After a long time, this winter Ivan Vasiliev was again in ENB to perform Le Jeune Homme, this iconic work of Roland Petit, partnered by A+ Tamara Rojo.
It was shockingly good. All were of one mind: public, fans, ballet lovers, professional critics: superb. Some had seen Ivan Vasiliev before in this role (up to three times!), and said it was the best ever. What was different, since his 2011 performance was already brilliant? Hard to put into words. Greater maturity, perhaps, more truth, more depth.
The charming, playful heroes that flirt with the audience are roles maybe more to Ivan’s heart, but there is this other side to the artist: the dancer with inward focus, capable of a mighty surge of dramatic power, that completely surrenders to his character, with pathos enough to turn your guts inside out. Unfortunately, lately you had to go to Russia for a chance to see THIS one.
It was a great experience to watch “serious” Ivan on a Western stage this Winter, and be reminded again of what an awe-inspiring and versatile artist he is as he danced with fabulous Tamara Rojo!
“One great privilege of Rojo being both director and dancer must be the opportunity to choose her own partners and this year’s returning guest is Ivan Vasiliev, presenting a very different image of Petit’s doomed young man from that which won Le Riche the National Dance Award for Outstanding Performance in Classical Dance, back in 2013. His man had the demeanour of a poet, sensitive and insecure; Vasiliev, on the other hand, essays the rough-and-ready, oil-and-Swarfega look of a motor mechanic; sweaty, bombastic, ill-at-ease. His is a very different reading but one that might not be a million miles away from that of the role’s creator, the highly unconventional Jean Babilée.
Vasiliev’s troubled young man was like a caged wild cat, alternating between lacklustre listlessness and frenzied athleticism. Rojo reprised her highly-charged and hugely effective cocktail of sexual predator, silent-movie femme fatale and grim reaper with all the expressiveness that this consummate dance actress can muster. It was a stunning, sensual performance by any measure.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Graham Watts)
“With a libretto by Jean Cocteau and choreography by Roland Petit, the 1946 ballet Le Jeune Homme et la Mort is a highly theatrical mix of post-war existentialism and chic. It has an explosive star part for a male dancer, all soaring jumps and writhing gymnastics, and a vampish figure of death.
Vasiliev is a very starry guest for this ballet, a rocket-powered virtuoso who came to fame with the Bolshoi. He has a muscular ease in the twisting moves, and a bounding jump: in one sequence, he seems to lie face down in the air, depression claiming him even as he soars upwards. Rojo, the company’s artistic director, moves with luscious brightness as Death, lingering over a high sweep of her leg or stubbing out a cigarette with a vicious pointe shoe. Together, she and Vasiliev create a lurid, sadomasochistic chemistry. She walks all over him, and he leans right into it, waiting for the next kick.
He accepts death like a fated sleepwalker, while Rojo produces a great Hammer Horror face when she reveals herself as death, leading her victim away over the rooftops.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Zoë Anderson)
“Returning hero Ivan Vasiliev was the hot ticket as the stricken and shirtless Le Jeune Homme of the title in Jean Cocteau’s incandescent showpiece for male virtuosity. Throw in Tamara Rojo as his cruel mistress and you have an explosive match made in Heaven (or Hell in the poor chap’s case).
Le Jeune Homme is rightly viewed as one of the greatest jewel’s in a male dancer’s crown. Roland Petit’s explosive, emotional choreography is a dizzying succession of leaps and pirouettes that require muscularity, control and elegance. Modern steps with classical ballet lines soar over Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor. My breath was no sooner taken by one corkscrew spin to the ground, than Vasiliev was leaping over tables and swinging (almost) from the rafters. His technique is jaw-dropping, even if he acted rather more with his face than his body.
It’s a tough act to partner, but Tamara Rojo rose to the challenge with icy majesty. From her dramatic entry to the bitter end she made us believe a man could lose his mind and his life over such a tantalising temptress.
The concept may feel a little melodramatic and achingly French New Wave, but Vasiliev and Rojo on stage together at the height of their powers dancing this exquisite choreography is something no dance fan should miss.”
(Stefan Kyriazis)
“The Bolshoi’s Ivan Vasiliev makes an all-to-rare return to London and gives an engrossing performance as the Young Man; virile, volatile, yet so very vulnerable. Vasiliev clearly displays how his character is totally in thrall to his desires, and so inflamed is he by them, that he looks at times as if he might spontaneously combust. His movement is often frenetic and Petit frequently has him in gymnastic poses or tumbling over a table and chair that are characters in the piece in their own right: his despair at rejection is palpable. We have all been there and suffer with him, though thankfully we are not all driven to commit suicide.
