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The Innovative Power of Russian Ballet

Emotional release for the soul

Contemporary choreographers at their peak

Tolstoy's classic

Background Music: Tchaikovsky

Stage Designer: Sinovan Margolin

Costume Designer: Vacheslav Okunev

Lighting Designer: Gleb Filshtinsky

Premiere Date: 31 March 2005

About the ballet Anna Karenina

Boris Eifman's ballet Anna Karenina is a work full of emotional tension, and he is able to capture the psychological expression of his characters with extreme accuracy. He leaves aside all the story subplots of Lev Tolstoy's novel and focuses on the love entanglements of Anna, Karenin and Vronsky.

Eifman uses the language of dance to outline the rebirth of a woman. The desire for love and passion, he argues, is a human instinct that prompts the heroine to rise up against the laws of her time, to let her maternal love fall, to let her inner world collapse, and to make her squander her passion, surrender to it and ultimately perish for it, regardless of the cost. According to Eifman, his ballet is not about the past, but about the present: the emotions of the play transcend time and space and echo reality in a way that resonates with even modern audiences. The skill of the company's dancers and Eifman's astonishing choreography show us the spirit of Tolstoy's novel in all its glory.

Press Reviews

Anna Karenina is one of Eifman's best.

--Robert Johnson, The Star-Ledger

The dance company's passionate perfection, and Eifman's own remarkable creative talent, are breathtaking.

--Laura Thompson Daily Mail

This is a ballet that has caused a huge sensation. Eifman's exaggerated, heroic and grandiose style is evident in the frequent high leg lifts and numerous dramatic expressions.

-- Neil Norman Daily Express

Artistic Director | Boris Eifman

Boris Eifman is the founder of the Eifman Ballet, creator of his own style and his own ballet world, and has been described as "one of the world's major choreographers" and "a master of theatre magic".

Born in Siberia in 1946, Eifman has been using body language to express his feelings and thoughts in dance since he was a child. He himself once said: "Ballet is not just a profession for me, it is the meaning of my existence, my mission in this world. I can't help but want to use ballet to convey the inspiration I get from the heights. Most likely, I would stifle these emotions if I didn't have the possibility to express them in an artistic way. For me, choreography is an art with deep religious overtones in the broadest sense."

After completing his studies at the Leningrad Conservatory and the Vaganova Ballet School, Eifman founded his own ballet company in 1977, the New Ballet of Leningrad, the forerunner of today's renowned Eifman Ballet of St Petersburg. He and his dancers, with a solid grounding in classical ballet and an active commitment to innovation and the enrichment of the language of ballet, soon came to be regarded as the backbone of the new generation of Russian ballet.

Combining his cutting-edge achievements in the world of ballet with the classical Russian ballet background from which he first choreographed, Avroman defines "Psycho-Ballet" as his own style of dance, "My entire choreography is a search for a broader space for ballet, a body language that expresses the spiritual life of mankind. "My whole choreography is a search for a broader space for ballet, for a body language that can express the spiritual life of human beings."

(Text: Tatiana Polygina)

Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg

In 1977, Boris Eifman began a new artistic endeavour with the establishment of the St Petersburg Eifman Ballet (formerly known as the New Ballet of Leningrad). From the very beginning, the company's artistic creation renewed the concept of Russian classical ballet, pushing the emotional expression and dramatic conflict of ballet to its limits, and was seen as a choreographer's ballet theatre.

Eifman's works were often based on literary and musical texts, and for a long time his reputation as a "non-conformist choreographer" was accompanied by the novelty of his approach and the boldness of his body movement vocabulary.

Between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the company's distinctive style of work matured. Increasingly, the works were based on the treasures of classical literature. The choreographers, working closely with the company, wowed audiences with a style that maintained the rigour, technique and lyricism of the Russian ballet school, but also fused it with cinematic expression. The company explores new dance genres and development trends, with new works including The Resistance, The Fool, March Madness, The Marriage of Figaro, The Legend, Twelfth Night, The Master and Margarita, The Murderer, and many more, all featuring elite choreography and interpreting the passionate nature of the characters in the ballet with great artistic attainment.

Nowadays, the works of Eifman Ballet have been flocked and praised by ballet lovers from Europe, America, Asia and Australia: "I, Don Quixote", "Red Giselle", "Russian Hamlet", "Anna Karenina", "The Seagull", "Yevgeny Onegin", "Rodin - Eternal Icon", "The Brothers Karamazov", "Requiem", "The Eternal Icon", and so on. The Brothers Mazov", "Requiem", "Tender is the Night", "Tchaikovsky" and other ballets not only show the highest level of contemporary Russian ballet art, but also contain the immortal spiritual heritage of Russia and the wisdom of world culture. The Eifman Ballet continues to interpret cultural connotations in innovative ways, leading the audience into a world of refined art.

For decades, the Eifman Ballet has performed with great success in the world's leading theatres. With its deep understanding and revelation of human nature and its interpretation of intricate and poignant contradictions, immersing the audience in the boundless world of human passion, Eifman has established a strong spiritual bond, demonstrating a choreographer's distinctive view of dance theatre and his talent for mastering and shocking the whole audience through his plastic resilience and breathtaking, just-right energy.