Silentium
Ballet for 10 dancers
Created on the 10th of September 2020 for the Bolshoi Ballet
Choreography | Martin Chaix
Costume design | Alexandar Noshpal
Set design | Thomas Mika
Light design | Anton Stikhin and Martin Chaix
Music | Silentium. Senza Moto, the second movement of Tabula Rasa from Arvo Pärt
Original cast | Svetlana Zakharova, Jacopo Tissi, Alyona Kovalyova, Igor Tsvirko, Eleonora Sevenard, David Motta Suares, Ana Turazashvili, Denis Savin Marpha Fyodorova, Kirill Sokolovsky
“Speak not, lie hidden, and conceal the way you dream, the things you feel.”
Tabula Rasa, from which the second movement Silentium is from, means “clean slate”, a new beginning, starting from scratch to an unknown and uncertain reality.
As humanity was facing one of the worst global health crises in history during COVID-19, I was looking for a way to find solace and use choreography as a catharsis for this horrid situation. Silentium is a ballet about transitioning into a distant and unsure world, a world that is both full of hopes and fears, a world no one knows.
On stage, I wanted to describe this intermediate state that everyone is experiencing —to different degrees—following one protagonist through her journey as she seeks answers and comfort.
It is a world of silence, blinded by a shining light, choreographic poetry designed to ease us.
Photos © M. Logvinov, P. Rychkov, Fetisova, Yusupov, Voronova
