ARTS-RUSSIA: Bolshoi Ballet Learns New Steps

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW, Jul 14 1998 (IPS) - After enduring a tumultuous 200 years of dramatic historical events, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre is ready for a new look to continue as a major force in the world of ballet.

Founded by a company of 13 dancers and producers in 1776 the Bolshoi theatre burned to the ground in 1805 and, while it was rebuilt within three three years again was burned down in 1812 during the Napoleonic invasion.

A new theatre arose in 1825 on its present site in Theatre Square, Moscow, only to be ravaged again by a 48-hour blaze in 1853. Then there was war and revolution aplenty between 1914 and 1945. After all that, the 500 pound German bomb that obliterated the foyer in October 1941 seemed almost an inconvenience.

In between the destruction and the politics, the Bolshoi has been home, or host, to some of the world’s most famous musical names, including the composers Glinka, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev. With Moscow’s restoration as the capital of Russia and the the Soviet Union in 1918, Bolshoi affirmed its preeminence.

But the end of the Cold War, the rise of the free market, cuts in state subsidies and the demands of competing on the international stage with less governmental backing is setting the Bolshoi its toughest task.

“During the Soviet era, if we needed something, we would call some high-ranking official and it would be taken care of very fast,” “It’s no longer the case. Now we have to earn money ourselves.”

This has increased pressure on the company to earn the income it needs to get by independently. The Bolshoi needs more space to deal with expanded production schedule, which now includes some 30 performances a month compared with only 10 a century ago.

First on the task list is a new look for the theatre, where the company has just completed its 222nd season. “The Bolshoi has acquired a world-wide recognition, and we are keen to sustain that,” Vladimir Vasiliyev, the Bolshoi’s artistic director told IPS. “One of the goals is to extend our audience even more widely which can be made possible through substantial technological renovation.

“In fact it is a matter of Bolshoi’s survival.”

The Bolshoi’s imposing home is visited by roughly a million balletomanes a year. But most of its steelwork dates from the last major reconstruction, in 1856, and its scenic equipment largely dates back to the 1930s when its curtains and bas-reliefs were made to sprout communist symbols.

For most of the past three decades, the Bolshoi was led by Yuri Grigorovich – an artistic director known as much for his autocratic control as for his accomplished, classical choreography.

Under Grigorovich, and graced by the presence of a series of remarkably gifted dancers, the Bolshoi became one of the world’s great ballet companies. He quit in 1995. Dance world talk said his autocratic ways had brought him down, but also he was said to lack the skills needed to make the Bolshoi a commercial success in the new Russia.

For the costs are huge, the task onerous. The 2,500 members of the Bolshoi company include 300 dancers, 100 singers, 200 chorus members and more than 200 musicians in two orchestras. It has won commercial sponsorship from the Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung and Italian confectionery firm Rafaella.

Some inroads are being made into marketing its products by forming ventures, producing CDs and CD-Roms. And while it cannot match the salaries on offer from big paying companies in Europe and the United States, it has prevented the total loss of its best talent by instituting a system of flexible contracts that allow its dancers to work abroad while remaining part of the Bolshoi company.

“Economically, we are planning to expand and rationalise our fund-raising, as current state subsidies are inadequate,” said Marina Panfilovich, Bolshoi’s chief of public relations. “Also, we will have to find an economic balance between overseas touring, other possibilities for revenue earning, and the need to retain our artistic integrity.”

Nowhere in the world is a national ballet company expected to live on state support alone, and everywhere artistic directors are having to meet the commercial managers half way and adapt their ways of doing business. That means more performances, more ‘popular’ classics, less ‘experimental’ work, and merchandise of all kinds.

These demands have caused more than a few problems for companies in Europe and the United States, but the Bolshoi is trying hard. “We do believe that the Bolshoi Theatre has responded positively to the challenges of the new economic environment, but we need help,” Vasiliyev explains, “notably consultancies in international fund raising, and it was for this reason that we turned to UNESCO.”

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation is backing a new project that aims to help it raise the foreign funds it needs to reconstruct the building and sustain its position as a international centre of culture.

The total cost of the project is estimated at 350-370 million. “I do not think international fund-raising efforts could prove feasible without UNESCO participation,” adds Vasiliyev.

There is a definite sense of urgency in these efforts. “For more than a year we are working without permission from Moscow firefighters’ department,” admits Viktor Tikhonov, the Bolshoi’s deputy director. “That means that every night we have been welcoming some 2,000 spectators with a measure of risk.

When the new season starts in September the city authorities could legitimately shut it down on its first night. The building also lost a big part of its roof in a storm last month.

“The Bolshoi’s main building was supposed to close down before the end of this year, and the company was to move to a new facility for the time the main building being renovated,” says Vasiliyev.

But like every other industry in Russia, the slow trickle of state funds has forced delays, cuts and new problems. The money is promised — it’s just not delivered.

“During the Soviet era, if we needed something, we would call some high-ranking official and it would be taken care of very fast,” he concedes. “It’s no longer the case. Now we have to earn money ourselves.”