– The premiere of your play “Back: Another Reality” was held in Moscow. This production’s St. How is it different from the one you showed in St. Petersburg?
— The staging of an immersive show is highly dependent on the space in which it takes place, so this show is set in St. It is fundamentally different from what we offer in St. Petersburg. We changed the director, now Ksenia Mikheeva, who redoes most of the choreographic schemes.
– You say, “Another reality is just what many people need right now, and the immersive format itself responds to that demand in the best possible way.” How do you think you can help people now?
– I only see the eyes of people who are detached from everything that has happened to them in our world, because during the show there is absolutely complete immersion in the smell and inability to get out of this atmosphere. And this is a completely new reality. We rethought the purpose of immersive performance in a different way, and that’s why we named it that way.
– Have the dance performances themselves changed in the current circumstances?
– Depends on whether we’re talking about theater, underground or something else. In the theater, everything happens as it is, with the very rare case that some changes occur. Now, for example, I like what happened as a choreographer in the choreographic section of the Golden Mask (Russian national theater award and festival – socialbites.ca), nominated as a dancer. I like trends towards progress. And underground people are developing, dancing, constantly trying to do something new. He is now disconnected from the outside Western world in terms of dance, and therefore he is trying to be self-sufficient as much as he can.
Nothing stands still, this is a great opportunity to make something of your own.
— What is the state of the dance industry in our country at the moment?
— I would not say that there were some explosions and revolutions. I am very sorry that after projects like “Dances” and “New Dances” on TNT, the dance industry can again fall into some kind of incomprehensible stagnation and flourish only within this almost underground mini-community that we have always had in Russia. And now it can be futile without the television and media app.
– What about the salaries of Russian dancers? For example, are men’s wages higher than women’s, as in other occupations?
– I didn’t see that. I haven’t been interested in what happens to the dancers financially for a long time, but considering the money I paid for the dance, it’s pretty valuable to me.
“Social media trends seem to be putting a lot of pressure on the dance industry as well. You yourself said that dancing on TikTok has become a separate aspect of such a primitive but very viral dance. How do these trends affect the development of contemporary dance?
– This affects the development of movements in general and makes a person begin to act, therefore, I do not see anything wrong with the attractiveness and primitiveness of things. The important thing is that this does not affect the professional audience in any way.
– By the way, about professional audiences. It is believed that success can only be achieved with strict discipline, including psychological. Is it possible to train dancers without screaming?
– Not possible, but necessary (laughs). For people who want to achieve something in life, it is easier to explain and show from their own experience what can and cannot be, than to yell at someone and impose dominant discipline.
– Is there a country in the world with traditionally the most talented dancers?
– We have many European countries rich in people, especially those who left our country because they turned to progressive and modern education, but unfortunately we do not have it. There are talented people in every country of the world, the most important thing is where they are brought to life. And so far we have very few applications, almost none.
“Some people still manage to succeed. Who do you think is the most overrated dancer in the world?
– I’m the most overrated dancer in the world (laughs). I never put myself on that pedestal but for some reason people tell me that he dances so cool. Here is an example for you.
– When do you think your fame started?
– I felt fame for the first time when we premiered the musical “Notre Dame de Paris”. I was going to a party at the Propaganda club in Moscow for the first time, and the whole club queue started to applaud me and congratulate me on my excellent performance. Then I realized that this is it.
– Finally, about the stars of domestic and Western show business. Why are there such differences in the level of dance education?
-In western show business, if you’re a star, there’s no such thing as “you don’t dance”. They are all multi-station, so anyone who gets into the movie or the TV screen has to dance. They have it from a very young age, they are generalists and we have a problem with that. It seems to me that not much has changed. At least the ones I follow never noticed that they were posting videos from dance halls. At some events, stars flock to the choreography hall and very few. Zivert is the only one who always stays there.