Radu Poklitaru

Radu Poklitaru was born on March 22, 1972, in the city of Chișinău, to the family of leading ballet dancers of the Moldova National Opera Ballet Ludmila Nedremska and Vitaliy Poklitaru. He began studying the classical ballet at the age of 4.5 at the Chișinău's Pioneer Palace. He got his professional training at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography (1983—1984), the Ballet School іn Odesa (1984), and the Stephan Niaga Musical School in Chișinău (1985).

In 1986 he was admitted to the Perm State School of Choreography and graduated from it in 1991, his master being Oleksandr Sakharov, (speciality – a ballet dancer). In 1991 he started his work at the National Opera and Ballet of Belarus. He is endowed with the remarkable gift of character dancing and acting.[2]

In 1994 he was admitted to the newly created Department of Choreography at the Belarus Academy of Music. April 21, 1996 is the date of Radu Poklitaru's debut as a choreographer - the first performance of his miniature The Point of Intersection to the music of Arcangelo Corelli, with Olga Gayko and Oleksiy Ovechkin.

In 1999 Radu Poklitaru graduated with degrees in choreography (the class of Valentin Yelizaryev), art studies (the class of Yulia Churko) and choreography theory teaching. His diploma performance was Igor Stravinsky's The Kiss of the Fairy at the National Opera and Ballet of Belarus.

Radu Poklitaru preparation for ballet

Radu Poklitaru owes his first popularity to the miniatures he created for dancers who took part in international ballet contests. The creative cooperation of the young choreographer and the leading ballet dancers of the Minsk Musical Theatre – Yulia Diatko and Konstantin Kuznetsov proved to be particularly effective. The productions of this artistic trio include the miniatures Bagatel to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, The Belorussian Lament and His Music to the music of Ritchie Blackmore, Adagio to the music of Peter Tchaikovsky, The Improvisation Against the Background of the Ivy-Covered Wall to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Three Georgian Songs, Barcarola to the music of Jacques Offenbach, and also one-act performances Moments based on Konstantin Balmont's poetry, The World Doesn't End at Your Doorstep to the music of Josquin des Prez and Gustav Mahler, The Spectre of the Rose to the music of Karl Weber, In pivo veritas to Celtic folk music and the Renaissance music.

In the season of 2000—2001 Poklitaru worked as the Chief ballet master at the Moldova National Opera Ballet. The change of the national leadership forced him to quit.[3]

From 2001 till 2006 he had no regular appointment. During that period, on the stages of Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and Russia, he produced ballets which made him famous as one of the principal propagators of modern dancing and progressive ballet direction in the post-Soviet landscape. Pictures at an Exhibition to the music of Modest Mussorgsky and Le Sacre du Printemps of Igor Stravinsky at the National Opera of Ukraine, Seven Deadly Sins by Kurt Weill at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, Cinderella by Sergei Prokofiev at the Latvian National Opera and many other impressive artistic projects of Radu Poklitaru inevitably turned into theatrical events which struck a deep chord with the audience and art elite. In collaboration with the British director Declan Donnellan, Poklitaru produced Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia (2003) which evoked a colossal public resonance; the new, revolutionary version of the famous ballet on the stage of Russia's leading musical theatre was conducive to heated discussions in the media and theatrical lobby.

Scene from the ballet Carmen.TV

The history of Kyiv Modern-Ballet begins on December 19, 2005, with the first night of the production Le forze del destino, commissioned by Volodymyr Filippov's Art Foundation, which involved the main creative resources of the would-be theatre: choreographer – Radu Poklitaru, scenographer – Andriy Zlobin, costume artist– Hanna Ipatieva, lighting producer– Olena Antokhina, sound producer – Oleksandr Kuriy, choreographer assistant – Anatoliy Kozlov, and a number of performers who later became a part of the permanent company. On July 18, 2006, the company Kyiv Modern-ballet Theatre Ltd. with Radu Poklitaru as its head was registered and supported by the patron of art Volodymyr Filippov. In the course of all-Ukrainian casting, 16 young dancers were selected. The academic ballet education was not a necessary criterion for being admitted to the company; however, all the performers were professional modern dancers, knowledgeable about classical dancing and capable of conducting a classical lesson.

The authorial project Kyiv Modern-ballet, in which the repertoire and artistic priorities would be based on Radu Poklitaru's unique style and vision, where the artistic quest and daring ideas of the Maestro's young disciples and colleagues would be put to practice, where canons and rules are absent, while creativity and talent are welcome, presented the 2-part ballet Carmen.TV on October 25, 2006, at the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater. That production was awarded two prizes of The Kyiv Pectoral contest – in the nominations The best production of the year and The best plastic interpretation of the production. Olga Kondakova who played the part of Carmen was nominated for The best female performer.

Radu Poklitaru's choreographic language represents a complex synthesis of the authorial plastic creativity and classical dancing. This looks like a mega-modern dance, but its body is supported by the backbone of the classical dance. This is the only coordinate system which I can deal with easily and on the basis of which I create the language of my own, perceived by many as the extreme of avant-garde, this is how the choreographer describes his system.[4]

The freedom of creativity enabled Radu Poklitaru, together with the artists Hanna Ipatieva and Andriy Zlobin, to form, within a short term, the diverse repertoire of his theatre. In 2008 the Theatre was awarded The Kyiv Pectoral prize in the nomination The event of the year for the selection of illustrious new productions: The Verona Myth – Shakespeareriments, Bolero, Rain, and The Nutcracker. The performance at the festivals in France (Time to love, Biarritz), Moldova (The Eugène Ionesco Biennale), Thailand (The Festival of Music and Dance, Bangkok), and Russia (the Mask+ programme at the Golden Mask festival in 2009 and 2010, Moscow; the festival New Horizons at the Mariinsky Theatre, St.Petersburg) testify to the international fame of the Kyiv Modern-ballet theatre.

