Eifman Children's Dance Theatre (Saint Petersburg, Russia)
Eifman Children's Dance Theatre
The Children's Dance Theater is a new city center for ballet art. Its grand opening took place on November 16, 2019 and became one of the key events of the VIII St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum. The gala concert, which marked the beginning of the theater's creative life, was attended by students from the Eifman School, the Beijing Dance Academy and the State Ballet School of Berlin.
The Children's Dance Theater was conceived by the choreographer as a center for aesthetic and professional education of students of the Boris Eifman Dance Academy and thousands of young Petersburgers. On this stage it is planned to carry out shows of ballet performances and concert programs for young spectators. It will also host festivals and competitions with the participation of children's creative teams from Russia and foreign countries, both professional and amateur.
The new theater received a hall for 500 seats and modern technical equipment. During the construction of the stage, which has been ongoing since 2016, the existing secondary school building was renovated. In the new educational building, since September 2019, pupils of the Boris Eifman Dance Academy located nearby are mastering general disciplines. A theater complex was attached to the reconstructed school. It consists of a stage and an auditorium, a rehearsal room, dressing rooms, workshops, technical and utility rooms.
The total area of the five-storey theater is 9105 sq. M. Its central multi-level space serves as a recreation for school students in the daytime, and as a hall-foyer for spectators in the evening. It should be emphasized that the parallel functioning in one building of a general educational institution and a full-fledged theater is a practice that has no analogues in the world. The theater is connected with the Academy, designed to prepare the creative elite of the 21st century, by an underground passage. In the future, close to the new stage, on the street. Bolshaya Pushkarskaya, 9, there will be a boarding school for pupils of the Eifman choreographic school.
“Today in St. Petersburg, with the comprehensive support of the leadership of the country and the city, a unique ballet campus is being created - an artistic, educational and educational complex of an innovative nature. Its activities are aimed at strengthening the world leadership of the Russian dance art and developing the creative abilities inherent in our little fellow citizens, "says Boris Eifman.
The permanent repertoire of the theater is performed on stage by students of the Boris Eifman Dance Academy with the participation of the leading soloists of the St. Petersburg Academic Ballet Theater Boris Eifman.