{"id":35045,"date":"2016-09-22T02:02:37","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T09:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=35045"},"modified":"2016-10-06T05:39:43","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T12:39:43","slug":"st-petersburg-eifman-ballet-october-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=35045","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet October 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

The St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet returns to Israel this October with a new version of Red Giselle<\/em>, and Up & Down<\/em>, a ballet inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel Tender is the Night<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Red Giselle\/Photo: Evgeny Matveev<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Red Giselle<\/em>\u00a0is the first work that the St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet performed in Israel in 1999, at the Israeli Opera. Audiences were enthusiastic, and the neo-classical ballet company has been performing regularly in Israel ever since. Choreographer and Artistic Director Boris Eifman was recently invited to present the work at the Vienna Opera Ballet, and in the process of rehearsals introduced changes in the original version from 1997. The new version of Red Giselle<\/em> premiered in 2015, and will now be performed in Israel for the first time.<\/p>\n

Red Giselle<\/em> is Eifman\u2019s tribute to the legendary dancer Olga Spessivtseva (1895 \u2013 1991). She studied with Vaganova, joining the Mariinsky Theatre company in 1913 upon her graduation. Promoted to soloist in 1916, she was known for expressive roles such as Giselle and Odette\/Odile in Swan Lake<\/em>. In 1916 she toured the United States with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, where she partnered with Nijinsky. Spessivtseva left Russia in 1924 and joined the Paris Ballet, where she danced as an \u00e9toile (prima ballerina) until 1932. In 1932 she made a guest appearance in London, dancing Giselle with Anton Dolin (former dancer in the Ballets Russes as well) of the Royal Ballet. Spessivtseva continued to perform and tour, often billed in other countries as Spessiva. Yet her emotional health suffered, possibly also affected by the trauma of the revolution and her exile from Russia. She emigrated to the United States in 1939, where she suffered a nervous breakdown and in the latter part of her life was hospitalized for many years. The BBC produced a documentary about her, and Anton Dolin wrote a book The Sleeping Ballerina<\/em>, published in 1966. The 1982 documentary film, A Portrait of Giselle<\/em>, directed by Muriel Balash, features Anton Dolin rehearsing the role with Patricia McBride of the New York City Ballet, interspersed with scenes of famous Giselles of the past, with a rare clip of Olga Spessivtseva dancing.
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