Mikhail Messerer. Choreographer Mikhail Messerer, in an interview with DP, recalled how he played with Vasily Stalin’s airplane as a child, and told how the general director of the Mikhailovsky Theater Vladimir Kekhman refers to the title “banana king”

As a visiting teacher, he has worked with the American Ballet Theatre, the Paris National Opera, Maurice Béjart's company, the Australian Ballet, the Monte Carlo Ballet, Milan's La Scala, Naples' Teatro San Carlo, Florence's Opera House, the Teatro Regio in Turin, and the Arena. di Verona, Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), in the ballet companies of Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Tokyo Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Chicago Ballet, National Ballet of Turkey , Gothenburg Ballet, Kullberg Ballet, National Ballet of Budapest, National Ballet of Marseille.

Mikhail Messerer has produced such productions as “La Bayadère” by L. Minkus (Beijing, Ankara), “Cinderella” by Prokofiev (Tokyo - together with Shulamith Messerer), as well as “Swan Lake” by Tchaikovsky (Gothenburg), “Coppelia” by Delibes (London ), “The Nutcracker” by Tchaikovsky (Luxembourg).

Mikhail Messerer from the famous dynasty. His uncle Asaf Messerer was a wonderful dancer and led the “class of stars” at the Bolshoi Theater. The famous ballerina Maya Plisetskaya is his cousin. Azary Plisetsky, a teacher in the troupe of Maurice Bejart, and the Moscow artist Boris Messerer are his cousins. Father Grigory Levitin was a circus performer and a vertical wall racer. Mother - Shulamith Messerer - a brilliant ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater and a world-famous teacher.
For a year now, Mikhail Messerer has been the chief choreographer of the Mikhailovsky Theater. We talk with him in rare moments free from work.

— Mikhail Grigorievich, your childhood was spent in the atmosphere of ballet. Can we say that your future was predetermined, or did your mother, Shulamith Messerer, who knew the pitfalls of this profession like no one else, not really want you to connect your life with this type of art?
“It was my mother who sent me to ballet school at the age of eleven, and I didn’t resist.” Becoming a dancer was natural - everything in the family was subordinated to ballet. The profession of a ballet dancer at that time was considered very prestigious and economically profitable, although not easy: thanks to tours, it was possible to see the world and visit different countries, which in stagnant years was impossible for most because of the notorious “Iron” Curtain.

After studying at a ballet school for some time, I realized that I like to dance, I like the atmosphere of the theater, theatrical life, despite the strict regime, endless rehearsals, performances, rehearsals again... We enjoyed participating in children's performances of the Bolshoi Theater, absorbing the beauty around us us, learned the skill from the luminaries of the ballet stage. Many years have passed since then, but childhood impressions have remained for life. I remember well my first student performances in the Bolshoi Theater’s productions of “Romeo and Juliet” (now this production no longer exists), in “Don Quixote” - it was interesting and fun to dance. At the ballet school, we often played pranks, and during breaks we played football with pleasure, in a word, we behaved like all the kids our age.

Then he graduated from the Moscow Choreographic School, entered the ballet troupe of the Bolshoi Theater, and studied with his uncle, Asaf Messerer, in the artistic improvement class.
Knowing full well that a dancer's life is short-lived and there is a limit to his possibilities, in 1978 I received the specialty of a ballet teacher, having graduated from GITIS, where I was the youngest graduate: usually ballet dancers graduated from the institute already at the end of their dancing activity.

— Having decided to stay in the West in 1980, you worked for more than thirty years as a teacher in many troupes around the world, and all these years you were incredibly in demand. What is the secret of such success?
— The Russian classical ballet school and teaching experience accumulated over centuries have always been valued abroad. In addition, after my escape to the West, there was a sensation in the press, which served me well: I became a popular person in Western ballet circles. For some time I still danced in performances, but gradually pedagogy captured me completely. He gave his first master classes at the New York Conservatory, they were a success, and he began to receive offers from many theaters. I am very grateful to my teachers at GITIS E. Valukin, R. Struchkova, A. Lapauri, R. Zakharov, who helped me gain confidence in myself and in my teaching abilities. I often remember their testaments when I teach in London’s Covent Garden and give master classes. In general, pedagogy has attracted me since childhood. Even at the choreographic school, I “gave classes” to my classmates when our teacher missed classes, and even then I saw that the guys were interested in them. Even now it is important for me that the artists like my master class, then it is a great joy for me. I consider it my duty to make a dancer’s life easier, teach him to control his muscles, emotions, nerves, and teach him to enjoy his work. It’s no secret that the profession of a ballet dancer is an existence at the limit of human capabilities, daily overcoming oneself, accumulated fatigue and stress.

