"You can't teach ballet before high school": Nikolai Tsiskaridze on talented children, competitive environment and Instagram

- This year, of course, you are again on the jury of the Blue Bird.

Tell us about your relationship with the competition.

What do you especially like about him, what keeps him?

- This was all thought up by Dasha Zlatopolskaya, with whom I have been friends for many years.

When she had all this in mind, she called me first, shared her idea, told what she wanted to do, and invited me to participate.

I told her some of my thoughts.

We talked in a friendly way, she agreed with something, something she, apparently, did not really have to.

In general, somehow we launched.

She invited wonderful members of the jury to join my team - Svetlana Bezrodnaya and Oleg Pogudin.

There were three of us at the beginning.

We convinced (producers - 

) that we should still be released once.

Nobody believed us, but already by the second program there were huge ratings.

After we launched, similar programs appeared on other channels.

But the main difference of "Blue Bird" from everything else is that it shows children who have chosen art as their profession.

This is not an amateur performance.

We are from amateur performances of children, as a rule, if we take - only those who claim to continue their education in professional educational institutions and, indeed, will connect their lives with the stage, with performances, with competitions.

In the second season, we also had Denis Matsuev.

There were only People's Artists of Russia, and not just by title, but by vocation - we are all geeks.

We were all children who walked this path.

Here, for example, Matsuev and I - we very early received awards (fund. -

) "New Names", which Denis is still heading.

- You have drawn a very clear line between amateur performance and professional activity.

Do you think that amateur performance over the years, through quantity, cannot grow into quality?

The child cannot eventually understand that he needs it?

- You understand what the matter is.

I really love amateur performance, as a kind of human life activity, when it is an addition to your profession or to your main studies.

When you are just doing something for the soul.

And here there is a very clear line between what is done for the soul and what is done for the profession.

As a child who never went to any amateur performances, but immediately came to a serious educational institution, and especially as the head of one of the most important professional educational institutions in the world, I can tell you: I do not like amateur performances that pretend to be professional skills.

- You could not afford it as a child?

- I could afford.

It's just that my mother was very humane in this regard, she let me enjoy my childhood.

She was a teacher, observed children for many years.

Therefore, she said: "The child must play enough."

Mom didn't take me to any circle.

She would have allowed walking if I wanted to.

But she did not think that she should make me an artist, circus performer, or someone else there.

She just gave me a horizon.

And now many parents do not know how to keep a child busy.

Another thing is that the time has changed.

Nobody plays in the yard.

Nobody plays the games that we played.

Now everyone is sitting in gadgets.

And the world is a little different.

- As a teacher, what advice would you give to parents?

How to develop talents?

Here, if you refer to your personal experience, is it worth listening to the child's desire?

Or should a pragmatic decision be at the forefront, the parents' calculation, which will be more promising, which will bring big earnings?

- To whom what.

From my point of view, if you want to benefit the child, look and look for what he has the ability.

Many parents are forced to play tennis or football, because in the future, the child may have a large salary.

And for this you also need to have skills, data.

How many ruined children, and none of them grows!

My mother and I absolutely agree that the child should play enough.

When I started ballet I was about ten years old.

By that time, I had misbehaved, ran over, played enough.

And when I got to an educational institution, where my time was occupied from nine in the morning to eight in the evening, I was completely calm, I did it with pleasure, because I liked it.

I was very passionate about what I was doing, that's all. 

- Ten years.

Sounds like a pretty late age to start ballet.

Now many schools, sections are opening, where children are admitted from two, three ...

- This is a disaster - these schools are for young children.

It's one thing when there is some kind of gymnastics, dancing, like a polka-butterfly.

But there are a huge number of charlatans who put children on pointe shoes, make them ...

I'll give you an example.

There was a boy who did complex things, danced an adult variation on one ballet channel.

They didn’t take him to "Blue Bird", because - I say again - we do not take amateur performances.

And this year he came to join us at the Leningrad Academy of Russian Ballet.

The boy was not accepted because he has no ballet talent.

He is already spoiled by amateur performance to such a state that he cannot be retrained.

