RUSSIA: GILLIAN LYNNE, CHOREOGRAPHER OF MUSICAL "CATS", RECEIVES AN INVITATION TO CREATE A DANCE FOR THE BOLSHOI BALLET FOR CHARITY

Record ID: 388085

  • Title: RUSSIA: GILLIAN LYNNE, CHOREOGRAPHER OF MUSICAL "CATS", RECEIVES AN INVITATION TO CREATE A DANCE FOR THE BOLSHOI BALLET FOR CHARITY
  • Date: 4th December 1998
  • Summary: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM. (4 NOVEMBER 1998) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE) (English) GILLIAN SAYS, "I'm off to Russia - I can't quite believe it's going to happen. They've been asking me for some years - ever since I took my Viennese production of 'Cats' there - they've been saying 'will you come and do this,' 'will you come and do that.' I was going to do 'the Prodigal
  • Embargoed: 19th December 1998 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BOLSHOI THEATRE AND REHEARSAL ROOMS, MOSCOW, RUSSIA, AND VARIOUS VNR LOCATIONS,LONDON, UK.
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVA9IM4FSXS37DZ03S6SXYTVEWR1
  • Story Text: The British choreographer of 'Cats', the most successful musical stage show in the world, has received a very rare invitation from Russia to choreograph a dance for the world-famous Bolshoi Ballet - to raise funds for Moscow's first ever hospice.
    Briton Gillian Lynne, a legend in western dance choreography, has visited Russia at the invitation of the Bolshoi ballet to stage a gala performance to raise money for a hospice.
    Proud of their world-wide reputation for technical excellence and artistic merit, the Bolshoi VERY seldom invite non-Russians to choreograph their work.
    But they fell in love with Gillian when she took 'Cats' to Moscow a few years ago - never forgetting the innovative style and moves she brought to the production - and extended a rare invitation for her to choreograph her new work, "Journey."
    A former classical dancer who has choreographed for ballet, film, television and theatre notably for the musicals "Cats "
    and "Phantom of the Opera," Lynne created "Journey" especially for the November 24 charity performance at the Bolshoi.
    Starring Bolshoi dancers Ilze Liepa and Mark Peretokin, "Journey" tells the story of a young woman's struggle against cancer.
    "The ballet is about the journey that people have to make to live fighting that horrible disease, but also about how to find dignity and peace in how to die," Gillian said.
    The Moscow hospice, the second in Russia, opened in September 1997 and serves terminally ill cancer patients.
    Lynne was invited by benefit organizer and dancer Andris Liepa under the auspices of a charity programme launched last year in honour of his father, the legendary Bolshoi principal Maris Liepa.
    Gillian, speaking before her departure for Moscow expressed her nervousness at the prospect, saying; "I'm not sure if it's singular - but it is rare and I'm quite nervous about it.I'll be alright when I start - but the preparation time - I'm lying in bed at night listening to the music I'm going to do and think of a hundred ideas and discard ninety-nine and so on."
    Other artists performing in the gala included Manuel Legris of the Paris Opera Ballet, who delighted Moscow audiences with his performances in "La Sylphide" last season; former Mariinsky ballerina Galina Mezentseva and Bolshoi principals Nikolai Tsiskaridze, and Anastia Volochkova.
    Excerpts from "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty", "Don Quixote", "La Bayadare", "La Dame aux camelias" and other works were presented.
    END.
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