UNIQUE TROUPE’S FEARLESS ‘ACROBALLET’
BERKELEY—Is this a ballet company on speed? Or, much more likely, a dance troupe in a new genre best called Acroballet. Whatever the name, the Eifman Ballet from St. Petersburg Russia is a unique fireball of frenzy, playing out Boris Eifman’s “The Pygmalion Effect” dance drama in a three-day run here.
Half of the 80-member cast traveled with this full staged work, dazzling the audience with faster-than-the-eye moves. I hope they brought their own chiropractor, as my neck is sore just from watching their tumbling , flying gymnastics to —are you ready for this?—various tunes written by the Waltz King, Johann Strauss Jr, who wasn’t exactly known for violence or high drama.
The forte of Eifman, 72, is high emotion; it’s the only button to push on his console. But what emotion! A bigger question is how his agile dancers survive the nightly pummeling, falling, bouncing and body-tossing that his choreography entails and still dance again the next night.
You might recognize the story line a bit better from “My Fair Lady” than from George Bernard Shaw’s play. Pygmalion (now called Gala), an aimless, heedless slum girl, is saved and transformed by the dancer Leon, who gets her into ballet and not into elocution, which would be a long shot. Well, not real ballet, dancing on pointe, but rather Eifman’s rock-em sock-em acroballet in which amidst the tumult you can recognize tatters of a ballet step or three.
The Eifman troupe brings out the Russian-American audience here like nothing else, even with orchestra seats going for a stiff $148. However overwhelming the Eifman spectacle may be, eventually you yearn for the athletic lead couple, Lyubov Andreyeva (Gala) and Oleg Gabyshev (Leon), to unearthsome langorous Strauss and then dance a romantic pas de deux to express their love. Without it, “Pygmalion” lacks that elusive third dimension uplifting it from mere whiz-bang spectacle.
Eifman surrounds them with a tireless corps of hooligans, ruffians and hoi polloi. In between, there is a stunning ballet dancer named Lilia Lishchuk playing the sexy Greta; Gala’s farcical slum-bum buddy Dmitry Fisher (Holmes); a fussy ballet martinet called Coach (Igor Subbotin); and an highly athletic, effeminate winged angel, perhaps cast off from a touring “Angels in America” production—a star player and cover figure on the printed program, yet, oddly, unnamed anywhere on the bill.
The part of the angel was played by Daniel Rubin, who has local ties: Daniel was born in Cupertino, and has this to say: “It has been my dream to be a dancer. Ever since I was little I came to Zellerbach Hall to watch the best Russian and European theaters perform. Now my dream is coming full circle, and I am dancing here in Zellerbach Hall. It’s a huge honor and privilege to be here.”
In his fourth season with the company, Rubin performed with his family in the audience on opening night. My guess re the omission: Perhaps the troupe found it way too tough to convert his American name to Cyrillic characters.
DANCE NOTES—Along the way, “Pygmalion Effect” features jazz dance, ballroom dance, modern dance—a pot pourri of many idioms, with wildly effusive acrobatics and gymnastics at the forefront.
The Eifman Ballet, founded in 1977, has survived both Communism and its aftermath in Russia, playing some 200 dates per year. That survival may be the greatest mark of Eifman’s personal brilliance. As on previous tours, all the music is prerecorded.
“The Pygmalion Effect,” US premiere, by the Eifman Ballet, through June 2, fully staged, choreography by Eifman. Under Cal Performances auspices at Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley. For ZH or CP info: (510) 642-9988, or go online.
