Ballet Summer in Minsk

We are starting our summer with a tour. The Leonid Yacobson Ballet Theatre has been invited to Minsk, where the Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus is currently hosting the Ballet Summer Festival. This is the 10th iteration of the event, which has become a tradition by now. This year, the Festival celebrates four choreographers, representing a variety of styles and historical eras. They are: Marius Petipa, Leonid Yacobson, Boris Eifman, and Valentin Elizariev.

Our troupe’s performances will take place over two evenings, on 4 and 5 June, and will begin with the season’s première: 598 Beats by Vyacheslav Samodurov. The programme will then continue with another Samodurov ballet, Cheeky Chastushki; while Leonid Yacobson proper will be represented with his much-beloved cycle of choreographic miniatures, Rodin. The second evening, however, will be dedicated to Yacobson entirely. The public will see several miniatures from the Classicism-Romanticism cycle, The Wedding Cortège one-act ballet, and finally, the composition that has lent its title to the entire programme: Brilliant Divertissement, set to Mikhail Glinka’s music.

This Ballet Summer in Belarus will have a notable St. Petersburg flavour. Apart from the Yacobson Theatre, the Festival’s participants will include the Boris Eifman Dance Academy and Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky Theatre soloists.