Le Jeune sees another great performance from Tamara Rojo as the femme fatale in yellow with black gloves. Perhaps others have been more like a Praying Mantis devouring her mate but since there is a height disparity with the muscular Vasiliev, Rojo reminded me more of a golden poison dart frog who is just as dangerous to anything that encounters it. The Young Man is just a puppet to her; a plaything to do with what she wishes, and to be disposed of when she is bored and wants to move on. There is great chemistry between these two magnificent actor-dancers as Rojo – with her eyes wilfully blazing – wraps around him from behind and rubs his groin with her foot; he responds, by putting his hands over her breasts in his crazed desperation. Three times, Rojo kicks Vasiliev to the floor, and as he cowers she pirouettes after him exhibiting – with absolute perfection – her callous sadistic glee. For the short time they were on stage, Vasiliev and Rojo were as an incandescent a partnership as I have seen for a very long time. As the Young Man hangs himself, Georges Wakhévitch’s 1940s’ garret set flies out – almost sardonically – to reveal a Paris skyline: the Eiffel Tower is there of course, and we see is a winking neon Citroen sign, it is a coup de théâtre typical of Petit. The Girl returns as Death to lead her victim away in the haunting denouement to several intensely felt minutes.”
(Jim Pritchard)
“… a man, danced here by Ivan Vassiliev, tensely and impatiently awaits the arrival of his mistress. It’s a bravura role with extraordinary leaps and balances, and it suits Vasiliev well. The woman is a cruel mistress symbolising death, and in Tamara Rojo it finds an eloquent and blood-chilling interpreter. As she taunts him, he crumbles and is eventually pushed to his death dangling from a rope against the background of the skyline of Paris.It’s a performance of supreme confidence from both dancers and an electrifying start to the evening.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Vikki Vile)
“Le Jeune Homme is an iconic gem of post-war ballet, the serendipitous encounter between an idea from Jean Cocteau, an existential hero to capture the mood of the times, a daring last-minute switch of music and Roland Petit’s genius. Since its creation by Jean Babilée, the role of the young man has been coveted by generations of dancers and requires the sort of big beast charisma that Ivan Vasiliev has in shedloads. With the self-obsessed desperation of a man on the brink of suicide he throws himself into the challenges, leaping over chairs and pirouetting on the table top. Dressed in blue jeans with bare chest and dishevelled hair he connects the rawness of James Dean to exceptional ballet technique in a riveting performance.
Tamara Rojo, as Death, has both one of the best entrances and one of Karinska’s most exemplary costumes, the canary yellow dress, black wig and gloves. Rojo’s sophistication collides with the squalor of the garret and there is little question as to who will be the winner. Her final entrance as she returns to offer the suicide a death mask and lead him across the rooftops of Paris never fails to thrill.”
(Maggie Foyer)
“Roland Petit’s Jeune Homme was conceived in 1946 as a brutal and calculated exercise in despair. The 20-minute work is often described as existential, but this is to overstate its cerebral character. Which is not to say that it isn’t darkly enjoyable. In the right hands – and Tamara Rojo’s and Ivan Vasiliev’s are absolutely the right hands – the piece is a riot of histrionic overstatement. The ballet tells the story of a young painter who is tormented by his unrequited desire for a cruel muse. He lays his life at her feet, but she taunts him mercilessly and eventually persuades him to hang himself.
With his pantherine leaps and blazing-eyed, silent-movie acting style, Vasiliev is terrific as the young man. As he struts and frets to Bach’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor, costumed in possibly the tightest jeans ever seen on the Coliseum stage, every sinew of his sculpted musculature is taut with angst. Rojo, meanwhile, her hair in a chic little bob, slinks around in a sulphur-yellow frock and black cocktail gloves. At intervals, she evinces her self-absorption through languid developpés à la seconde, presenting her exquisitely arched feet as fetishistic bait. Then, extraordinarily, she seems to change register, all staring eyes and juddering neck. Not so much femme fatale as zombie sex doll.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Luke Jennings)
“In Petit’s piece, a duet created in 1946 to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, the action takes place against the angsty backdrop of post-war Paris. Cordoned in an attic, a man clenches and trembles, fixated on a hot-and-cold mistress who eventually goads him into suicide. The ballet was designed to showcase male virtuosity, and Ivan Vasiliev—famed ex-Bolshoi star, dancing here as a guest principal—does it great justice, bashing out mind-bending dives and scissor-kicks, gymnastic leaps and balances. With ENB artistic director Tamara Rojo in the femme fatale role, the number surges with starpower.
Petit personally trained Vasiliev for this role, and the dancer first performed it with ENB back in 2011, just weeks after the choreographer’s death, to high praise. Seven years later and the electricity continues to crackle as Vasiliev—sharp, shirtless and perpetually grimacing—lurches his way through the existential drama.
Rojo is likewise charged, slinky in mien and razor-sharp in technique. After tormenting Vasiliev with her spidery fingers and perma-smirk, she dons a hooded cloak and Grim Reaper mask, dragging her victim into the night. (Side note: when death comes for me, I sincerely hope it’s Tamara Rojo prowling en pointe, puffing a cigarette.) Yes, all the mugging is melodramatic, and yes, the choreography is aggressively masculine, but the performances here make it an irresistible piece of theatre—thrilling to the last staggered beat.”
(Sarah Veale)
“Roland Petit’s Le Jeune Homme et la Mort is a succinct, sexually charged work – particularly for 1946 when it premiered.
From the moment Ivan Vasiliev (the young man of the title) rises languidly to his feet – jeans faded, chest bare, cigarette in hand – his staggering steps are in keeping with the drama of Bach‘s score. Each plunging plie, each angered beat with which he strikes the air, is filled with anguish.
