Helmutas Šabasevičius (PDF)
https://doi.org/10.53631/MIS/2025.17.7
The Lithuanian State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, which moved to the Vilnius Old Theatre in 1948, fostered a traditional ballet repertoire shaped by the work of the oldest generation of choreographers – Bronius Kelbauskas (1904−1975) and Vytautas Grivickas (1925−1990), which was based on the aesthetics of ballet of the mid-20th century, the connections between classical dance and „ballet-drama“, and the scenography and costumes illustrating the time and place of action. In the 1960s and 1970s, changes began to emerge in the approach to the themes, musical, choreographic and visual forms of ballet performance – this was the first stage of renewal and experimentation in Lithuanian ballet, where the most important explorations of new means of directorial, choreographic and scenographic expression were made in the ballet Rigonda (choreographed by Helēna Tangijeva-Birzniece from Latvia), Spartacus (choreographer Vytautas Grivickas), Jūratė and Kastytis (choreographer Bronius Kelbauskas), The Fading Cross (choreographer Konstantin Boyarsky from Russia), Shore of Hope (choreographer Česlovas Žebrauskas), Passions and The Nutcracker (choreographer Elegijus Bukaitis).
If the work of other choreographers did not develop in the direction of innovation for various reasons, Bukaitis had the opportunity to develop the concept of contemporary ballet that he had formed during this period later on, when the Lithuanian State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre moved to the new palace in Antanas Vienuolis Street – the theatre’s stage and equipment were incomparably more conducive to the realisation of more ambitious ideas. Bukaitis also staged his last major works on this stage, which in one way or another related to the ballet heritage of the Old Theatre: as if in opposition to Vytautas Grivickas’ Eglė the Queen of Grass Snakes (1960), in 1976 he created his own version of the ballet (with the artist Rimtautas Gibavičius, who created the scenery and the costumes for the first time for this ballet), and in 1986, Bukaitis returned once again to The Passions and Rekašius’ music, creating Aura, this time with the artist Marija Jukniūte (assisted by Irena Zabarauskaitė), with whom he had begun to develop the concept of this performance fifteen years earlier.
Keywords: ballet, choreography, experiment, set design, Elegijus Bukaitis