Rodin

Rodin, by the Boris Eifman dance company

at the Megaron Mousikis in Athens.

Boris Eifman’s new ballet, Rodin, is dedicated to the life and creative work of Auguste Rodin and his apprentice, lover and muse, Camille Claudel.

For 15 years Rodin and Claudel were lovers and worked together. Their breakup dealt a deathblow to Camille’s mental health and marked the beginning of her destruction. Almost forgotten, isolated from the outside world, Claudel went out of her mind. She spent 30 years in a mental asylum, where she died in 1943 forgotten and left by everyone.

Rodin is about the tragic nature of the lives of geniuses. Through the unique body language of the modern psychological ballet, which the choreographer honed in previous works (Onegin, The Seagull, Anna Karenina, Russian Hamlet, and others), Eifman presents a new aesthetic of the world of human passions which was masterfully created by Rodin and Claudel in their work.

Music by: M. Ravel, C. Saint-Saens, J. Massenet

The ballet begins and ends in an insane asylum, where Camille Claudel spent the last 30 years of her life. It is the story of the lover tossed aside, her spiral into supposed insanity and Rodin's conflict between two relationships. The ballet is filled with passion, hatred and tortured love.

 

 

 

Filled with visual references to the sculptor's greatest works, EIfman used the bodies of the dancers as Rodin would use clay, stretching, molding and repositioning arms, hands and torsos. Eifman gave us unique visual representations of:

 

 

 

 

The Eternal Idol - the position in the ballet with Eifman himself in the picture

The Eternal Idol - the sculpture

 

The Gates of Hell - in the ballet.

The recreation of The Gates of Hell (inspired by Dante's Inferno) was another highlight of imagery: dancers were displayed on a vertical scaffold in poses and movements of torment and agony.

 

The Gates of Hell - the sculpture

 

 

 

 

Crouching Woman - in the ballet as she is being molded by Rodin.

The most memorable was of Rodin posing Camille for The Crouching Woman, placing her on a turntable which he then twists, prods and finally placing her in the perfect rendition of the original bronze.

The Crouching Woman -  the sculpture

 

 

 

'We can have truly modern ballet art only through the exploration of the intellectual world of human beings and through an understanding of the mysteries of their inner world'.

 

 

 

 









The official trailer video.





A most memorable evening.