The 1980s were a significant period in the history of Lithuanian ballet not only for the new productions staged that decade, but also for the clearly evident divide that had developed between classical ballet and contemporary choreography. A deliberate exploration of new, fluid forms began, departing from the canons of classical ballet and emphasizing creative individuality as the most important artistic quality. Of particular importance during this period was the emergence of new opportunities for Lithuanian ballet and solo artists to organize international tours, allowing both soloists and entire companies to break out of their previously restricted environment and benefit from a more comprehensive and diverse reception by audiences and professionals alike.

 

As before, the Lithuanian Opera and Ballet theatre planned its season according to repertoires outlined in advance. A list of recommended pieces and productions was usually prepared and circulated, including sixteen ballets written by composers from the various Soviet republics. These ballets featured productions with diverse storylines, some based on legends rooted in the folklore of the numerous Soviet nations, while others derived from classical (Dubrovsky, by Valeri Kikta, based on Alexander Pushkin’s novel) or Soviet (The White Steamship, by Alexander Soynikov, based on the novel of the same name by Chingiz Aitmatov) literary works, or Soviet history (Vitaly Kireika’s ballet Sunstone, about the Zhurbin dynasty of mineworkers and, as described in the official list, “the heroic glory of labor in the Donetsk region”, or Yevgeny Stankovich’s ballet Sparks, on historic and revolutionary themes). None of these, with the exception of Antanas Rekašius’ Amžinai gyvi (Eternally Alive), was ever staged in Lithuania.

 

Toward the end of the 1970s and in the early 1980s, Lithuanian ballet was most profoundly influenced by choreographer Vytautas Brazdylis Vytautas BrazdylisVytautas Brazdylis was born into the family of ballet artist Vytautas Brazdylis Sr., and began studying at the Choreography Department of the M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art in 1960 (under the tutelage of Pranas Peluritis). He studied for three years (until 1966) at the Moscow School of Choreography, and danced with the Lithuanian Opera and Ballet Theatre until 1973. In 1973–1978, Brazdylis attended the Choreography Department of the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatory, studying under the renowned late 20th century classical choreographer and Professor Pyotr Gusev, as well as with choreographer Igor Belsky.  (b. 1947), who became the ballet company’s senior choreographer in 1980. His first work as lead choreographer was a production of Ludwig Minkus’ Don Quixote in 1978. Though the production’s choreography was based on a version created in the early 20th century by Russian choreographer Alexander Gorsky, Brazdylis sought to smooth out the previous version’s dramaturgical disparities by approaching the production as a choreographic treasure, which is why he staged the final pas de huit based on a version of Don Quixote first mounted at the State Theatre in Kaunas by its former lead choreographer Alexsandra Fyodorova. In his design for this ballet from the classical repetoire, Brazdylis avoided conventionalism and naturalism. One interesting choice was a vision that appeared during the prologue, an interlude from a knight’s novel that emerges from Don Quixote’s imagination while he is reading, portraying a stylized version of the abduction of the story’s heroine. The sets proposed for Don Quixote by designer Henrikas Ciparis featured stylized graphic imagery with Spanish and Moorish architectural motifs, while the battle with windmills was composed using special lighting effects, including projections to create the illusion of approaching or receding windmill outlines.

 

Another Brazdylis production opened in December, 1978—the premier of Juozas Gruodis’ ballet Jūratė ir Kastytis (Jūratė and Kastytis). Due to time constraints, the ballet could not be performed in one single evening. The production did not remain in the company’s repertoire for very long but it did serve to showcase the restraint and lyricism that came to characterize Brazdylis’ work, as well as the choreographer’s pursuit of musicality and a symphonic style.

 

Brazdylis’ most popular production was his 1979 ballet Baltaragio malūnas (Whitehorn’s Mill)—based on the extremely well-received 1970s musical by Vyacheslav Ganelin—which was later turned into a musical film by Arūnas Žebriūnas under the title Velnio nuotaka (The Devil’s Bride) in 1974. This was the ballet company’s first contemporary production, in all respects—in dramaturgical concept, choreographic plasticity, and set design. It was also likely the first time (not including tours by the company to smaller Lithuanian cities) that a ballet production was performed using a recorded score. The complex choreographic text focused on the characters of Baltaragis (Whitehorn), Pinčukas, and Jurga, using choreography designed by Brazdylis that allowed dancers performing the roles to showcase their acting and dramatic skills. For the first time, Brazdylis and set designer Vytautas Kalinauskas gave audiences a glimpse into the stage wings with all of their technical structures and lighting fixtures revealed, creating the sense of a “production within a production.” Though no continuity of plot was intended, scenes flowed organically from one to the next while minimalist, light sets permitted rapid transition from one setting to another. The ballet’s mournful finale was merely the end of the “production within the production”, as the entire ballet culminated in a musically contrasting, vivid rendition of Léo Delibes’ Coppelia waltz, performed by the entire company. Such a post-modernist approach to ballet dramaturgy was a novelty not just for Lithuanian ballet, but also for Soviet choreography in general. The plasticity of Whitehorn’s Mill was distinguished by organic movement combinations and demi pointe positions. Only scenes depicting visions by the characters Marcelė and Whitehorn were based on classical dance and pointe technique.

