After decades of Ukraine National Opera’s silence and stagnation, ballet lovers have enjoyed improvements in the last year.
But the
progress may be in danger of unraveling after the dismissal of Ukraine’s ballet
star Denis Matvienko, who’s been in charge of the ballet company for a year and
a half. He claims he’s been forced to leave the position.
In November
2011, world famous ballet dancer Matvienko was invited by Ukraine’s former Cultural
Minister Mykhailo Kulyniak to take the position of artistic director. During his
tenure, several world ballet premieres took place, including “Bayaderka” and “Radio
and Juliet.” Foreign ballet stars arrived such as Complexions Contemporary
Ballet.
“I didn’t
sign any documents, so I wasn’t officially employed, because during the year
the previous artistic director could challenge the decision in court and we
didn’t want any complications,” Matvienko explained during a press conference
on April 8. “But I had power of attorney and was actually doing my job.”
After a
year, the director of Ukraine’s National Opera Petro Chupryna asked Matvienko
to write an official application to occupy the position of artistic director,
but never signed it, the ballet dancer claims.
Chupryna,
the National Opera director, commented on the parting of ways to 1+1 TV
channel.
“While he
was managing the ballet company, the confrontation in the team started, the
team began to split and it was starting to become dangerous,” he said. “This
scandal just revealed the worst features of his character – the terrible narcissism
and intolerance for other opinions.”
The world
ballet community seems to support Matvienko in his bid to keep his managing
position and develop Ukrainian ballet.
“I was very
surprised by such a decision of opera managers,” said Russian ballet dancer
Nikolai Tsyskaridze on Skype during the press conference on April 8. “I thought
Ukrainian National Opera was highly interested to have such a star dancer as
their artistic director and I am shocked now.”
Matvienko
wants to stay in Kyiv.
“I don’t
want to leave the theater like that and simply can’t do that,” he said. “I have
done a lot for the popularization of Ukraine’s National Opera and ballet. I
brought world famous stars and diversified the repertoire with contemporary
choreography and I don’t think that I deserved being dismissed without saying a
word.”
Matvienko
said that he found out about being fired after arguing with theatre managers
about rising salaries for dancers. Then his name and biography were removed
from the theater managers section on the National Opera website to the ballet soloists
section.
Aniko
Rehviashvilli has been named as the replacement.
“I can’t
say anything bad about her. She is
talented and experienced enough, but she’ll have to make a decision – to
develop Ukrainian ballet or obey the opera’s Soviet-style managers,” Matvienko said.
Matvienko admits
he has enemies in the ballet company.
Kateryna
Haniukova, a 23-year-old ballet dancer and the soloist of National Opera, said that
there are different opinions in the team, but young and progressive dancers
mostly support Matvienko.
“I can’t say that everything was just perfect,
but it was interesting, we got new work to do and tried ourselves in the new
performances and there was a dialogue after all,” she said. “We had a silent
swamp here, but when he came we all suddenly remembered why we wanted to dance.”
She said
that Matvienko is a workaholic and makes everyone else work hard as well.
“Maybe that’s the problem between him and National Opera’s administration,” she
smiled sadly.
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected].
