Radio and Juliet. That sounds a bit weird but nevertheless it is a contemporary new ballet about Verona sweethearts, based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Denys Matviienko, leading performer in the ballet with such an unusual name, Radio and Juliet, thinks that nowadays people attend choreographic performances to get some strong emotions. So the audience will be rewarded with Shakespearean passions and the tragic outcome. In general, the main theme stays the same, it is just the means of expressions that differ, the language is different, and the plastique is up-to-date. At some point of time Matviienko decided to accustom our people to modern art. As a reminder, only within the last six months Matviienko participated, and what is even more important, initiated the ballet Quatro (a project made jointly with Leonid Sarafanov), and the gala show Kings of Dance. Opus 3 featuring leading dancers of the Bolshoi Theater Ivan Vasiliev and David Holdberg, Guillaume Cote of the National Ballet of Canada, and Marcelo Gomes of the American Ballet Theatre. At this large-scale show the audience could enjoy the choreography by the most famous contemporary ballet masters: Nacho Duato, Mauro Bigonzetti, Patrick de Bana, Marco Goecke, Iorma Elo, and Edward Clug.
We will dwell more on the last one, because it is thanks to his imagination that Radio and Juliet was created and will be soon available for Kyivite to see. Fragments from that ballet were already performed by Denys and Anastasia Matviienko at different events, including one of Vadym Pysarev’s Ballet Stars festivals. Besides, the Matviienkos amazed the jury of the International Ballet Artists Contest in Moscow in 2005 (which turned into a triumph of the Ukrainian artists) with a dance from this ballet. Clug is the chief choreographer at the theatre in Maribor, Slovenia, and Radio and Juliet is a repertoire performance of this theatre. The Matviienko couple visited him before the contest to stage and rehearse a number called Encounter. And now, seven years later, during Denys Matviienko’s benefit performance at the Mariinsky Theatre, the ballet was first performed in front of the Russian audience. And soon the Ukrainian public will have an opportunity to appraise it, too. Six dancers and one ballerina are performing during this one-act play. Besides Denys and Anastasia, dancers from Slovenia, including Clug himself, will appear on the stage. In the second part, the well-liked Carmen Suite will be shown. It was staged by choreographer Alberto Alonso and based on the novel of the same name by Prosper Merimee. The audience will be swept in a storm of feelings and emotions: love, hatred, tenderness, pride, and rivalry, and carried away with the music by George Bizet, Rodion Shchedrin, and the British rock-band Radiohead. Prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater, the Kyiv Choreography Institute graduate, Anastasia Matviienko will perform the part of Carmen. Don Jose will be danced by Ilia Kuznetsov, and Denys Matviienko will appear as Toreador.
