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
Four ballet dancers in beige costumes performing on stage with a black background, standing en pointe with heads bowed.
A male dancer is performing on a dark stage, crouched with one hand on the floor and the other arm bent, with an intense expression.
Ballet dancers performing on stage, some holding each other, under a dark background.
Ballet dancer in a blue dress performing a move on stage with a black background.
Two ballet dancers, a man and a woman, perform a duet on stage, with the woman leaning into the man's shoulder and the man supporting her with his arm around her waist.
Two ballet dancers perform on stage with a dark background. One dancer is bent backward with one arm reaching toward the floor, while the other dancer is supporting and leaning over her.