Moreover, he did not have good skills.

• © 2018.ptica.tv

We don't take earlier than ten years.

We have about eight to ten preparatory groups at the Moscow academy, at the St. Petersburg one.

It has always been.

And we accept for training after elementary school, when the child moves from the fourth to the fifth grade.

It has always been this way, from tsarist times to the present day.

You can't teach ballet before.

I've been talking about this for many years.

Parents do not hear, they lead to these charlatans.

They lie to them, take money from them and spoil the children, spoil their health.

Yesterday I had a very long discussion with a guy who teaches in one of these charlatan groups.

He told how they will develop this and that ... You cannot develop.

The skeleton cannot be broken.

If the skeleton is naturally like this, it cannot be replaced.

In the same way, you cannot develop a voice.

For pop music you can, for opera - no.

You have to be born with this.

- After the end of the seasons, do you continue to communicate with the winners of the competition?

Maybe you somehow participate professionally in their fate.

- Denis, I know, communicates closely.

He has a program, he has the following motto - "This number can be carried around the country."

And he carries them.

I'm serious about education.

There were several children whom we found on the Blue Bird, and they studied here at the academy.

There are children who write to me themselves.

For example, a guy, a Georgian, Giorgi Jishkariani, one of the Blue Bird laureates, played amazingly on the saxophone.

He wrote to me in the summer on Instagram: "So and so, I received such and such a scholarship, I am leaving for such and such a school (the school of saxophonists is located abroad)."

I am very pleased, I follow them all.

If I see, I am very happy.

Because, indeed, it means that man has found his way.

Moreover, we must pay tribute to Dasha.

From the very beginning, there was my message to her that we must support the teachers who brought them to this level.

There are very good teachers.

We have one lady whose students have won several times.

- You are known as a very strict teacher with strict discipline requirements.

Is there a line that you yourself will never allow yourself to cross?

- I just don't let anyone go over the level of professionalism.

When we are in class, when we work, of course, there is a very serious edge.

I explain to everyone: this is my class, and there are only one rules - mine.

There will be no other rules here.

I always tell them: “I don't just love you, I adore you.

You are the most precious thing to me.

But I love ballet more. "

And it has always been so, and in relation to Nikolai Tsiskaridze too.

When we leave the hall, when this second of a teacher and a student ends, for me they are my most beloved people, the most dear ones.

And my heart, wallet, health - everything is open to them, 24 hours a day.

And even those who were not my personal students, but graduated during my rector's period, know that the office is always open, they can come for any reason.

If I can help them, I will always do it.

- I think you, like no one else, know the answer to this question: is ballet more a talent or a job? 

- Ballet is an ability.

Talent is what comes on stage.

Ballet is just like big music, big opera, big circus ... I use the word “big” in the meaning of a career at a high level.

This is, first of all, a combination of the unique abilities of natural and a gigantic amount of labor and luck.

If there are no these three matches, goodbye.

Even one component is missing - it will not work.

- There is a very tough competitive environment in ballet.

You have said more than once that boycotts were arranged for you, that your belongings disappeared somewhere.

And we have heard all these stories about broken glass in pointe shoes from you, from other dancers.

We see this in films.

There is no smoke without fire - this is probably the way it is in reality.

Does this environment appear from the very first years of study?

And why does it appear anyway? 

- You see, it is everywhere.

The only thing I can tell you, as a teacher, head of school and as a ballet dancer: all the filth of a child comes from the family.

Sorry, but here: a) genetics, b) morals in the family.

If a child grew up in a family where he sees only scandals, where the mother deceives dad, where the father deceives the mother - all this will be repeated.

This I tell you 100%.

• Nikolai Tsiskaridze on the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow

• RIA News

• © Ramil Sitdikov

- If you, as a teacher, notice such moments of, say, outright cruelty, meanness towards fellow students in your students, do you suppress this? 

- I stop.

But I can only warn you.

Because anyway a person will act according to his own ... I have an example: one of my students, in whom I have invested a huge amount of time and love, is a snitch.

Such a well-known informer at the Bolshoi Theater now.

