The Lake

Contemporary ballet created by choreographer Albina Vakhitova and composer Anton Svetlichny for GES-2 House of Culture.

The first production devised especially for the vast space of GES-2’s Prospekt brings together work with volume and transparent structures in music and dance. Architecture is seen here as a landscape filled with light, sound, and tactile objects—performers and their movements become part of this ever-changing ecosystem.

In its upwards movement, the choreographic score develops one of the central concepts of ​​the chief architect of GES-2, Renzo Piano: light, diffused as it passes through glass, creates an illusion of extraordinary lightness. Yet alongside this soaring, the movement of the choreographer, following the force of gravity, literally “puts its foot down, ” malleable and viscous.

The ballet Lake creates a complex and living environment—at once strong and extremely vulnerable. This environment is an open one, open to the viewer and their interpretations of the artistic statement. The handling of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s musical score through quotation and reassembly allow the viewer see the world around us and our time through the optics of the classical ballet Swan Lake.

— Olga Tsvetkova, the curator

The composer Anton Svetlichny refers to Tchaikovsky’s musical score as an artistic frame for a new statement. Tchaikovsky and Svetlichny’s notes are in constant dialogue, modifying one another. Working with fragments of the Swan Lake waltzes, Svetlichny at times reveals Tchaikovsky’s score to the listener, at others conceals it entirely amidst textures of electronic music, where it dissolves beyond recognition.

On April 21 and 23, The Lake will be performed during the daylight hours, without seating. There is a separate registration for these performances, but you will also be able to see them from anywhere in the GES-2 building if you have registered for admission. The cafes and shops will continue to operate.

Authors

Albina Vakhitova
Performer, dancer, choreographer. Vakhitova founded the dance company Sad in September 2020. From 2014 to 2017, she was a member of the dance company FarFor YO. Vakhitova has collaborated with choreographers Anna Abalikhina, Anna Kravchenko, Banzay, Olga Tsvetkova, Dina Hussein, Claudia Castellucci (IT), Igor Shishko, the directors Kirill Serebrennikov and Yuri Kvyatkovsky, and the artists Sasha Pirogova, Alexei Taruts, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. She participated in the 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, and the 2nd Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art. She was the choreographer of the Love.Epilogue project by Vera Martynov and Alexey Sysoev. Her ballet Water — Wonder and performance in collaboration with Belgian choreographer Igor Shishko Flip Side of action were released with the support of the Garage Museum, MMOMA and the Mutabor Art Centre.

Anton Svetlichny
Сomposer and pianist. He is a graduate of the Rostov State Rachmaninov Conservatory’s composing faculty and a winner of the Pythian Games composing competition. He is a member of the “Resistance material” group of composers, and a co-founder of the contemporary music ensemble InEnsemble.

Assistant choreographer
Victoria Bryzgalova

Costume designer
Yulia Savelyeva

Lighting designer
Elena Perelman

Сoordinator
Olga Komalova

Performers
Daria Aksenova, Victoria Bryzgalova, Masha Volkova, Anastasia Gagina, Georgy Grishchenkov, Anton Gusakovsky, Alina Guzhva, Artur Kardanov, Daniil Kirilko, Polina Kopylova, Tatiana Krasnova, Evgeny Melentiev, Evgeny Pankratov, Lena Petiko, Daria Platonova, Sergey Poltavsky, Andrey Rogachev, Stefania Sokolovskaya, Elizaveta Uspenskaya, Dmitry Shapovalov, Svetlana Shuiskaya, Timur Shumov, Ildar Mickey

Musicians
Alena Verin-Galitskaya soprano
Maria Klyueva viola
Serafim Yakovlev tenor
Vladimir Krasov bass
Roman Vikulov violin
Vasilisa Haddad violin
Regina Steinman viola
Alexey Govorov cello
Anton Svetlichny synthesizer
Alisa Shestunova synthesizer

Curators
Olga Tsvetkova, Anna Ildatova

Producers
Katerina Arkhipova, Kira Berman, Mikhail Yatskov

Sound engineer
Sergey Kochetkov

Technical team
Ksenia Kosaya, Konstantin Petruk, Nikita Tolkachev