"Prelude" by Andrea Santolaya

The starting point of this project is a quest within the representation of dance and its origins inside the Russian Ballet. Therefore, I moved to the heart of classsical theater: the Mikhailovsky Theater in Saint Petersburg. The Mikhailovsky ballet is formed by a one hundred percent Russian body. Dancers, masters, artisans, everyone inside the theater is Russian. Nacho Duato is the first foreign artist to direct this ballet. In this classical world of ballets like Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet and so on Nacho has bravely introduced contemporary choreographies such as Duende, Nunc Dimitis and the reinterpretation of the classical Sleeping Beauty, considered to be the cradle of Ballet.

Nacho opened to me the door of the Mikhailovsky Theater to photograph this performing world from its heart. For months, I have literally lived and slept sharing showers and canteen inside the residential area for dancers within the theater. In order to photograph the most unseen and secret corners of this theater and document the daily life of one of the most ancient theaters in the world with the most demanding dance troupe that exists.

Nacho Duato has been adopted by the Russian dance as its new Tzar. In the same way as Nijinsky with L ´après midi d’un faune, meant a before and after in the history of dance. Nacho Duato has become a referent in Russian ballet. He has embraced the scenario in order to create a new era in the origins of classical ballet.

The main characters are portrayed becofere entering stage, during rehearsals or in their daily life. At the Mikhailovsky everything is built in the theater. The human reltionships, their families and children. This is the case of Olga Lavrinenko, a ballerina who lives inside the theater with her young son Rastislav. She combines dance with her son’s aspirations to become a soccer player at the Zenit. Even Anna Kuligina, dancer, mother and married to the son of the stage manager, who is also a dancer. Or Yulia Tikka whom I shared a room with inside the Theater’s residence in the West wing of the Mikhailovsky Ballet.

The purpose of Prelude is to document from a contemporary point of view this rigid universe, with little change after the Russian revolution. It is through the morphology of their faces, costumes, scenarios or the architecture of the Russian imperial time that still remains in Saint Petersburg.

Text.- Andrea Santolaya.

Opening.- Thursday, 10 october 2013 at 20:00 pm.
Venue.- Mondo Gallery. C/ San Lucas 9, Madrid. Spain.
Date.- From 10 October to 9 November 2013.