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It’s not everyday that the Stuttgart Ballet performs at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The last time was almost thirty years ago. Now, the company has set up camp there with Romeo and Juliet and is leaving nothing to chance. By Adrienne Braun

It’s better not to think about some things too much. Things like the dog in the first act. The dress rehearsal of Romeo and Juliet has just begun, the dancers from Stuttgart are doing their first leaps and turns, when suddenly a little pooch runs on stage, barks into the perfect silence and disappears, never to be seen again. Although the Bolshoi Theatre is at security level one. The Stuttgart Ballet was invited to Moscow after almost thirty years without a guest performance. The Stuttgart company travelled back to Russia for the first time to perform at “the Vatican of the ballet,” as some say. But, when the dancers head to rehearsals, they are met by fierce security measures. Backstage passes are gravely controlled; severe looks accompany the guests from the west as they pass through the security gates. It’s as if the dark days of communism had never ended.

Moscow is different, it is special, the delegation from Stuttgart notices again and again these days. A large throng of 113 theatre folk arrived here last weekend and are trying to find their way in the corridors and hallways of the Bolshoi. The costume stands from Stuttgart are already in the wardrobes, the rapiers for the duels are ready to go, noses are powdered, hair is teased. It’s serious now for the dress rehearsal of Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet choreographed by John Cranko in 1962. Marcia Haydée is already in costume as Countess Capulet and is waiting in her elegant dressing room. Renovations of the neo-classical theatre were completed in 2011 and now it shines and glitters, the balconies are adorned with gold, even the heavy curtain is interwoven with gold. The soloists’ dressing rooms are furnished with heavy leather sofas and costly grand pianos, yet Marcia Haydée is not pleased.

The 76-year-old looks at her chintzy make-up table sceptically. She remembers the Bolshoi from the old days; she was in the Soviet Union with John Cranko in 1972, then in 1985 as the head of the ballet. “Everything is perfect now,” says Haydée, “but on the old stage, you could feel the past, the energy – it’s gone now.” Haydée can remember well the way the stage floor was sprinkled with a watering can. Today, the Bolshoi is equipped with path-breaking stage engineering. Marc-Oliver Hendriks is not impressed by it. The managing director has had plenty to do with the flubbed renovations of the Schauspielhaus in Stuttgart, now he stands backstage in the Bolshoi and states proudly, “This autumn we’ll have the Schauspielhaus at this state-of-the-art, too.”

First notes resonate through the theatre. The sound is brilliant in the building that has almost 2,000 seats and yet still seems intimate. Wolfgang Heinz conducts the Bolshoi Orchestra, which has played Romeo and Juliet for years and quickly learns the Stuttgart version. “I am very satisfied,” says Heinz, “they are good musicians.” By contrast, the nail biting is not over yet for Angelika Bulfinsky. She rehearsed the Russian extras and, using interpreters, hands and feet, explained what the market women and soldiers are supposed to do. At least the Russian colleagues have stage experience, she says. “But, I won’t relax until the third act is over.” Television cameras await Alicia Amatriain and Friedemann Vogel for the press conference. A journalist wants to know why the Stuttgart Ballet did not return to Russia sooner. The answer is simple: because a guest performance is very expensive.

Lots of training and luxury brands – just like Justin Bieber

It was made possible now by the Year of Germany in Russia. The German Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut paid 130,000 euros for the flights; most of the rest is being covered by the Bolshoi. Four tractor-trailer rigs from a Lithuanian shipping company transported the scenery and sets, the market wagons with plastic fruit and artificial sausages, the tool cabinets and paint boxes, cables and pamphlets. Engineering even pitched a tent with a couch backstage for Richard Gilmore. But, the masseur is usually on the go; rubbing feet over here, working on a backache over there. Gilmore was also here for the 1985 guest performance and remembers that there was hardly anything to buy at the famous GUM department store. “Now it’s full of luxury items.”

The dreary Moscow of those days has been transformed into a sea of light, young people sit puffing cigars in the park, big cars rush over the eight-lane avenues, the historic buildings and monumental Soviet architecture in gingerbread style – everything has been lavishly restored. The international luxury brands are ubiquitous. But you also see older Russian women who have remained in poverty. The legendary Russian unfriendliness does not seem to have disappeared either. “Every country is different,” says Fränzi Günther, the managing director of the ballet who seems somewhat exasperated as a Russian film team suddenly shows up backstage – without a permit. “In Japan everything is organized perfectly,” she says. In Moscow, by contrast, only one thing is certain: whatever was agreed on will change.

It’s not easy for a team like the Stuttgart Ballet, which aims for absolute perfection, which is not taking advantage of this one week in Moscow for any sightseeing, but for tough training and rehearsals. They are aware of what they owe themselves here in the Vatican of the ballet. It is the highest degree of discipline and leaving nothing to chance. That is why wardrobe supervisor Alain Balloy prefers to wash the multi-coloured tights after dress rehearsal by hand – “first one foot, then the other,” so that nothing bleeds. He even brought along the big drying cabinet, in which costumes are blown dry for the evening performance. Stage manager Ekkehard Kleine in contrast had to learn his way around the unknown console, which, of course, is labelled with Cyrillic letters. “It is a bit exciting,” says Kleine, “you approach things here with a different kind of respect, respect for this theatre and what it means to the Russian people.”


The long tradition of Russian ballet also has its dark sides however. Naturally, everyone during the guest performance has the acid attack committed against the head of the Bolshoi Theatre in January in the back of their minds. “Sure, we followed the news,” Alicia Amatriain tells me, “it is very sad that something like this could happen in the dance world.” Even after ten operations, 42-year-old Sergei Filin has not regained his sight completely. He was considered a modernizer who wanted to open the Bolshoi and make the Russian company more international. The Moscow Ballet School was even considering collaborating with the Stuttgart John-Cranko-Schule. In Moscow in particular, a city that presents itself as so self-assured and international, the arts are obligated to preserve tradition – and not just in the Bolshoi. Recently, when Sasha Waltz held a guest performance in Moscow, the audience exited the theatre in droves because it was all too naked and modern for them.

When it’s a matter of the dance, politicians and the public form an alliance that wants things to remain as traditional as possible. That is why not everyone believes that the acid attack was commissioned by an envious dancer, but that his confession may have been coerced in order to protect others. In spite of all the gloss it shows off, Russia is still a dark country. The Bolshoi visitors do not want such rumours to ruin their enjoyment; after all they pay between 280 and 670 euros for a ticket. The two performances of Romeo and Juliet on Wednesday and Thursday are sold out; enthusiasm is high. “I haven’t seen such a lovely ballet in years,” says an usher, and she has seen many a performance at the Bolshoi.

The fans cheer for a long time and photograph Alicia Amatriain and Friedemann Vogel and, in the second performance, Maria Eichwald and Jason Reilly. “It’s like Justin Bieber,” someone says. Backstage there are sighs of relief and pride in a perfect performance in this venerable house. The Bolshoi is still the big dream of all dancers and the Stuttgart dancers actually made it here. The staff of the Moscow Goethe-Institut are also happy about this climax of the Year of Germany.

Tonight more excitement is ahead. The Stuttgart Ballet is presenting a gala that is risky under Moscow conditions. Choreographies by Demis Volpi and Christian Spuck, Hans van Manen and Douglas Lee will be shown on the small Bolshoi stage. “This will be the litmus test,” says Marc-Oliver Hendriks. But the German guests have been forewarned that when Russians run from the hall without applauding, it doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t like it. They just want to get their cars from the parking garage quickly.

Courtesy of the Stuttgarter Zeitung, in which this article appeared on 4 May 2013.