You’ve been at the helm of the Stanislavsky over a season now. Have you noticed changes in the dancers since you arrived?
Yes. There is a certain consciousness about work, in a way. I think the company pays attention to work and they have learned and grown, they’ve gained maturity, they’ve become aware of what I want in terms of the form of work. The basis of academicism is the same everywhere, so that is unchanged. You can make it come alive in various ways, but the quality of work itself, that is what I demand of them.
In Russia, we have an extremely large ballet public and the classical traditions. In Europe they are things that are at the same afraid of speed and i think we have to pay attention to that. The young generation of Instagram and Facebook has a need to be able to identify with the large classical ballets. So its truly the quality and the way you make these ballets come to life that will allow us to preserve those links between the repertoire and the public of tomorrow.