Artistic director of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater resigns
February 27 at the Musical Theater. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, an urgent meeting of the ballet troupe took place, where its artistic director, etiquette of the Paris Opera Laurent Hilaire announced that he was resigning. This news “MK” was confirmed by the press service of the theater.
As the theater artists said, at a meeting with them, Laurent Hilaire said that due to the situation that had arisen, he “could not continue working in this country and decided to leave the troupe”, adding that the theater would soon inform about who would come to him for changing. Laurent Hilaire also emphasized that the decision to resign was his personal decision, that he hopes that the performances and premieres planned by him as the head of the ballet troupe will take place. Theater artists took this news with great regret. Many in the meeting wept.
The star of the world ballet and the etiquette of the Paris Opera, Laurent Hilaire, headed the ballet troupe of the Theater. Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko since January 2017, and this summer the ending five-year contract with the theater was extended for another three years. This is the first time since 1869 that a Frenchman (before him it was Marius Petipa) was invited to direct a Russian troupe. Over the past five and a half years, under his leadership, the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater has become the most advanced and European-advanced ballet company in the country.
The main line of Laurent Hilaire’s policy was to familiarize the domestic public with the achievements of world choreography. Under his leadership, ballets by such famous foreign choreographers as Serge Lifar, William Forsythe, George Balanchine, Ohad Naharin, Akram Khan, Sharon Eyal, Alexander Ekman and many others were staged at the theater. With his personal participation, for the first time in Russia, the ballet staged by Hilaire’s teacher Rudolf Nureyev “Don Quixote. Laurent Hilaire did not forget the achievements of his predecessors: during his reign, the ballet of the founder of the ballet troupe of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater Vladimir Burmeister “Variations”, staged by him for the Paris Opera in 1961, the ballet “The Phantom Ball” by choreographer Dmitry Bryantsev returned to the repertoire of the theater who led the troupe in the 80s and 90s of the last century. And the last high-profile premiere of the theater under the direction of Laurent Hilaire was the ballet Romeo and Juliet directed by Konstantin Bogomolov and choreographed by Maxim Sevagin, in which the 59-year-old performer took the stage after a long break in one of the main roles.