— You were lucky enough to work with amazing people, would you like to write a book about your life, eventful and full of events?
— Collaboration with great masters, say with Maria Rambert or Maurice Bejart, was unforgettable and, of course, did not pass without a trace for me. Each of them -
an extraordinary and bright personality. Working in troupes led by Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, Roland Petit, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mats Ek, Jean-Christophe Maillot, I learned a lot and comprehended a lot.

I’m pushing away the idea of ​​writing a book, because, unfortunately, I have absolutely no time for this, because work at the Mikhailovsky Theater keeps me busy.

— How does Russian ballet differ from Western troupes?
“The work there is more precise, drier, and there is iron discipline and order in the Tsar’s troupe.” A Western ballet dancer does not put as much soul and emotion into his dance as a Russian one. When I returned to Russia, many things surprised me, for example, the freedom reigning in theater troupes.

— Mikhail Grigorievich, you are the chief choreographer of the Mikhailovsky Theater. How is a choreographer different from a choreographer?
And what are you working on currently?
— For me, a choreographer means the same thing as a choirmaster in an opera, that is, a person who helps the choir artists. A choreographer is a leader who tells ballet dancers the direction in which they need to move, helping the artist become better and more professional. A choreographer is a creator of dances, a person who creates new movements.

When I was invited to Mikhailovsky, I staged several old concert numbers, which the theater management liked. This is how our cooperation began. The next production was the ballet Swan Lake. I considered my first task to be not to repeat the productions of this play that are taking place today on other stages in St. Petersburg. And he proposed the version of Alexander Gorsky - Asaph Messerer. Our production received high praise from critics and audiences, which is very important. The professional growth of the Mikhailovsky troupe continues, we have excellent artists. I hope for their continued success. I recently invited the young choreographer Vyacheslav Samodurov, leading dancer of the Royal Ballet Covent Garden, to the theater to stage a one-act performance, which is scheduled to premiere in July. We are also working on our own version of the Soviet ballet “Laurencia” in three acts by composer A. A. Crane based on the magnificent choreography of the legendary dancer Vakhtang Chabukiani, whose centenary the dance world celebrates this year. Not much of Chabukiani’s production has survived; we had to seriously work with the archive. The premiere of the play is also planned for July this year. In the next season we want to stage a modern ballet by the English choreographer Marriott. A distinctive feature of his works is the originality of the choreographic style. I believe the performance will be interesting to our viewers.

— For some reason, it seems that ballet absorbs the dancer entirely, perhaps this is a misconception. What do you like to do in your free time?
— You are right, ballet, like any art, requires constant reflection and dedicated service. But I am a living person, and different interests arise at different periods of my life.
I love cinema, literature. I bought a huge number of books in St. Petersburg, but have no time to read. I read mostly during flights to London, where my family lives, or to Moscow. I’m glad if the flight is delayed because it gives me another opportunity to delve deeper into reading. Every day I communicate with my son and daughter via the Internet, fortunately modern technologies allow me to do this.

Choreographer Mikhail Messerer, in an interview with DP, recalled how as a child he played with Vasily Stalin’s airplane, and told how the general director of the Mikhailovsky Theater Vladimir Kekhman refers to the title “banana king”.

Where did the Messerers begin as a famous artistic family?

From my grandfather Mikhail Borisovich. A dentist by profession, he was an incredibly theatrical person. Of his eight children, five became prominent artists. The eldest - Azariy - was an outstanding actor. On the advice of Vakhtangov, he took the sonorous pseudonym Azarin Azariy. Mikhail Chekhov wrote to him: “You, dear Azarich, are wise with your talent.”

