“It was always difficult to create in our country”

Six years have passed since the death of Anatolii Shekera, but his productions are still playing to packed houses. National Opera of Ukraine dancers consider it an honor to perform in them. Shekera has become a brand name in Ukrainian choreography, a master who had a considerable impact on the formation of the Ukrainian ballet school.

Shekera began his career in Lviv and later worked in Kharkiv. In 1966 he landed at the National Opera of Ukraine, this country’s main stage. He debuted in Kyiv with Aref Melikov’s ballet The Legend of Love. Shekera introduced a new kind of choreography to the Ukrainian stage with his blend of dance and meaning, where a musical score is expressed through the vocabulary of dance. During his four decades on the National Opera stage, Shekera staged 16 productions. His ballets Spartacus and Romeo and Juliet are considered masterpieces (featured at the festival). His productions won the UNESCO, Sergei Diaghilev, and Taras Shevchenko Prizes.

The choreographer staged ballets in Ukraine, Poland, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey. In 2006 the Shekera Prize was conferred on Tanja Vujisic-Todorovska, prima ballerina of the Macedonian Opera and Ballet Theater, who graduated from the Kyiv Choreography School and completed her advanced studies, as a ballet mistress, at the Ukrainian Academy of Dance, where her teacher was Eleonora Stebliak, Shekera’s widow. She has danced in Shekera’s productions Rasputin, The Legend of Love , and Spartacus .

“Vujisic-Todorovska is coming to the festival as a guest of honor, together with Sandra Milkova, her colleague from the Macedonian Opera and Ballet Theater,” Eleonora Stebliak told The Day. “They will take part in the gala concert and hand the statue of Terpsichore (the top award of the Shekera Festival) to the Kyiv prima donna, National Opera soloist Tetiana Holiakova, who has danced in practically every Shekera production. She will dance the part of Egina in Spartacus, with Ihor Bulychov (Spartacus), Viktor Shcherbakov (Crassus), and Natalia Lazebnykova (Phrygia). Incidentally, our theater was invited to bring Spartacus to the International Festival of Ancient Theater, which will be held on June 12 at the posh resort of Ohrid in Macedonia. Our ballet fans are in for a pleasant surprise at the Kyiv festival: debuting as Juliet Romeo and Juliet will be Olha Holytsia, a talented and original dancer, a student at the Kyiv School of Choreography, who, despite her young age, has already won some prestigious awards at international ballet competitions. Viktor Shcherbakov is playing the role of Romeo.”

The Shekera Festival has been held in May for five years in a row. Why have you changed the date and withdrawn some of Shekera’s productions?

“The festival used to open officially on May 17, Shekera’s birthday, but this year we had to change the date of this event because of the premiere of the ballet The Master and Margarita, which involved nearly the entire troupe. I must admit that, despite the Cabinet of Ministers’ decision to hold the Shekera Festival, it was a moot point for some time. Since this is a state-run event, it requires financial support, and its schedule should fit in with the theater’s plans, etc. Incidentally, the changed dates will not allow some prominent dancers who are abroad to come to Kyiv, and audiences will miss such famous Shekera productions as Swan Lake and Coppelia. We managed to scrape up 5,000 hryvnias for the festival’s cash prize.

“The organizing committee wrote a letter the Cabinet and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, informing them that changing the dates would cause endless problems, and not just financial ones, but would also tarnish the image of the festival and our country as the host of this international forum. You can’t possibly do everything at the last minute (billboards, banners, prospectuses, promotional clips). You know, sometimes I feel disheartened because I sometimes have to explain the obvious to bureaucrats. What also worries me is the fact that, in spite of their fantastic public acclaim, Shekera- produced ballets are rarely shown. For instance, Romeo and Juliet was staged only three times this season and Spartacus and Coppelia only once each, although these shows always draw a capacity audience, and tickets are sold out one month before. The artists find it hard to grasp why the theater administration is not worried about the financial interest. Moreover, dancers do not hide the fact that they like performing in Shekera’s productions and call these shows master classes.”

How many Shekera productions are there in the repertory of the National Opera of Ukraine?

“There are only five ballets left: Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Bolero, Spartacus, and Coppelia. It is no secret that for productions to live in the theater, they need to be supported. In our art, experience is handed down from one dancer to another, ‘from foot to foot.’ I am pleased that many generations of artists have been raised on Shekera’s ballets, which now feature the pupils of his pupils. We now have a top-notch ballet company. Audiences will see this when they attend the performances of Bolero, which will open the festival, then Spartacus and Romeo and Juliet, and, naturally, the gala concert that will conclude our feast of ballet featuring Ukraine’s leading dancers: Olena Filipieva, Serhii Sydorsky, Anastasia and Denys Matviienko, Tetiana Holiakova, Ihor Bulychov, Viktor Shcherbakov, and others. They will be dancing to the accompaniment of the National Opera Symphony Orchestra. You can call this program a hymn in memory of the dance master and a symbol of the continuity of generations.”

The Cabinet of Ministers has decided to publish Shekera’s legacy and popularize his oeuvre.

“The resolution is there, but... I’d like to quote a line from Shekera’s diary: ‘It was always difficult to create in our country. Once, there was money but no freedom. Now there is some freedom but no money for productions. Our people have never lived in a normal historical time. We have always been in crisis. We are living in bad times, and this is very troubling.”