Eifman’s ‘Rodin’ Ballet: A Masterpiece
REVIEW
Last Monday and Tuesday, the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theater welcomed Eifman’s ‘Rodin. Her eternal idol,’ a modern ballet. For two hours, the public of the packed theater hall was amazed by the Russian creation, with some of the audience standing on the sides throughout: no one wanted to miss it, and for good reason.
‘Rodin. Her eternal idol’ is a ballet by Boris Eifman with the music of Maurice Ravel, Camille Saint-Saëns and Jules Massenet. It counts the true tragic story of the French sculptor and his lover, muse and student Camille Claudel. Their passionate and fusional love eventually led to a breakup that plunged Camille into paranoia and madness. She spent 30 years in a mental clinic before dying there, completely forgotten by everybody.
GEORGIA TODAY had the chance to meet the world famous choregraph Boris Eifman.
“Rodin is not only a French sculptor, he is a world sculptor, who enriched the world culture,” he told us. “He is close to me because I’m a choregrapher: all my life is dedicated to working with bodies, and all his life he also worked with bodies. Rodin stopped the movement in one pause, while I look for movements that can explain and reflect an emotional soul.”
“His relationship with Camille was very important for me. It is the history of a relationship between two sculptors, who became creators together and always inspired each other. It is a history that started with a lot of love and ended in a grand tragedy. During her time in the mental clinic, Camille was entirely forgotten, though she was extremely talented, and Rodin became the great and recognized artist.”
Eifman has been able to create and describe the rise of madness in all its forms and intensities. Every character is suffused with insanity. Rodin’s wife becomes crazy at seeing her husband having an affair with Camille, Camille is paranoid and full of demons, Rodin on his part is in permanent torments The crowd is also of major importance when creating a tense, restless and disturbing atmosphere that accompanies the main characters in their madness.
The dancers are extremely talented and are able to mix unbelievable suppleness and subtle delicateness with robotic mechanical movements and jolting dance. Camille and Rodin live a violent passion and addiction. Their dance is fascinating; showing the loving and delicate intertwining of their bodies merging before switching to violent suspicion and a rift.
The nude bodies are one of the central elements of the creation. The artists dance without any superficial ornaments, and let their natural bodies express the deepest confusion and mystery of human beings. The bodies interlace together and beautifully give birth to a piece of art on the artist’s table of creation. The public assists in the moving and soft art, but it is a creation always full of unease.
Camille is simultaneously the artist and the artwork, while Rodin models her and consequently locks her up as an object that can no longer breathe. Each character is imprisoned in their own obsessions.
The music is sometimes strident and rousing. It beautifully accompanies the dance and is a part of the creation in itself. The play of lights and sheets inside which the dancers perform offers sublime scenes.
It is simply a captivating ballet that will absorb the public in the darkness and poetry of human beings’ torments and obsessions.
By Gabrielle Colchen
Photo Source: http://www.eifmanballet.ru