Next is Rachel. A stunningly beautiful woman, a silent film star, under the pseudonym Ra Messerer played a dozen leading roles in the 1920s. Having married Mikhail Plisetsky, she became Rachel Messerer-Plisetskaya. Next in age is Asaf Messerer. He is the first person in our family to go to ballet. The prime minister, Asaf, was perfectly professional and achieved virtuosity unprecedented at that time. He invented many of the movements that almost everyone does now. Then he became a famous teacher, for 45 years he taught an advanced training class, where all the stars of the Bolshoi Theater of the 1950-1960s studied: Ulanova, Plisetskaya, Vasiliev, Liepa...

Finally, my younger sister is Shulamith, my mother, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater and USSR swimming champion. I remember there was a prize at our house - a figure of a swimmer - in 1928 my mother won the All-Union Spartakiad.

The next generation is the children of Ra and Mikhail Plisetsky: Maya, Alexander and Azary. All three danced at the Bolshoi Theater. Alexander died quite early. After the Bolshoi, Azary went to Cuba, now he is a teacher in the famous troupe of Maurice Bejart Bejart Ballet Lausanne. Everyone knows about Maya (Plisetskaya - Ed.). Asaf's son is theater artist Boris Messerer. Just as Maya’s marriage with Rodion Shchedrin is known, so is Boris’s marriage with Bella Akhmadulina, who passed away not long ago.

They say that the relationship between your mother and Maya Plisetskaya was not cloudless.

After we fled from the Soviet Union (1980 - Ed.), my mother crossed out everything unpleasant from her memories of her family and left only the positive, and spoke about everyone with love. Mom adored Maya. When her father, a prominent Soviet official, was shot and her mother was sent to the Gulag, Maya lived with my mother, who raised her and made sure that the girl continued to study at the Bolshoi Theater school. And when they came to take Maya to an orphanage for the children of enemies of the people, where, of course, there could be no talk of any ballet - that is, the world would have lost the great Plisetskaya - my mother lay down on the threshold: “Over my corpse!” Can you imagine: in 1938! As they told my mother, the only legal way to escape the orphanage was to adopt (a stupid word, but that’s what it is, not adopt) Maya. Which is what she did. When people disowned their husbands, wives, parents, children, my mother went and pushed through this adoption. Mom was a heroine!

Your mother, People's Artist of the RSFSR, laureate of the Stalin Prize, was supposed to dance according to her rank government performances. Have you seen Stalin from behind the scenes?

After all, I was born in 1948, and he died in 1953. But Vasily Stalin came to visit his mother before he was arrested after the death of his father. He, being a general and commander of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District, was friends with her. And our granddaughters, already the third generation of Stalins, visited us when I was three or four years old. I still remember my favorite toy - an amazing airplane from Vasya Stalin.

Svetlana Alliluyeva came, who was a theater lover and was also friends with her mother. When my mother and I ran away from Soviet power in Japan in February 1980 and flew to New York, Svetlana was one of the first to meet us. The wisest woman, she told me how to behave in exile - I simply obeyed these instructions, remembered her advice and turned to them internally many times.

How did you decide to escape from the USSR?

Of course, it's difficult to decide. Although my mother and I discussed this for a long time. Young people today cannot understand that time. It was disgusting to endlessly hear lies from the box, from colleagues. People were forced to constantly lie to each other and, in the end, lie to themselves, forcing themselves to believe how much they adore the regime, fearing that otherwise the lies would not be very convincing. When the Bolshoi soloist Sasha Godunov remained in America, upon the troupe’s return to Moscow, at a meeting everyone was obliged to brand the “renegade scoundrel.” I remember the chief choreographer of the theater, Yuri Grigorovich, gave a speech, at which the artists of my generation later laughed for a long time: “He will slide into the same place where their Leningrad predecessors Makarova and Nureyev ...” And what could he, poor man, say?

The main sensation of the last Russian ballet season was the transition from the Bolshoi to Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev...

