Forever Timeless. Leonid Yacobson's Ballet Masterpieces

The Forever Timeless. Leonid Yacobson’s Choreographic Masterpieces show includes a number of creations by the famous choreographer from Leningrad, restored with meticulous care in the modern day: The Wedding Cortège one-act ballet and various miniatures from the Rodin and Classicism-Romanticism cycles.

In The Wedding Cortège, a one-act ballet set to a score by Dmitri Shostakovich, the choreographer lets his imagination run free, trying to envision what kind of stories the people from Marc Chagall’s paintings might have wanted to tell.

And in Rodin, in turn, Yacobson breathes life into the works of the great French sculptor. He looks upon the statues’ impassioned forms and awakens them from a seemingly eternal slumber, enticing them to move on-stage.

The Classicism-Romanticism cycle has come to be one of the key parts of the Leonid Yacobson troupe’s repertoire. It embodies two sides of the choreographer’s art: his reverence for classical ballet and his drive to go far beyond the rigid dance canons, which is quite a natural impulse for any talented creator that both absorbs the lessons of the past and transforms them into something new. Yacobson built this cycle upon the musical foundation of Mozart, Bellini, and Rossini. These classical composers’ melodies were where he found ideas for his choreographic language. ‘Ballet music is the cornerstone,’ Yacobson once admitted. ‘It guides you to find this or that solution, and keeps the choreographic interpretation of the theme consistent. When I work, I start with music. What I do first and foremost is study it from a technical standpoint. The ballet miniature allows for exploring the music as thoroughly as possible.’