Abu Dhabi: The creative content and personality of ballet, including the choreography and music, is what truly differentiates one performance from another, a leading artistic director from Belarus told Gulf News on Friday.
This is why Belarusian ballet, which is always emotionally-charged, captivates audiences around the world, said Vladimir Rylatko, artistic director of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Rylatko, who has been with the theatre for 30 years and who was also Belarus's deputy minister of culture till very recently, was speaking ahead of the ballet company's staging of Romeo and Juliet.
The performance saw more than a thousand audience members in the capital captivated by a thrilling display of chroreographic brilliance and musical splendour yesterday.
This saw 120 theatre members, including 58 ballet artistes and 56 orchestra members, take part in a three-act staging event at the Emirates Palace Auditorium.
Rylatko explained that the performance contained elements of classical Russian ballet, but also incorporated modern Western tendencies, especially in its choreography.
"This ballet of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is a very complicated piece to perform, especially because of the deeply-inspirational music it is set to, which was composed by the famous Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.
"This is why the choreographer of this particular show decided to stage the performance, so that the audience could understand the true depth of the music," he added.
Rylatko also talked about the long-term training of the ballet artistes who had come to the capital.
"The majority of performers ranged between twenty and thirty years of age, and they began training at choreographic colleges when they were six or seven," he said.
When asked why the dance performance had formed a part of the Belarusian cultural week celebrations in Abu Dhabi, Rylatko said this was because dancing was one of the best achievements in art in the country.
"We know that people are very enthusiastic about the show, and by staging it, we hope to make friends with the audience," he said.
Rylatko also made mention of the endearing folk dances performed during the evening by Belarusian state dance company of Khoroshki — another example of Belarus's rich dancing heritage.