I have the deepest respect for the Bolshoi Theater, for its director Mr. Iksanov, I myself am from the Bolshoi, I have many friends there, so I don’t think it’s right to comment on this. But it seems to me that it is important for Russian art that the guys have a base in Russia, and not move, say, to New York.

But can we say that they invested their talent and fame in the Mikhailovsky Theater?

Of course, this is a most valuable acquisition for our theater.

This season they danced your "Swan Lake", "Laurencia" and new editions of "La Bayadère" and "Don Quixote". It is clear what you, a teacher, can give them. What do they give you?

Working with them is a pleasure. Even at rehearsals, sometimes it takes my breath away - I turn into a grateful spectator, I have to force myself to make comments, for which, undoubtedly, there is a reason. I myself always try to learn from my students. Both Sylvie Guillem and Tamara Rojo - I name star names because they are famous, but sometimes even a beginner girl or a young boy has something to learn. And you need to learn from your colleagues all your life, you can’t stop.

How are responsibilities distributed between you and the artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet? Theater Nacho Duato?

Our theater has its own path. The development vector of our troupe is to become the most modern in Russia, and preferably in Europe. To this end, Nacho stages performances: he transfers his famous works and creates new ones. What could be better for our artists than to work with the luminary of modern choreography? I myself do not compose new texts; my specialty is classics. It is important to me that the quality of its performance is not inferior to the quality of modern choreography. Our teachers and tutors help me a lot. But no matter how wonderful the tutor is, he will inevitably pull in his direction. Everyone is a creative person, and he knows exactly what is best. And if his equally outstanding colleague has the opposite view on the same thing, someone has to make a decision. If you don’t follow the performance as a whole, it will fall apart into shreds.

Domestic ballet conservatives believe that all the best lies in the Soviet past. But longing for that time - this is an ordinary longing for youth. How to draw the line between what is truly valuable and junk, remembered from childhood, and therefore beloved?

Yes, perhaps youth is better than old age... But it is wrong to dwell on what happened in your best years. Arriving at the Mikhailovsky Theater, I first suggested to the director that they stage “Swan Lake” by Mats Ek or Matthew Bourne. However, he chose the classic “Old Moscow” edition of Alexander Gorsky, which I really know and love from childhood. And this decision of Kekhman turned out to be correct, the performance turned out to be successful.

How do you find a common language with Kekhman, a man from a completely different environment and experience?

But he has been in this position for 5 years, of which I have been closely observing him for four years. There are no ideal people, but I must note that it’s hard for me to imagine a better theater director. One could expect organizational talent from him, a businessman (Vladimir Kekhman owns a fruit importing company - Ed.), but the fact that a person would understand so much about musical theater in the shortest possible time, and in the smallest detail, was a pleasant surprise.

It seems to me that Kekhman began to understand the subject better than many of the professionals around him.

Moreover, all these years it has been customary to write about him: “The Banana King took up the theater...”

As for this stupid label, firstly, his business is not only bananas, and not even just fruits, and secondly, Volodya treats such things with self-irony. He, thank God, has a wonderful sense of humor, which distinguishes him favorably from many directors with whom life brought me together in the West. True, if he encounters the slightest sloppiness, then people become not amused... He never shouts, this is not his management style, but sometimes one look from him is enough.

Kekhman recently announced that your "Flames of Paris" will be released in January 2013. That is, you continue line of restoration of Stalinist drama ballets.

Working for 30 years in the West, from the outside I saw a gaping hole: wonderful performances of the 1930s-1950s were lost in Russian ballet. Therefore, I welcome you, who restored “Spartak” and “Shurale” by Leonid Yakobson. This does not mean that only such performances should go on, but it is not good to lose them. If someone accuses me of being retrograde, I will not accept this reproach. Four years ago, having headed the Mikhailovsky Ballet, I immediately agreed with the French choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot to stage his brilliant “Cinderella” with us, that is, Mikhailovsky was the first to invite him to Russia. And only now Bolshoi invited him to the production. I also reached an agreement with the young English choreographers Alistair Marriott and Liam Scarlett - they had just shocked London audiences and critics with their work in a program dedicated to the long-time artistic director of the Royal Ballet, Monica Mason.

