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 An
Interview with Igor
Zelensky
by Emma Pegler
London, 5 May 2003 -- Igor
Zelensky is a man back from the brink. Two years ago it was not at all
certain that he would ever dance again. He spent six months lying flat
in bed after two operations on a herniated disc. He returned to dancing
last November and although he is not back to full fitness – he is still
not able to lift ballerinas – he has big plans for himself. All that time
lying in bed gave him plenty of opportunity for reflection: “For six months
I couldn’t move and I thought how I would react if someone now wanted
to give me my own company – gave me the chance to be a director. But I
still had a chance to be a dancer.” He has to dance. He is in London to
support his friend and fellow Kirov dancer, Irma Nioradze, in her venture
to bring Kirov stars to Europe beyond their frequent sojourns as part
of the official Mariinsky Company on tour. As well as performing an excerpt
from ‘Le Corsaire’ as part of the “Ballet Stars of St Petersburg” Gala
at The Royal Albert Hall, he will meet with Monica Mason, Director of
the Royal Ballet, to discuss his contract to guest (imminently) with the
company and was due to visit Darcey Bussell, his “favourite partner” on
the evening before her foot operation. He is enthusiastic about his five
years with the Royal Ballet and appreciates Bussell because “she gave
me what I wanted to do in England – ‘Manon’ and ‘Romeo and Juliet.’” Bussell
had invited the young star over from New York City Ballet to guest in
London. He wasn’t sure that Anthony Dowell liked him in the beginning
but after the intense rehearsals to learn the role of “Des Grieux” from
Dowell, he is sure Dowell came to like him in the end.
Dressed in blue jeans and suede Adidas trainers, wearing sunglasses even
in the darkness of the Millenium Hotel bar, and with his open and effusive
approach to being interviewed, he seems more American than Russian. The
look was acquired during his seven years as a ‘permanent’ guest of New
York City Ballet. He is a bundle of energy, brimming over with plans to
make up for lost time. “We have an expression in Russia,” he enthuses,
“if you are not moving forward every day by a step, you’re going back
two steps. So you have to go forward and have to learn as much as you
can.” He is only in his early thirties but is well aware that “in my art,
we are very limited - we have twenty years. A famous Russian conductor
said at 70, ‘I can conduct another ten years by standing and another ten
by sitting.’ But in my business you have to do everything straight away.”
That means he will guest with the three companies with which he made his
name before the injury: the Mariinsky, the Royal Ballet and New York City
Ballet. In each company he has his favourite partner: Bussell in London,
Darci Kistler in New York and Svetlana Zakharova in St Petersburg. They
are the three greatest companies in the world in his opinion. None will
be his ‘main’ company and nowhere is home. “I am always rushing.” He has
an apartment in New York and one in St Petersburg but his life is, more
than ever before, dedicated to the dance and wherever it takes him. He
travels with his home. His mother, Galina, is his best friend and constant
companion and he believes that he wouldn’t be the successful dancer that
he is without her support and shrewd business sense. (It’s also the reason,
he jokes, why he hasn’t yet got married.) She encouraged the young Igor
to take up dancing when he was twelve and, when, by the age of fifteen
he began to suffer from exhaustion from trying to balance competitive
running (he was a promising athlete before he took up ballet classes)
with the physical demands of ballet, she encouraged him to choose dance.
From that point on Zelensky was focused on becoming the best dancer that
he could possibly be, dancing eight hours a day. His mother takes care
of his daily life and he concentrates on his work. “I swear to God I want
to dance as much as I can.” Does he do anything else other than dance?
“Nothing…this is my life.”
The facts bear this statement out. As well as regularly performing with
three companies, he will draw on his contacts to pull together a small
troupe of dancers to perform galas over the next year in Moscow, St Petersburg,
New York, China and South America as ‘Igor Zelensky and Friends’. These
galas will comprise highlights from classical ballets and will also give
him the opportunity to stage his own productions of classical works. He
wouldn’t dream of replacing the master Petipa’s steps and doesn’t have
any particular desire to be a choreographer, but he likes to introduce
more solos: more dancing and less walking, as he puts it. Balanchine’s
“Apollo” will also be a staple part of such evenings. Apollo is one of
his favourite roles largely because of his affinity with Greece. He has
worked a lot there staging his own productions of Sleeping Beauty and
Don Quixote and it is his dream to open the 2004 Olympics in Greece with
“Apollo.”
Yet what is really driving him at the moment is the hunger for choreography
to be made on him – something he can call his own. He has a big project
with New York City Ballet dancer, Albert Evans, for next year. Evans and
other NYCB dancers have made pieces on him in the past but the results
haven’t received international recognition. “I am known around the world
as a good partner and a good jumper…but I want the world to know that
I am not only a partner.” And, thinking even further ahead - eventually
he will want to settle in one place and direct his own company. He is
perfectly placed to do so: “I am one of the only Russian dancers who has
huge experience. I left Russia when I was 19 and have worked with so many
different companies and learned so many styles.” Each company and school
has contributed to his style. He doesn’t dance one school’s style over
another. He has his own Zelensky style, he believes. He tries always to
appear a ‘real’ man on stage. Quite.
By now he is literally bouncing off the walls of the bar as he recounts
the product of two years of thinking and wondering whether he would ever
dance again. Did he always have a plan and a clear shape for his future
or was it just that lying on his back for so long had made him want to
make up for lost time? “The first time I met Rudi [Nureyev] was in Berlin
in 1990 and he said ‘you have to go to America and you have to go to Stanley
Williams who is one of the greatest teachers.” Stanley Williams made him
the great 'Apollo' that he is. Both Nureyev and his hero, Baryshnikov,
had been the inspirations for Zelensky to leave Russia in search of experience
and knowledge. Both had told him that he should learn as much as he could
from as many different people as he could and he clearly sees himself
as following in their footsteps. He had already had excellent tutoring
as one of the last students of the legendary teacher, Chabukiani, at the
Tblisi School of Ballet and was a rising star of the Mariinsky. But he
was desperate to dance Balanchine. “George Balanchine was from my home
town, Georgia,” he declares proudly. The classics were not enough for
Zelensky. Although Balanchine still represented the classic tradition
for the young dancer, he was modern and the second most important choreographer
after Petipa. Plus Zelensky wanted to dance Bejart, MacMillan and Petit.
So he left for America while retaining his links with the Mariinsky. As
he drags on his Marlboro light and sips his beer, I am reminded of his
sexy portrayal of the bohemian painter in Petit’s “Le Jeune Homme et la
Mort.” Pulling my mind back from the image of his bare chest and smouldering
look (on stage – not in the bar) I told Igor that I had seen him dance
this piece with Yulia Makhalina in St Petersburg. He was impressed. Not
quite as impressed as I had been at his bare chest and sultry dancing,
but impressed, nonetheless. “Maestro Gergiev [Director of the Marrinsky
Theatre] and Vaziev [Director of the Mariinsky Ballet] have done so much
with the company that the kids don’t have to leave now. They’ve got everything
right at home and perform all those ballets in St. Petersburg.”
He looks American but I would guess that his heart is still in Russia.
He has just flown back from a weekend in Russia to celebrate Gergiev’s
birthday where he danced “Le Corsaire” for the guests because they wanted
“flashy” stuff. He felt honoured to be asked to return from his week with
the Kirov at The Lowry in Salford to perform for the Maestro. He’s still
in party mood and fast approaching his second beer. “I’m giving all this
up this week,” he says, nodding towards the Marlboro packet with its bold
‘Smoking kills’ label. “I never knew I would come back but thanks God,
I’m back.”
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