And he makes a very good career, in his mind.

It is unacceptable to me.

And the main thing is that it is not justified by his abilities.

Everything is based on snitching and meanness.

- Can't you forgive even a capable person?

- Forgive - no, I will never be able to this person.

But what to do.

The man I'm talking about is, thank God ... well, you know, average lousy.

The abilities there are very simple.

As Maya Plisetskaya said: "A man is good only because he is big."

Unfortunately, when there is real talent, and the person is a scumbag, I will not be around.

But, as we know, Pushkin wrote: "Genius and villainy are two incompatible things."

The greatest artists are not scum, informers, liars.

They are usually very wounded people, but very decent.

But this "middle peasant" went to all the mean things that are possible.

I can't even describe to you.

A person lies 24 hours to everyone: parents, management, those with whom he lives, with whom he is friends.

- Your biggest disappointment in life is ...?

- Meanness.

You know, there was a very interesting thing.

When I started having difficulties at the Bolshoi Theater ... well, sort of, the management announced: spread rot, humiliate, destroy.

By order, a certain number of teachers (I emphasize - teachers!) Signed papers against me.

In exactly the same way as they signed in Soviet times against Maris Liepa, Maya Plisetskaya, Galina Vishnevskaya.

On the one hand, I was incredibly pleased that in one second I was elevated to the rank of already undying ones, and I instantly got to the great artists.

It is immediately clear - the status was finally confirmed.

But I spent a lot of time with these people.

I danced with some of them, someone was my teacher, someone was a colleague.

And I, on the one hand, understand why each of them did this: someone out of envy, someone because of their children, someone because they are afraid of being fired.

Four people just got up and said no.

Four.

- I would like to talk a little about contemporary art.

As a person of traditional culture, how do you feel about its modern manifestations?

Theater performances, rap battles, street art ... Does it fascinate you, does it attract you?

- When there is talent - you want, you don't want, you will listen to the person, watch.

Whether you like this trend or not.

When such serious rock appeared ... There was a period of my childhood, it was in disco.

Suddenly disco began to give way to rock.

A lot of rock bands have gone serious.

And there was ... I can't say that I was delighted with this, but there was Freddie Mercury, there were Queen.

I don't know why, I listened to them.

And this is talentedly insane.

And look ... there were a lot of rock bands back then.

30 years have passed, everyone knows the melodies and quotes of Freddie Mercury and Queen, and everything else has sunk into oblivion.

Of course, there are a lot of rappers now.

Again, 30 years will pass, God forbid, we will talk, and we will remember only two or three compositions.

The rest will sink into oblivion.

You see, when it's really talented - you remember, you react to it. 

- Continuing the theme of our time.

Thanks to social networks, the traditionally rather closed ballet environment has become available to the viewer.

Young ballerinas post photos, videos.

How do you feel about this nudity, this backstage?

- You know what's interesting.

I'll give you an example.

I checked in during quarantine.

I have an Instagram account and I became a young blogger.

I do not write about salads or underwear.

I'm always trying to come up with something interesting.

And thanks to Instagram, I see many guys who study at my academy.

And all the time I think: “Lord, what a capable girl, what a capable boy!

How could I not have noticed! "

I come to class to look ... and it makes me laugh.

The fact is that this virtual life has nothing to do with real life.

And over there on Instagram, it seems cute.

But you look and understand: “Lord, two - at best!

Generally, it's minus four. "

Nowadays, many parents pay some kind of managers who promote their children.

But the point is that the stage, serious art, has nothing to do with advertising.

A lot of my colleagues do not get out of TV, Instagram, "gloss".

You, journalists, call Nikolai Tsiskaridze anyway.

I have no directors, PR agents, but since 1992 I have been giving interviews without stopping.

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Publication from Nikolay Tsiskaridze (@tsiskaridzenikolay)

- In one of your interviews you said that with the same unexpected ease for you, with which you finished dancing, performing, you can finish teaching.

- Absolutely.

- Then where can we see Nikolai Tsiskaridze after that? 

- On the sofa.

There is nothing better!

I am so grateful to the quarantine ... it showed me what a happy person I am.