Short

Mikhail Messerer is the main guest choreographer of the Mikhailovsky Theater. One of the most respected ballet teachers in the world. He worked at Covent Garden, the American Ballet Theatre, the Paris Opera, La Scala, the English National Opera and other ballet companies in Europe, Asia, America, and Australia. Among his productions at the Mikhailovsky Theater: “Swan Lake”, “Laurencia”, “La Bayadère”, “Don Quixote”.

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Did you get your name in honor of your grandfather, who was a dentist, but became the founder of a theater dynasty?

Yes it is. He was an educated man, spoke eight European languages, did not know only English, and at the age of seventy-five he decided to read Shakespeare in the original, took courses and learned English. My grandfather was fond of theater and took his eight children to performances, who then acted out what they saw in their faces. His eldest son, my uncle Azariy Azarin, became an actor and director, worked with Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko and headed the Moscow Ermolova Theater. The eldest daughter, Rachel, was a silent film star, but left her career when she married and gave birth to three children to Mikhail Plisetsky, the Soviet consul on Spitsbergen, who was repressed and executed. Elizaveta Messerer was a talented comic actress. Asaf Messerer is an outstanding dancer of the Bolshoi Theater, and subsequently a great teacher. At the age of sixteen, having attended the ballet Coppelia, he fell in love with this genre and, after studying for only two years, entered the Bolshoi Theater, immediately becoming its premiere. My mother, Shulamith Messerer, who became the prima of the Bolshoi Theater and a people's artist, also chose ballet. Next came my cousins ​​into art: the well-known Maya Plisetskaya, the outstanding theater artist Boris Messerer, choreographers Naum Azarin, Alexander and Azary Plisetsky. Azary and I may be cousins, but I treat him like family. He has been working as a tutor at the Béjart Ballet in Lausanne for many years and gives master classes in many other companies.

Was your choice of profession predetermined?

My mother sent me to the choreographic school. It was a prestigious and well-paid job for a man: ballet dancers could, unlike mere mortals, travel abroad, had very decent money, and were given apartments in the center of Moscow. I was neither for nor against entering a ballet school, but once there, I realized that it was for me.

Why did your mother give you her last name?

My father, Grigory Levitin, was a famous artist, he had his own circus attraction in the Gorky Cultural Park, where he raced motorcycles and cars along a vertical wall. I bore his last name, but at school both teachers and classmates persistently called me Messerer - everyone knew that I was the son of Sulamith Mikhailovna and the nephew of Asaf Messerer. When I received a passport at the age of sixteen, my mother and father decided to register me as Messerer.

You were a dancer at the Bolshoi Theater, but very early on you decided to become a teacher. Why?

I'm a perfectionist. My career was developing successfully, but next to me were two giants of male dance - Nikolai Fadeechev and Vladimir Vasiliev. I didn’t understand how other artists didn’t see their inferiority compared to them. At the same time, from the age of five I watched my mother give lessons: there was no one to leave me with at home, and she took me to the Bolshoi Theater class. While still studying at ballet school, I taught my classmates when the teacher was ill, and the kids loved these lessons. By the way, since then my task has been to ensure that the artists like the lesson. Dancing at the Bolshoi, and as a guest soloist also at the Leningrad Kirov Theater, in Perm and Prague, I was simply eager to be a teacher - I graduated from GITIS and at the age of thirty received the specialty of a teacher-choreographer.

In 1980, you and your mother ended up in Japan and never returned to the USSR. How did you come to this decision?

