News

27.10.2017

Polina Semionova: “I want to find something new in dance”

Polina Semionova, guest principal dancer at the Mikhailovsky Theatre, has returned to the stage after taking a break to give birth to her son. On 13 October, she danced the role of Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, and she can next be seen on 8 and 10 November in Romeo and Juliet.

„The last time I danced with the Mikhailovsky Theatre was on tour in Hong Kong back in March 2016. And, I must say, it’s wonderful to be back with the company. Becoming a mother has changed a lot of things. Finding a balance between motherhood and my career is not straightforward: I don’t want to be away from my son; I want to give him my undivided attention so that he doesn’t feel abandoned by me. I try to be with him as much as possible and still make all my rehearsals. I have much less time to think about things; I am constantly on the move. My physical sense of self has changed since I gave birth — I almost had to reboot my brain. Now I want to find something new in my dancing, some new meaning; when I go out on stage, I want to get to the heart of why we are all doing this and what we are contributing to the world.

„My son was born on 4 January and my first performance was on 26 April in John Cranko’s Onegin. Then I was straight into Nacho Duato’s The Sleeping Beauty, which has such complex choreography, and, to me, is already a classic of the twenty-first century. I have loved all the parts that I’ve danced equally. Each time I’m on stage, whichever part I’m dancing that evening is my favourite for a day. And it’s not like I work myself up to it, it just happens like that, night after night.

„That said, I must admit that I love Romeo and Juliet. I love ballets that are filled with complex drama. The first time I danced this ballet with Nacho Duato’s choreography was here at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in 2013. This is my favourite version of the ballet. And I do have something to compare it to, having danced in other productions by John Cranko, Kenneth MacMillan, and Mikhail Lavrovsky. But Nacho Duato’s version is unlike anything else I’ve experienced. It’s carnal and it’s loyal to Shakespeare’s original text.

„When I’m dancing Juliet, I always try to take myself back to Italy. There, everyone is so passionate, feisty and forthright, and they wear their hearts on their sleeves. And my character is just the same; plus, she is very young and her feelings are so bold. The music helps me a lot — I completely surrender to it. I find it very easy to understand, despite the fact that Prokofiev is known for being unconventional. The score is filled with nuances, and there is always something to hold on to.
I have only ever danced Romeo and Juliet with Ivan Zaytsev, and it’s hard to imagine partnering with someone else in this ballet. When I was first learning this choreography, Ivan was a great help. It was the holidays, and when he came back from his break I literally snatched him away and we spent two weeks rehearsing non-stop. At the beginning, we had one week together, just the two of us, but by the second week, the whole company came together to rehearse the entire ballet. So I had to learn all our duets in one week, and it only worked out because he knows the text so well, and because he’s such a good partner. And Ivan is well suited to the part of Romeo because he’s so generous and brave. Next to him on the stage, you really do feel like you are Juliet. And, of course, I should also mention how patient he is. We were rehearsing for five hours a day; I really put him through the mill, and of course I was starting from scratch.

„I recently performed with Ivan Zaytsev again, this time at the Kremlin Palace. I chose him as a partner myself because he is such delight to dance with. At the end of the day, it isn’t just about your hands and feet, it’s also about energy. Ivan has a very comfortable energy on stage, and that’s important. We danced La Bayadère. It was a special moment for me as it was only the third full-length ballet I’ve ever performed in Moscow, despite the fact that it’s my home city and I studied there. Performing there, after giving birth to my son, in front of the people who taught me, was a nerve-wracking experience. But it all went well in the end.“