well in her first Bayadère here. And she is the best Aegina for Spartacus.

Inna Petrova is softer, more the romantic type ballerina. She did Giselle here. Her Gamzatti was too strong in the first performance, better in the second. But the whole company was nervous and excited during the first performance of La Bayadère – it was the first time this ballet was danced in London. They all tried their best and sometimes they couldn’t control themselves enough. In a way this isn’t bad, because it’s an experience for them.

Anna Antonicheva is a young ballerina with a superb line. She is tall, with beautiful arms and hands. But her career is just starting, she won a gold medal in the competition in Jackson in the USA (Belogolovtsev won silver there.) I think she will have a great career, she can do many things even if she still has to develop inside.

We have Svetlana Lunkina. She is a very young girl, but for me she is the hope of the company. She has a very romantic appearance, very fragile, even in real life. But I believe that she can dance everything. She needs to work hard, but she wants to do it. And she has it. She has charisma and on stage it shows, very much. Of course, we have to be careful with such a young talent. There are two ways. She can become the great ballerina, provided she works very hard – sometimes it doesn’t depend of the teacher, but of yourself. Or, on the other hand, she can be the good ballerina for certain roles, like Giselle or La Sylphide. But, I believe in her and I wish her to be the next big Bolshoi star.

MH:  Lunkina is scheduled to dance Kitri in Don Quixote here next week?

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  Yes, it will be her debut. She was injured at the premiere of the ballet in Moscow, but I hope she will be able to dance it here. It’s interesting, because my father danced his first Giselle here in London, I first danced here Ivan The Terrible, Uvarov made his debut in Spartacus, and Lunkina will do her first Kitri here. There is something special about this place, it’s like a tradition since 1956.

Some other fine young talents are Maria Allash and Maria Alexandrova. Alexandrova has a superb technique and should become a great ballerina. She was wonderful in the third movement of Symphony in C. She was really made for this part. John Taras praised her a lot. She will dance the variation in the third Act of Don Quixote. You have to see this: her jump is enormous. I want her to be a great ballerina of the Bolshoi, but we have to work with her.

MH:  Many of the dancers today are still very young, but already completely involved in dancing leading roles. Doesn’t this cause particular problems?

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  It depends of the dancer whether this is good or not. In Moscow we had a tradition that you had to work in the corps de ballet for one, two years. You really went through the school of corps de ballet. It wasn’t like Lunkina now; yet sometimes it’s good that you come from school and start to dance leading roles. But you have to be mentally ready for it. After some very good performances, you may go down and remain in the last line of the corps de ballet for ever. In some cases it’s preferable to let them develop slowly.

MH:  In some companies young dancers dominate the stage, while they have to develop without any models or examples.

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  Yes, that’s a very important thing you mention there. For the generation of leading dancers we have now at the Bolshoi, unfortunately, this is also the case. In the last years of Grigorovich’s directorship almost all the leading dancers disappeared from the company. Irek Mukhamedov went to London, Nina and I worked elsewhere, Andris Liepa went to the USA and then to the Kirov. The present generation grew without any view.

On the contrary, when I started dancing, I could watch the performances of Vasiliev, Lavrovsky, Maris Liepa, Godunov and many others, and I could see how they danced the roles. It was a tradition going form person to person. The present generation was not so lucky, they didn’t have examples. And this is a problem for them. In Grigorovich’s time they were selected to dance a role and they began to understand that there was nobody except them: they could eventually say “This I want to do, this I don’t want to do.” In our situation there were many leading dancers and if you had a performance at the Bolshoi you were happy to do it, because there were many others before you. But the following generation had nobody to compete with and they were the first in line immediately. It was too easy for them and now my task is precisely to show them that it is not easy. I have to destroy some of their hopes. But that’s how I see my job and I think that eventually it will be better for them. After all, they are very good dancers, they are professionals. It doesn’t matter that much that one day this fifth position is slightly less perfect than yesterday. What matters more for me in my work with the principal dancers of this company is that I can open their minds and souls for life, that I can bring them something about that. More the father-figure than just the artist who tries to make them dance well.

MH:  How would you value the role of the ballet masters in the company?

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  They are the most important persons in the company. What you see on stage is their work. There is a huge problem with the school now. The last school examination which we attended, scared me a great deal, because the level was unbelievably low. With the present generation of dancers the company can go on for six or seven years. I hope that there will be new talent.

Of course, there will be. Ballet will survive for ever. It’s in the human nature to dance and classical dance is the purest form. You have simple wine, and elite-wine. Classical ballet is the elite-wine. But it has ups and downs. However, classical ballet will not disappear. That’s impossible. It’s like you would say that the Renaissance art will disappear.

MH:  Can you present us some of the ballet masters?

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  We have Marina Semyonova, who is now 92 and still teaching.

MH:  A living legend…

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  Yes, and when I speak to her I can’t believe how much she knows and understands about ballet.

We have many teachers who were former Bolshoi dancers, like Raissa Struchkova, Marina Kondratieva, Rimma Karelskaya, Ekaterina Maximova, my father. An excellent teacher for the corps de ballet is Tatiana Krasina. Her work can be seen in the Shades Act of La Bayadère, and the first performance they did here was unbelievably impressive.

The teachers are the real treasure, they are the ones who keep the tradition of the Bolshoi. The history of the Bolshoi is quite strange in a way, because we always had a lot of people originally from St. Petersburg. Ulanova, Semyonova, Yermolaev, Grigorovich, Timofeyeva, Semenyaka,… But Moscow changed them. They became different artists and they changed us.

MH:  What does ballet mean to you?

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  I’m very often thinking about what I am, what I could do if I weren’t a ballet person. And, there is a lot I could do (laughing). No, but ballet is my whole life: I was born in a ballet family, went to ballet school, had a not too bad career as a dancer, and now I am artistic director. Yet, sometimes I feel it would be preferable to change life completely, to break with ballet. Because I am a normal person. And normal men usually don’t love ballet at all (laughing). Ballet is my whole life, even if I wish it wasn’t.

MH:  I’ll put it another way: if you could start all over again, from the very beginning, would you do the same things?

ALEKSEI FADEYECHEV:  I think I would do it differently. Because I know what it is. Maybe.

I know many people who want the position of artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet desperately. They would do anything to get it. I don’t. But I have to do it. It’s not a pleasure, it’s very tough work. Somebody has to do it, and maybe the right person to do it is the one who doesn’t want to do it… Maybe?