Of course, my mother and I discussed this for years: despite having all the material benefits, I wanted to be my own boss, say what I think, go wherever I want. I came with the Bolshoi Theater troupe to Nagoya, and my mother was teaching in Tokyo at that time - she had been going there for many years, helping to create a ballet theater. She called me and said: “Come, let’s talk,” and I understood from her intonation what we would be talking about. Late in the evening I left the hotel with a small plastic bag in my hands; downstairs there was a man on duty who worked for the KGB, who asked where I was going for the night. The answer came to me instantly, I said that I was going to hand over empty milk bottles - our artists also practiced this option for obtaining currency. He didn’t know that I didn’t drink milk, and my answer satisfied him. At that time in Japan there were no signs in the Latin alphabet and almost no one spoke English. I took the train to Tokyo only because I knew a little Japanese: I visited Tokyo as a child with my mother, and talked with the Japanese who visited her in Moscow. I came to my mother, we talked all night, and the next morning we went to the US Embassy. Mom had an invitation to teach in New York, at the American Ballet Theater, we decided to take advantage of this opportunity and both received visas. We did not ask for political asylum, as was written about in the Soviet press. Mom taught all over the world and lived to be ninety-five years old. A USSR swimming champion in her youth, she visited the pool every day until the last days of her life. I was immediately invited as a professor at the New York Conservatory of Dance, then I became a permanent guest teacher at the London Royal Ballet, giving lessons in almost all the leading ballet companies in the world. In the meantime, perestroika began, the Soviet Union disappeared, and friends increasingly insistently called me to come to Moscow. At first it seemed impossible, but in 1993 the Russian consul brought me a visa directly to Covent Garden, and I took the plunge. In Moscow, I pinched myself every ten minutes to make sure I was not dreaming, because before, coming to Russia could only be a nightmare. Then I met the ballerina Olga Sabadosh, fell in love, got married, now we have two children - a daughter is fifteen years old, a son is six. The daughter studies in the UK, and the wife performs in Covent Garden.

Since 2009 you have been working at the Mikhailovsky Theater. How do you manage to exist in two countries?

It's hard, but I try to go to London for at least two or three days every two weeks. Sometimes my family comes to visit me in St. Petersburg.

When you chose St. Petersburg over London, were you motivated by the opportunity to stage plays here?

First of all, I am a teacher. When accepting the position of chief choreographer, I set myself the task of raising the level of the troupe. I also look at my productions from this perspective: it is important that they give artists the opportunity to improve and contribute to the growth of their professional skills. And of course, when preparing the performance, I think about how it can be shown not only in St. Petersburg, but also taken on foreign tours.
For many years I gave master classes for the Mariinsky Theater ballet. At one of the receptions in St. Petersburg, I met Vladimir Kekhman, who was looking for a version of “Swan Lake” for production at the Mikhailovsky Theater and asked for my advice. I told him that the most important thing is not to make a mistake and not take the same version that is shown in the Mariinsky Theater, theaters should be different. He offered to stage one of the Western versions - Matthew Bourne or Mats Ek. But Vladimir Abramovich believed that the classical production was more important at that time, and invited me to prepare the so-called Old Moscow version of “Swan Lake” with the troupe, and in the process offered to become the chief choreographer. As life has shown, Kekhman made the right decision: we had great success with this ballet on tour in the UK, it became the first performance of the Mikhailovsky Theater to be nominated for the Golden Mask.

Now you are rehearsing "Corsair". In what edition will it be shown in the theater?

The performance was staged in 1856 in Paris by Joseph Mazilier, then staged many times in Russia, and the most famous is the version by Marius Petipa, which has survived to this day in several editions of other choreographers. The “Corsair” was given new life in 1973 by the wonderful master Konstantin Mikhailovich Sergeev. His elegant performance, unfortunately, could not be seen in St. Petersburg for many years: the Mariinsky Theater is currently performing a version by Pyotr Gusev, created by him in the 1950s - by the way, for MALEGOT, that is, the current Mikhailovsky. And we chose the edition of Petipa - Sergeev. But I don’t consider it necessary to make an absolutely exact copy of this performance. Life changes, in order for the ballet to look interesting, you need to put yourself in the place of the authors and directors and imagine what they would come up with today. If a ballet performance is not renewed, it dies. Petipa staged Giselle in a new way, and Vakhtang Chabukiani and Vladimir Ponomarev edited La Bayadere, as a result both ballets are alive. The same “Corsair” still exists because it was remade by different choreographers. It is for this reason that we decided not to restore the “historical” scenography and to lighten the visuals - we will have light costumes and minimalist scenery.