 

After Whitehorn’s Mill, Brazdylis revisited Lithuanian choreography history by working on a new version (premiering in 1980) of his first ballet, Delibes’ Coppelia. Brazdylis presented the comic ballet, usually staged using pantomime, as a more complex psychological drama, with the protagonist forced to choose between reality and his own fantasy (two women—a simple girl named Svanilda and an automated doll by the name of Coppelia.) Although the production ended on a happy note, it was permeated by a gloomy, Hoffmanesque spirit, emphasized by Ciparis’ set designs and costumes.

 

Such a directorial and visual approach was apparently perceived as being too serious for Delibes’ light music, so a new version of the same ballet was undertaken several years later, with the premiere of a fundamentally changed production opening in 1983. Changes were made to the choreography for the solists while ensemble pieces and dances were arranged on the principle of choreographic symphonism, but the more inventive pantomime scenes were retained. Light and decorative costumes and colorful sets for the production were created by Estonian designer Eldor Renter. The new production proved easy to take on tour: in 1983 the company performed in Kaunas, Alytus, Panevėžys, Šiauliai and other Lithuanian cities, and discussions began over possible tours to Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and Poland. In 1987, Brazdylis was invited to stage Coppelia at the Gdansk Opera and Philharmonic—the first time the choreographer’s work was performed abroad.

 

Alongside productions of classical choreographic pieces, the 1980s also witnessed a bold foray into modern, contemporary choreography that Brazdylis sought to support with the help of foreign choreographers. In 1982, Estonian choreographer Ülo Vilimaa (b. 1941) staged a laconic, reserved production of Anatolijus Šenderovas’ Mergaitė ir mirtis Mergaitė ir mirtis Mergaitė (Girl), the ballet’s heroine, was identified with the Creator and artist Creation, while Death was presented as Creation’s polar opposite. The brief summary of the production was full of abstract concepts and categories: “the call of beauty,” “the wheel of time,” “the Great Unknown.” The production also featured abstracted characters and symbols from the animal world: Bear-Earth, Elk-Sky, Wolf-Destroyer, and Owl-Eternal Balance. The Girl also encounters a character known as her Double-Lifeless Form, and Death’s messengers Auksas (Gold), Sidabras (Silver), and a world of lechery, but “love—that eternal force—clears the way for the Girl’s path of life.” (From Mergaitė ir mirtis, official production program, LSSR Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, 1982). (The Girl and Death) that gave artists exploring contemporary plasticity the opportunity to showcase their skills.

 

By the 1980s, greater effort was being directed toward the training of a new generation of choreographers and the organization of concert evenings featuring contemporary choreography. On June 30, 1981, a special concert entitled Choreografinės akimirkos (Choreographic Moments) showcased the one-act ballet Kelias (Path), a production by the ballet dancer Jurijus Smorginas Jurijus SmoriginasJurijus Smoriginas graduated from the M. K. Čiurlionis Art School’s Choreography Department in 1974 (studying under Pranas Peluritis), and from the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatory’s Ballet Direction Department in 1987. While at the Lithuanian State Opera and Ballet Theatre he performed the roles of Girdvainis (Baltaragio malūnas [Whitehorn’s Mill]), Silvio (The Servant of Two Masters), Death (Mergaitė ir mirtis [The Girl and Death]), and Madge (La Sylphide), and later established the “Vilniaus baletas” choreographic project theatre. (b. 1955) based on the music of Igor Stravinsky. Shortly thereafter, the Lithuanian Opera and Ballet Theatre officially requested that Smorginas be accepted to the Leningrad State Conservatory.

 

In 1987, Smoriginas showcased his work in an evening concert held at the Lithuanian Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, and in May, 1988, he choreographed and staged the one-act ballets Serenada, Phaedra, La Casa de Bernarda Alba, and Requiem. In early 1989, Osvaldas Balakauskas staged a version of Smoriginas’ final choreography degree dissertation—a two-act adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The play’s narrative unfolded through abstract concepts, combining a plastic language with an often fluid technique that illustrated the internal monologue of its characters, using the scenery and sets design by Adomas Jacovskis.

 

Another of Smoriginas’ works was staged in 1989: Bronius Kutavičius’ ballet Paskutinės pagonių apeigos Paskutinės pagonių apeigos Smoriginas sought to give more concrete shape to the production’s more abstract, philosophical motifs by laying down an imaginary path leading from ancient paganism (through the image of the Girl Priestess), through the golden era of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy in the 16th century (by including such historical figures as Bona Sforza, Žygimantas Augustas [Sigismund Augustus], Elizabeth of Hapsburg, and Barbora Radvilaitė [Barbora Radziwiłł]), to the present day (in the form of three “girls”). All of the deliberately deconstructed narrative themes were unified by the character Frakas (Fate), who took the form of Bona Sforza in the production’s second act. (Last Pagan Rites), but the production was met with some skepticism by musicologists, primarily for the use of a complicated narrative to “illustrate” Kutavičius’ music, though the choreography did seek to augment the neoclassical ballet lexicon with elements of modern dance.

