UNDER GROUND EXERCISES CHOREOGRAPHER SERHIY SHVYDKY’S HOUSEHOLD SPECTACLES
One of the National Opera’s subtle “underground” secrets is Serhiy Shvydky’s “Plastic Theater,” virtually a one-man show because much of what happens on its stage is done by Serhiy single-handedly. He is 35, but his creative accomplishment is quite enviable. Professional choreographer, winner of a Serge Lifar Contest Diploma, he worked with Alla Sigalova’s ballet company in Moscow.
In Kyiv, in the “laboratory conditions” of his small apartment Serhiy and his enthusiastic assistants created a fairy-tale ballet titled “The Ego”, a gallery of strikingly beautiful images portraying what the choreographer describes as “man’s inner world when in the creative search.” Its characters seem to transform in a whimsically harmonious rhythm. First a small fragile gray amorphous mass, the hero’s restless inner self. Its appearance is heralded by a tremulous flute. Then the tune grows stronger, and we see two of them circling the stage in a “waltz of life.” Naive innocence is replaced by an ocean of passion as a new heroine emerges. Anna Karenina seems bound by an invisible circle. She struggles to break free, stumbling on the same spot time and again, until the last fatal time. This is followed by a number titled “She Who Passes By,” with a ballerina wrapped in a transparent veil dancing the eternal Odetta-Odilia-Swan-Giselle parts. With every pas her long veil unfolds and finally slips off her shoulders as she disappears, leaving a transparent cloud of memory. An ugly mask with a Mephistophelean grin mocks everything happening on stage and scorns the audience, but then Carmen proudly steps into the limelight (impersonated by a male dancer). She is strong, even severe. Blood and sand challenging death under the scorching Spanish sun. This is followed by a pair gliding over the floor in an “unreachable tango,” each leading, seeking the other, but when the two finally meet the music stops abruptly. Their time is up... Queens, hangmen, angels, and Pierrot... An array of personae in chimerical masks and grotesque costumes designed by the late Viktor Matsynin. “The Ego” is a look into the world cultural treasure trove, reviving well-known dramatic images and stories with their original passions and meaning erased by dry academic interpretations. However, the ballet is inaccessible to the public. There is no stage available, and the same is true of “A.D”. (about Isadore Duncan) produced by Shvydky together with stage director Ihor Tsyshkevych and actress Olena Sikorska, and staged in Cairo and Edinburgh), a ballet to Paganini’s music, and a number of remarkably plastique studies...
Even though acknowledged as an excellent choreographer in Kyiv, Serhiy’s ballet skill is seldom commissioned and professional dancers working with him on projects like “The Ego” do so voluntarily, expecting no remuneration. His techniques are at play in “The Forest Song” at the Ivan Franko National Theater and in “A Day of Love, a Day of Freedom” at Kyiv’s Youth Theater, largely determining their popularity. His latest choreography is in “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”. The play was not strictly a success, but it is one of the cases when a failure is also a noteworthy result.
“Being a professional choreographer, you are supposed to do ballets. Why drama companies?” I asked Serhiy.
“I developed a fancy for drama even as an eight-grader. So when in Moscow I worked with Sigalova, in what we called ‘drama ballet’ which is a synthesis of speech, dance, and movement. I was in ballet, but there wasn’t much love lost between us. I still regard it as a sport: feet high, toes straight, things like that...”
“In other words you believe in a synthesis of ballet and drama, don’t you?”
“I don’t think one can exist without the other, especially today. Ballet is like the alphabet, created and perfected by great masters. There is no way we can make these letters look or sound better. We can and must use them to synthesize a new art.”
“Apparently you need a theater of your own...”
“Actually, I have a cast ready. Many actors and dancers are willing to work with me. Take “The Ego”. It is that basis on which we could make an independent theater if I succeed in harmoniously uniting the plastique and dramatic components. So far, my theater exists only in others’ productions.”
“Doesn’t it bother you that choreographers using similar synthetic techniques like Kovtun and Ratmansky have been practically crowded out of our cultural life and have to work in other capitals, outside Ukraine?”
“I’m aware of this resistance. Every creative individual is in a state of constant search. A bureaucrat wants stability and established tradition, without any risk involved. This resistance is not obvious, but it is there and many professionals cannot stand it and leave. I’m still here perhaps because I’m a little stronger. Probably I’m just keeping myself aloof from the situation. I made up my mind to work at home - I mean in Kyiv, in Ukraine. It isn’t easy, but I bear no grudge against those throwing monkey wrenches in my works. Time will show who is right. I know that I’m trying to do my job well, which means being honest to myself.
