Message from the emigre choreographer Alexei Ratmansky:
Tomorrow the BOLSHOI will illegally revive my ballet “BRIGHT STREAM” in Moscow. Six performances without a license and without the name of the choreographer.
Nobody expects legality from a Russian organization now: all laws, both legal and moral, were abolished when Russia attacked Ukraine, unprovoked. So, stealing a ballet from its author seems like nothing.
But I want to ask the Bolshoi dancers with whom I worked on this ballet for years:
You know well that I’ve been called a ‘traitor’ who spreads ‘hatred of Russia’ in the ballet world. That’s why my name is erased. If that is so, then why do you want to perform the ballet of a person who has supposedly ‘betrayed’ the country and who openly supports Ukraine?? How does it make you feel?
You can of course pretend that none of this matters. Pretend that history won’t remember. But know this: every step you take in this ballet is stolen. And every applause you receive will echo with hypocrisy.
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