An abundance of editions is typical for many classical ballets, but no other ballet has so many names of composers on the poster.

Yes, as more and more new choreographers added more and more insert numbers to the ballet, the list of composers and “co-authors” grew. It included Adan, Delibes, Drigo, Puni and several other lesser known ones. All names will be listed on our poster.

Born on December 24, 1948 in Moscow in the family of ballerina Sulamith Messerer. In 1968, he graduated from the Moscow Academic Choreographic School (a student of Alexander Rudenko) and entered the ballet troupe of the Bolshoi Theater, where he studied with his uncle, Asaf Messerer, in the artist improvement class.

Repeatedly performed as a guest soloist with other theaters: Leningrad State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after S.M. Kirov (now Mariinsky), Perm State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after P.I. Tchaikovsky, with the Prague National Theatre.

In 1978, he received the specialty of teacher-choreographer, graduating from GITIS, where he studied with R. Zakharov, E. Valukin, R. Struchkova, A. Lapauri.

In 1980, during a Bolshoi Theater tour in Japan, he and his mother asked for political asylum at the US Embassy and remained in the West.

Works as a guest teacher at the American Ballet Theater (ABT), the Paris National Opera, the Béjart Ballet in Lausanne, the Australian Ballet, the Monte Carlo Ballet, Milan's Teatro alla Scala, the Roman Opera, the Naples Teatro San Carlo, the Florence Opera House, the Royal theater in Turin, Arena Theater (Verona), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires), in the ballet companies of Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Tokyo Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet , Chicago Ballet, National Ballet of Turkey, Gothenburg Ballet, Kullberg Ballet, National Ballet of Budapest, National Ballet of Marseille and other companies.

He worked in troupes led by Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, Roland Petit, Maurice Bejart, Mats Ek, Jean-Christophe Maillot, Rudolf Nureyev.

From 1982 to 2008 - permanent guest teacher at London's Royal Ballet, Covent Garden. He went on tour with this troupe in Russia, Italy, USA, Japan, Argentina, Singapore, Israel, Greece, Denmark, Australia, Germany, Norway, China.

From 2002 to 2009 - guest teacher at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.

Since 2009 - chief choreographer of the Mikhailovsky Theater, since 2012 - chief guest choreographer of the theatre.

Among the productions carried out by Messerer at the Mikhailovsky Theater are Swan Lake (2009), Laurencia (2010), Don Quixote (2012).

Mikhail Messerer Career: Dancer
Birth: Russia
On July 4 and 15, the Bolshoi Theater will show the last premiere of the season - the one-act ballet "Class Concert". In fact, the performance, in which the daily exercise of ballet dancers is turned into a fascinating spectacle, appeared at the Bolshoi back in 1963. It was choreographed by the outstanding dancer and great ballet teacher Asaf Messerer. Today his nephew Mikhail is working on the restoration of the lost ballet.

During the years of the first "Class Concert" he was a student at the choreographic school. Then he became an artist of the Bolshoi Theater. In the early 1980s he asked for asylum in the West. Nowadays Mikhail Messerer is one of the most sought-after teachers in the world. After the lesson, where all the stars of the Bolshoi Ballet worked hard, Izvestia correspondent Svetlana Naborshchikova met with Mikhail Messerer.

Question: When teaching a class at the Bolshoi, what do you pay attention to first?

Answer: To what was lost in the 1970s and 1980s, when, in my opinion, not the best changes took place in the Moscow school. These are musicality, expressiveness, punctuality of positions.

Q: You are always teaching at the Royal Ballet of Great Britain. How does a class in London differ from a class in Moscow?

A: In London you can’t help but build something in full swing. In Moscow this has always been commonplace, although nowadays some things have improved. When I was at BT, women practiced only in soft shoes. There was no talk of using pointe shoes in class. Today, I see, without talking, they put on pointe shoes and work. Well, not one hundred percent, but almost one hundred percent. In London there is “almost” no such thing. Just like if you are a professional trial lawyer, you will not give half-knowledge advice to a client.

