CREATION OF THE WORLD

Staged in 60 countries around the world, the performance with a half-century history still surprises with its bold avant-garde choreography, and Andrey Petrov's music excites the imagination of both lovers of academic music and fans of jazz and rock.

The premiere of the legendary work by Kasatkina and Vasilyov took place at the Mariinsky Theater in 1971: in order to get the opportunity to dance the main role, Mikhail Baryshnikov urgently “cured” his broken leg, which he invented just not to perform in another production. After his escape from the USSR, the Minister of Culture will call Adam's role in the "Creation of the World" "Baryshnikov's first step towards the fall."

However, officials had questions about the innovative ballet even before the premiere. According to the members of the commission, Adam and Eve should have been "put on skirts." Also, the artistic council in its conclusion demanded that “30-degree sex” be removed from the production. What exactly the officials meant, the directors did not understand. Even today, The Creation looks bold, if not provocative, in its sensuality and eroticism.

The mixing of classical ballet with free plastique of The Creation of the World owes much to the score. The great melodist composer Andrey Petrov, known primarily for his work for the cinema, combined academic music with jazz techniques and even rock.

For the ballet variation of the biblical story, Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasilev drew inspiration simultaneously from the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, the cheerful drawings of Jean Effel and the children's plasticity of their son Ivan. They put on a performance where the amazing beauty and lyricism of the scene are combined with comic pantomimes, in which the audience cannot help laughing.

But at the same time, The Creation of the World remains a subtle, familiar to every family, story of growing up and transition to a world where yesterday's children, instead of the care and guardianship of their parents, are waiting for real trials, numerous temptations and the miracle of a new life - their own children.

Today, the performance of Kasatkina and Vasilyov is a universally recognized classic of ballet art. The best theaters in the world took him to stage more than 60 times. Among balletomanes, The Creation is considered a must-see along with The Nutcracker or Swan Lake. The Moscow audience has a unique opportunity to see this ballet the way it was conceived and staged by the authors themselves.