I do not need anyone!

I do not need theaters, I have had a lot of this in my life.

Moreover, I do not want to go to the current theater, because the performing skills have fallen to a low level.

Again, thanks to the quarantine, all the theaters were exposed and destroyed.

They started broadcasting current performances and destroyed their reputation forever.

And real music lovers, balletomanes immediately began to look for it in a good performance: performances of the 1970s, 1980s, 1960s.

Because it is impossible to listen to these La Traviatas, to watch these Don Quixotes and Swan Lake in a poor performance.

This is bad people.

This is very very bad.

So I thought: God, what a blessing - I have a sofa, books, I have the Internet.

What else do I need in my life?

I also have people with whom I am friends, with whom I want to see, with whom I want some kind of love relationship.

- The theme of drama, the theme of acting has already sounded many times.

It is unlikely that we will see actor Nikolai Tsiskaridze?

- Who knows?

Everything is possible, but with this name and surname I will never go on stage.

Only in ballet.

I find it indecent when people replicate their name to attract them to another profession.

Nikolai Tsiskaridze is one of the best classical dancers in the world.

- Brand ...

- Yes, it's a prince in white tights.

And when a person with a very high-profile name simply earns by reading some rhymes and playing some kind of play and, thanks to his high-profile name, attracts people - no.

If I decide on such a stupidity, I'll take a pseudonym.

Because this is interesting to me, and I will start learning from scratch.

This is a profession.

My friends, people who are very close to me, are Alisa Freundlich, Marina Neyolova, Roman Grigorievich Viktyuk, I spent a lot of time with him.

I was very friendly with Natasha Kurdyubova and in general with the entire brilliant team of the Fomenko Theater, with Svetlana Kryuchkova.

I talked a lot with Alla Sergeevna Demidova, with Konstantin Raikin.

These are the greatest artists.

These are lumps, this is a profession.

How can you afford to go down this path without realizing that you need to learn from scratch?

- When you performed, did you think about going abroad?

- Why bother?

I was invited very often, but I didn't like it.

I very early in my childhood got into orbit with the aristocracy.

In different countries.

And I realized one thing: I don't want to be an emigrant and I never will.

- In the American ballet theater, which was founded by a Russian émigré and has always been closely associated with the Russian choreographic school, there are practically no Russian soloists and leading dancers left.

Someone says that the reason is that, against the background of Russian soloists, the rest, with all their talents and efforts, fade.

And someone says - politics ...

- You know, it was very well thought out in the American ballet theater, in ABT (American Ballet Theater. -

, which is in New York.

They had, like in a zoo: a couple of Latinos, a couple of Ukrainians, a couple of Russians, a couple of African Americans ...

- These are the quotas.

- Yes, quotas.

And a couple must be from Europe ... Because America is an emigrant country.

And, as a rule, these or those artists were sold to the public that went to them.

I'm not talking about music lovers and balletomanes who just went to everyone, because they compared the compositions.

These are for Brighton, these are for Queens, and so on.

Then, in Russia there has always been a role.

In Russia it has always been the case that a bow-legged, short-necked aunt cannot dance "Swan Lake", but in America everything was possible from the very beginning.

Because this is tolerance.

In American theater, every Swan performer is necessarily a person with severe physical disabilities.

And you will never see Maya Plisetskaya there.

Unfortunately, such people no longer make their way to the stage. 

- This tolerance has led to the fact that practically discrimination of talent occurs ...

- Yes Yes Yes.

And the overthrow of talent, the overthrow of abilities.

It is imperative that the uglier a person is, the more they will write on Instagram and Facebook: “Well done, hold on, come on!”.

In my time, we could not even imagine that a person who does not have an exterior would get into a role.

And in America, the worse - the more famous it will be.

You know, I am very concerned about all this.

Because in the field of ballet, classical performance, we were ahead of the rest of the planet and will be ahead of the rest.

Classical ballet is a Russian art.

We have no right to turn our heads to the West.

They should look at us and learn everything from us, and we should dictate.

Watch the video version of the interview on RTD on November 23.