Q: You finished science not at 12.00, as expected, but at ten minutes past twelve. Can the British trade union challenge this very surplus? Well, let's say that the artists have reworked it.

A: But they stayed of their own free will! And the hall was free. The dancers dance all the way to the end of the lesson, and it would be insulting to rudely stop the classes. Therefore, when developing a lesson project, I remember that at the end I need to add a couple of minutes for masterly tricks. Asaf Messerer did this all the time, and you will see it in the “Class Concert”.

Q: Did you give your cousin Maya Plisetskaya a class?

A: No such opportunity presented itself. We met last year in London, when the rehearsal for her anniversary evening was underway in Covent Garden. I warmly applauded her youth. She looked simply amazing.

Q: It's obviously a family thing. For example, you won’t be given your 59 years. How do you keep fit?

A: Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out with diets, but I don’t drink or smoke. Many people are aged not by years, but by depression. I consider myself a happy person and I try to see only the good sides in everything in people, countries, cities.

Q: Your mother, ballerina and teacher Shulamith Messerer, looked wonderful even at 95. I remember when she was awarded the next prize, she demonstrated a few steps with great grace.

A: Almost until the last days, my mother was in excellent shape, she swam in the pool almost every day. At the age of 95, she boarded an airliner alone and went around the world to teach. And under no circumstances was she afraid of “losing everything and starting all over again from the beginning.” This line from Kipling, translated by Marshak, was her motto.

Q: There are rumors that in the recently published memoirs of Shulamith Messerer, passages that talk about Maya Plisetskaya’s difficult relationship with her and with her own mother are cut out.

A: This is not true. The book has a subtitle: "Fragments of Memories." Mom herself chose what she considered most significant for herself and for the reader.

Q: Let's return to her motto; it has direct relevance to you. Having escaped from the USSR, you lost everything and started all over again.

A: Exactly. You can say that I landed on a distant planet and my spaceship crashed upon landing. In the early 80s it could not have occurred to me that it would be permissible to return.

Q: When did it become clear that the ship was still operational?

A: In 1993. In Athens, on the central square, I ran into Dima Bryantsev (in 1985-2004, the founding choreographer of the Musical Theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. “Izvestia”). He said: “Misha, why don’t you come and teach classes at my place?” I took a risk and don't regret it. At the Stanislavsky Theater I met my future wife, ballerina Olya Szabados. Now we have a seven-year-old daughter.

Q: In what condition did you find the Bolshoi Theater?

A: I came back to the Bolshoi two years ago at the invitation of Alexei Ratmansky. It was still in the old building. Outwardly, not much has changed there since I ran away: the same furniture, the same carpets. But people have become different. The administration, in any case, worked clearly.

Q: A couple of years ago you said that, although you are a patriot of the Bolshoi Theater, you consider the Mariinsky Ballet to be the best in the world. Are you still of the same opinion?

A: I don't want to compare. These are great ballet companies and both companies have grown a lot in recent years. Both have people who work, at least, it feels like 23 hours a day, and this is the key to global success.

Q: How does Russian ballet look compared to foreign achievements?

A: In my opinion, he is still at the forefront of the planet, especially when it comes to the classical repertoire. Few foreign dancers can perform Swan Lake the way Russian ballerinas dance it. I know this exactly, because I taught in most troupes in the world. There is almost one theater in the West where I have not worked, the New York City Ballet. But Azary Plisetsky, my cousin, taught lessons there.

Q: When was the last time the Messerer-Plisetsky family got together?

A: Less than a year ago, on the 90th birthday of my uncle Alexander Messerer. He is an engineer by profession, but he loves the theater very much. All relatives flew in, some from Australia, some from America, some from Switzerland. I flew in from London. There were Azariy, Boris Messerer, Bella Akhmadullina... The evening was wonderful. If we, relatively young, could forget some of our distant relatives, then Alexander Mikhailovich remembered everyone. He knows everyone by name and helps everyone. And he always helped. I stood in all the queues for Maya when the family was evacuated in Sverdlovsk.