Scene from the ballet The Little Prince

The years of economic depression took a bitter toll on the Theatre which found itself on the verge of closing down. In 2013, for financial reasons (extremely low salaries), 9 out of 21 performers of the company had to quit. They were replaced by new ones, and the whole repertoire had to be renewed almost from scratch. The productions were made owing to the patrons’ support. The ballet Giselle was supported by Ludmyla Rusalina (the founder of the Petrus-Media holding), a number of projects were assisted by Volodymyr Borodiansky (the then Director General of the STB (TV channel), the head of StarLightMedia group); the direct participation of the businessman Andriy Demydov made the production of The Swan Lake possible.

Its first jubilee, the 10th anniversary, the Kyiv Modern-ballet met with the artistic total of 13 one-act productions and 5 full-length ones, 5 prizes of The Kyiv Pectoral and the ballet festival The Summer in Art Modern Style which was held at the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theater on July 5 – 11, 2015 in honour of the Theatre's 10th anniversary. The choreographer himself regards the founding of his theatre as the main achievement of his life.

The repertoire of the Theatre was enriched with all the three ballets of Peter Tchaikovsky's great triptych, produced one after another: The Nutcracker in 2007, Swan Lake in 2013, and The Sleeping Beauty in 2018. Radu Poklitaru himself, as a dancer, used to perform in the classical version of The Sleeping Beauty starting with little pageboys, cavaliers, the wolf with the Little Red Riding Hood and up to the honourable part of the evil fairy Karabos, so I felt extremely happy, as I'd been in love with this music since childhood.

The President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko with the laureates of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine-2016: the painter Mykhaylo Huida, the singer Anzhelina Shvachka, the publicist Levko Lukianenko, the choreographer Radu Poklitaru

From 2012–2013 Radu Poklitaru was he artistic director of the Kyiv Municipal Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre for Children and Youth in Kyiv.[5]

The work was also carried out beyond Kyiv and Ukraine. In 2013, at the Third Platonov Festival, Poklitaru produced and presented at the Voronezh State Theater of Opera his ballet miniature The Platonov People to the music of Frédéric Chopin. At the invitation of Andriy Boltenko, the Director General of the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Radu Poklitaru was the producer of choreographic compositions.[6] He worked on that project in collaboration with Andriy Musorin, the former leading dancer of the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theater, and Oleksandr Leshchenko, the first prize-winner of May-dance, with over 440 performers being involved. The mini-ballet Natasha Rostova's First Ball, to various music, with the actual and former stars of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres participating – Svetlana Zakharova, Vladimir Vasiliev, Ivan Vasiliev, Aleksandr Petukhov, Danila Korsuntsev, was presented at the opening ceremony.

In 2016 Poklitaru was awarded with the prestigious Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine in the area of musical art for a number of productions: the ballet-triptych The Intersection (2012), Swan Lake (2013), Women in D-Moll and The Long Christmas Dinner (2014). That same year Radu Poklitaru received the title of the People's Artist of Moldova and on Ukraine's Independence Day, August 24, 2017 – the title of the Honoured Figure of Art of Ukraine.

Since 2018 Radu Poklitaru has been the head ballet master of the communal enterprise Theatrical and entertainment establishment of culture “Academic `Kyiv Modern-ballet` Theatre. On March 24, 2017, he became the winner of the XXII National Prize The Personality of the Year in the nomination The Figure of Art of the Year.

As of today, Poklitaru is the author of over forty one-act and full-length productions and theatrical scenes in operas in a number of theatres including the National Theatres of Moldova, Latvia, Belarus, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Ukraine, the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, the Moskva Russian Chamber Ballet, the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre in Moscow.

Radu Poklitaru makes his appearance on TV both as a guest and a participant of a programme. In 2011 he became a judge of the 4th season of the Tantsi z zirkamy show on the 1+1 TV channel; in 2012 – a judge of the Everybody Dance! show on the STB TV channel (the collaboration lasted through the fifth to the ninth seasons); in 2015 he was a judge of the dancing contest Go Dancing! on the Channel One Russia. The general opinion of Poklitaru's judging is strict but fair.

In the project Everybody Dance! (in Ukrainian: Танцюють всі!) (2012-2014), Poklitaru combined the functions of the judge with creating turns for participants.[7] As reviewers pointed out, his productions were distinguished by well-composed dramaturgy and unconventional decisions. The turns which Radu produced were called little theatrical masterpieces born in the TV format. The 4th season of the project presented the following masterpieces: the productions for 5 the duets: Kateryna Beliavska and Rodion Farhshatov, Halyna Pekha and Anatoliy Sachivko, Lidia Soklakova and Ivan Drozdov.

Radu Poklitaru played his own self — cameo — as a judge of a dancing teleshow in the feature film After You're Gone (2016) produced by Anna Matison. Before that, he appeared in bit parts in the films The Tale of the Valiant Knight Fet-Frumos (1977) and The Dancing Ghosts based on Yuriy Korotkov's short novel Wilis (1992).

Radu Poklitaru created the main dancing turn in the feature film The Petrushka Syndrome produced by Elena Khazanova and based on Dina Rubina's novel of the same name. The production was made specially for the performers Yevgeny Mironov and Chulpan Khamatova.