 

Two productions were staged in Vilnius by the Hungarian choreographer Antal Fodor (b. 1941). In 1989, he presented the two-act ballet A próba based on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Gábor Presser (using recorded music), attempting to create an abstract “theater within a theatre” concept showing a rehearsal for a staging about Jesus Christ taking place against the background of a drama about betrayal. The production’s choreography was stylistically varied, using elements of classical dance with modern plasticity. Set designs were also rather eclectic: the stage showed a bare back wall upon which were hung abstract decorative elements, some illuminated, emphasizing a musical esthetic. For the first time in Lithuanian ballet theatre, the production featured biblical characters: Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Judas.

 

Katarsis (Catharsis), another of Fodor’s productions based on the music of Andreas Pflüger, was also stylistically and visually diverse. The production featured the characters of Adam and Eve as well as Shiva and Kumara, whose choreography was created based on ancient Indian sculpture. As with the ballet A próba, Fodor employed a wealth of stage effects such as lighting and smoke to emphasize a ballet style characterized by a fragmented, postmodernist esthetic.

 

 

The Leningrad Ballet Ensemble visited Vilnius in 1982. In 1983, dancers from the “Estonia” theatre performed an evening of miniatures. In 1984, Vilnius hosted a tour by the Vanemuine Theatre Ballet Company from Tartu, Estonia, the Moscow Classical Ballet Company, and a Swiss ballet troupe headed by Oscar Araiz, and in 1985 Vilnius was visited by Leningrad’s Kirov Theatre soloists Irina Kolpakova, Galina Mezentseva, Nataliya Bolshakova, Vadim Gulyayev, Yelena Yevteyeva, and Sergei Berezhnoi, who performed classical duets as well as pieces of contemporary choreography: Maurice Béjart’s duet Bahti, and a fragment from Roland Petit’s ballet Notre-Dame de Paris.

 

The 1987 tour of Lithuania by Béjart’s ballet company was particularly well received. The “Ballet of the 20th Century” arrived in Vilnius by way of Leningrad, presenting a program titled Love and Death (including selections from Bolero, Mephisto’s Waltz, and other ballets), and select performances of the ballets The Fairy’s Kiss and Malraux, or The Metamorphosis of the Gods. Soloist Jorge Donn, who performed the lead role in Bolero was “showered with summer flowers by his fans”, according to a review in Komjaunimo tiesa (Communist Youth). Six Lithuanian dancers were among the thirty dancers accompanying Donn in Bolero on the stage of the Vilnius Sports Hall.

 

In late 1987, Vilnius hosted the José Russillo company, and in 1988 the Warsaw Grand Theatre (performing selections from Bits and Pieces, with choreography by Hans van Manen, and Béjart’s Don Juan). In 1989, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo performed a repertoire that included early 20th century modern choreographic pieces that had never before been seen on Lithuanian stages: Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet The Prodigal Son (choreography by George Balanchine), Jacques Offenbach’s Gaité Parisienne (choreography by Leonid Miasin), as well as works from the second half of the 20th century, such The Leaves Are Fading, an abstract neoclassical ballet by Anthony Tudor based on the music of Antonin Dvořák, and Dennis Wayne’s The Next Dance, based on the music of Camille Saint-Saëns. Many soloists also performed in Lithuanian ballet productions in the 1980s—from other Soviet republics (Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine) as well as from beyond Soviet borders. Internationally renowned Russian dancers appeared in guest roles as well, including Maya Plisetskaya and Farukh Ruzimatov, as did foreign dancers from other countries, including the Australians Elizabeth Toohey and David McAllister, Argentinian soloists Julio Bocca and Raquel Rossetti, and American dancer Lynne Charles.

 

The social and political changes that began in the late 1980s impacted the ballet world as well, leading to the pursuit and exploration of new themes, new music, and a new choreographic language, as in Paskutinės pagonių apeigos (Last Pagan Rites). Efforts were also initiated to expand the circle of guest choreographers beyond the Russian orbit (as with A próba and Catharsis), but these initiatives were infrequent and had no lasting impact on the development of Lithuanian ballet. 

 

Modern dance was still developing within the amateur cultural sphere, shaped primarily by the amateur expressionist dance company Sonata, in Kaunas, led for many years by Kira Daujotaitė. In 1979, Birutė Letukaitė (b. 1953) and ten other dancers left the Sonata company and began working independently at the Artificial Fiber Factory Culture and Sports Hall in Kaunas. This marked the beginning of a new era in Lithuanian dance culture: the renegade dance group became the core of the future Aura professional contemporary dance company.