“Your body must be treated with respect!”: Alla Dukhova about talent, pregnancy in ballet and dancing grandmothers

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You are celebrating your 35th anniversary with a concert in the Kremlin on November 4th. What will the audience see there, why go there and what stars will be there this time?

Do you know how it is? We have a theater in Moscow, this is our main venue, people come there, and they call it a “mood pill”. They can come 8 times to the same performance. We have seven performances now in the theatre’s repertoire. And we collected all our best numbers, all our hits – a squeeze to make such a pill. There are rooms that are 30 years old, and they are still relevant, and there are rooms that are completely new.

Four issues are from our future program, which we will present in December. Nobody has seen her yet. At the concert in the Kremlin, we want to show our work. Because the idea of TODES many are completely wrong. They judge by what they see on TV – and these are our shows with pop stars. But you can see our work, you can understand it only by visiting our theater or at such a concert. It is ours, so there will be no stars, although we are always happy to work with them. But here we will work ourselves. And, besides, our children, who received the champion belt, the champions of the battle, which was in June, will take part in some numbers. Our children dance like professionals.

Where do you find dancers for your ballet? In their own schools, or do they come from some other groups?

Our staff is all our students. We raised them ourselves. This is such happiness! Take our most key soloists. Ildar Gainutdinov, already a star of the Bolshoi Theater, came to us at the age of seven and grew up with us. Pavel Volosov – came at the age of 14 from the circus, from a circus family. Our main soloist, Yulia Filippova-Bugakova, came at the age of 17, and also went through our entire school. She is from acrobatics, master of sports, and learned to dance from us. And there are many, many, many such stories. Hundreds. We have a very large group. 150 people. And even more. That’s not counting the greens. This is what we call the guys who came from our studios and are just starting to work professionally. We pull them up, and they start working with our stars, get stage experience. There is a touring team. Touring is a very big part of our life. Including international tours – even now, in this difficult time. Then our theatrical composition is our brightest stars. Well, our students – you can’t even count them. After all, we have 122 schools around the world and three more are opening.

The eternal question: what comes first, talent or diligence?

If a person is talented and hardworking, this is a hit in the bull’s-eye. Different children come to our studios. It happens that it doesn’t work. Such an ugly duckling. It doesn’t portend anything. We affectionately call them “sloppy”. And at some point – a breakthrough. Everything is changing! Look and you won’t know. I love moments like this. And you think – how and when did it happen? There are dancers who stand out immediately. They, as they say, God kissed on the top of the head. And it is impossible not to notice. A person who is truly talented stands out. Even if he is not in the front row.

There are often such plots in the cinema: the main character from behind the scenes peeps how the first soloist is dancing, and suddenly something happens, and she is forced to replace her …

And this is a completely real case from our life! Imagine, we come to St. Petersburg. We have a performance. Julia, the key soloist, goes to get shampoo. I decided to wash my hair before the performance. She came out, and a construction shield falls on her. You can imagine?! On the head, from the fourth floor. Her happiness is that she had a voluminous hat on her head. She was taken to the hospital. The administrator called me and gave me such information that my heart became bad. “Shattered chest, fracture of the spine” – such a diagnosis issued! It turns out, thank God, there was a compression fracture, and she recovered quite quickly, but still … We have the whole performance tied to her, the Oktyabrsky concert hall, 3600 people – we must either dance or cancel the performance. And there is no duplicate.

And we had a girl Olesya, now she no longer dances. She was always very attentive. Also from sports, a former gymnast. We had about five hours. And during this time we take and introduce this girl into the production. And there was one tricky number. By the way, you will see him in the Kremlin – there the soloist dances the whole number on her hands and never gets up on stage. By the way, we must also take into account the state of Yulia’s husband. He is also our soloist, he also needs to dance. And he’s all white. The face does not express anything. I have never seen him like this. However, we danced this number, she danced it. Of course, there were flaws, but the audience did not notice anything. The soloist then had a tantrum. She sobbed, could not calm down. Can you imagine what kind of nerves – with virtually no preparation, by eye.

Are you saying that husband and wife are both your dancers? Are there many married couples in ballet? And how do you feel about it?

They generally have no time for personal life. They have no time to get acquainted, meet. So where else can they start families? I am very happy when harmonious couples are created. We have many of them. But sometimes I get angry when a soloist comes up to me and says: “Alla Vladimirovna, congratulate me, I’m pregnant, I will give birth to a second one!” I have one soloist who already has four children. When she approached me with a third, and then with a fourth … I was just angry. However, when our soloists give birth, they quickly pack up and go out to work. Six months to a year to recover.

And what happens to those who have already danced their own? Who is over 40? Where are they going?

We have a stuntman from the first composition only recently left. At 46 years old. He worked and shone on stage. We dance for a long time if they know how to take care of their body. Your body must be treated with respect. It is very important how you warm up. If there is an injury, it means that they did not warm up well. If you treat your body with respect, your life on stage is long. But all our dancers still stay with us. They become teachers and directors of our studios, administrators. One soloist became a costume designer and sews all our outfits beautifully! All the same, they all remain in our system. Actually, these schools were opened, among other things, so that people who have dedicated their lives to this difficult profession have something to do when they leave the stage. All our guys are attached.

So it’s never too early to dance and never too late?

And you come to our children’s studio for the reporting concert. I warn you right away – this is not a matinee in a dance circle. This is a grand show. This is not self-employment. And you should have seen how mothers dance. And grandmothers and grandfathers. Yes, yes, they also dance. So they bring the child to classes, and while they are waiting, they go to our special groups. And at first they come to them as if “for themselves, to move a little.” The time of the reporting concert is coming. Teachers say: “Let’s prepare a number.” The first time we have to persuade them, because they are very shy. But as soon as they go on stage once, and, you know, they won’t be kicked out of there again!

What are dads doing during this time?

But this is a different story – how men come to our concerts. Women love ballet. And they pull their husbands. And they serve their duty. I love to watch them, with what faces they come. From the first minutes the head rises. Then the eyes widen. Attention does not weaken for a second. In our performances there is not a single moment that allows you to be distracted and think about something extraneous. And at the end they stand up and applaud… I always watch the audience. This is the most important thing for us, this is happiness.