Tamara Rojo is the merciless mistress who drives her lover, as the title suggests, to suicide. Her silken feline moves and endless extensions are the epitome of the sexual fervour that fuels Vasiliev’s angst. She flips from fiery passion to cool disdain – and Vasiliev’s energy rises to madness in response.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Rachel Elderkin)
“So, too, Le Jeune Homme, with Ivan Vasiliev as the Young Man powerfully displaying existential anguish, desire, bravura dance and physical magnetism. He could not be less like the great French dancer Jean Babilée, at whom I originally marvelled, and who assumed the role tremendously once again in 1984 at the age of 61. On Tuesday Tamara Rojo was devastating as the Death figure, and wholly splendid. Vasiliev, tearing his dance from the air and his astonishing temperament, was a vivid, very Russian, fiercely true Young Man. Incandescent artistry.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Clement Crisp)
© Dasa Wharton
“The antihero is a famous role for virtuoso dancers with charisma, and the Russian star Ivan Vasiliev, returning as a guest last Tuesday, certainly qualifies, with his taut physique, tremendous power and intense romantic looks. Vasiliev lolls, smoking, on his bed until the music kicks in. This is Bach’s Passacaglia in C minor (orchestrated, and minus the fugue), which proved surprisingly apt when Petit and Cocteau substituted it, at the dress rehearsal, for an earlier mixed score. Vasiliev erupts, twists, contorts, hurtles over table and chairs, and leaps high — a thrilling display of athleticism.
Enter Tamara Rojo as the Woman — black bobbed hair, canary-yellow dress, black gloves — with prowling, predatory steps. She is a callous seducer and committed tormenter. The choreography has a blatant erotic charge. ”
(David Doughill)
“.. ENB wheeled out two 16-inch guns for Le Jeune Homme et la Mort. Roland Petit’s wildly OTT 1946 romantic melodrama – a stylised bellow of postwar Parisian angst – here pitched company director and star principal Tamara Rojo against returning superstar guest Ivan Vasiliev. And, although the crackle between the two didn’t come close to burning retinas the way Rojo and Nicolas Le Riche’s did in 2013, the piece still worked its lurid magic.
Needling her gloved hands down his back like black widows, giddily luxuriating in tipping him on to the floor with a dagger-like foot, Rojo was a predator and then some. As for Vasiliev, although now perhaps a fraction less wiry than in the past, his still-explosive aerial pizzazz, in-yer-face masculinity and boggle-eyed misery (the latter arguably a tad overdone, though frankly who cares?) gripped the attention from the start and didn’t let go. This is a piece, in fact, that might have been tailor-made for the 29-year-old Russian, who once told me ‘for me, if it’s art, it must be crazy‘, and whose astonishing curtain call revealed just how much of his uniquely high-octane fuel he still had left in the tank.” ⭐⭐⭐⭐
(Marc Monahan)
“The piece is very much of its period (Paris, 1946) but it remains the juiciest of star vehicles. Petit created it for Jean Babilée and the role has become associated with dancers — Mikhail Baryshnikov, Nicolas Le Riche — who share his eerie, Rolls-Royce-y ability to power through the acrobatics with no apparent effort.
Ivan Vasiliev is of a different order but the Bolshoi-bred star gave an electrifying performance, partnered by an implacable Rojo. Looking trim and fit, he balanced nervelessly on the rim of the upturned table and hurtled through space, body parallel to the floor, fuelled by existential torment, kept afloat by an adoring crowd.”
(Louise Levene)
(wouldn’t it be wonderful if all that dancers needed to keep them afloat
is an adoring crowd?)
A few bows
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A bit of history of Ivan Vasiliev’s Jeune Homme
The first time Ivan Vasiliev danced Le Jeune Homme et La Mort, at the Bolshoi, he was coached by Roland Petit himself. Unfortunately, along with Svetlana Zakharova and Svetlana Lunkina, he was the last dancer to have this privilege. Petit died just a few months later.
These links show scenes of rehearsals at the time:
31 May 2010
02 June 2010
04 June 2010 1
04 June 2010 2
10 September 2010 1/2
10 September 2010 2/2
10 July 2011
and an interview with great photos !
Ivan performed Le Jeune Homme again in ENB – English National Ballet in 2011, this time with a dazzling Jia Zang as Death. Description of that moving performance and surrounding circumstances are beyond the scope of this article, but are more than worth reading, so here is a link with many interesting details:
(review: Tribute to Roland Petit).
There are also excellent videos of a few short sequences:
Excerpt 1
Excerpt 2
Excerpt 3
Excerpt 4
Bows
He had other great partners. During “The Kings of the Dance” in Mariinsky, performances were recorded by amateurs. They are not the best quality, at least some are complete videos.
With Victoria Tereshkina
With Ekaterina Kondaurova
With Ekaterina Shipulina (partial)
And here are links to stunning photo albums. This work is amazingly “photogenic”. Click in each photo to access the album.
Performance with Svetlana Lunkina, by Nikolay Krusser
IVAN VASILIEV 