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Jackpot in Monte Carlo
By Roni Dori
Sivan Blitzova, formerly a ballerina with the Israel Ballet, returns to Israel this evening together with the Monte Carlo Ballet.

Though Sivan Blitzova started studying ballet professionally only at the age of 12, today she is a leading dancer at the Monte Carlo Ballet, which is known among other things as the current incarnation of the legendary Ballets Russes. She dances in works by leading choreographers, tours the world on average six months a year and is treated as a celebrity in the Principality of Monaco. It would seem that she, Blitzova, formerly a ballerina at the Israel Ballet, does not have too many reasons to come back to Israel.

"Everything is conducted here in an entirely different way," she says in a phone interview from Monaco. "In Israel, for example, it was so difficult for me to get new toe shoes. Every time a pair of mine was ruined I had to apply to Berta [Yampolsky, the founder of the Israel Ballet and still its artistic director], and then wait. Here I get dozens of pairs a year. The salary is also completely different, and the physical conditions are amazing. People know the dancers everywhere. We get into discotheques free and the treatment is completely different. I think a lot about going back to the Israel Ballet but I know, to my regret, that it would be very hard for me. The funding [in Israel] simply goes to other places."
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Blitzova, who was born in Be'er Sheva 27 years ago, started dancing as child in the folklore troupe in her city. There she met a technique teacher who encouraged her to study at the Bat Dor School of Dance. "And from there everything developed," as she says. She was a finalist in the Mia Arbatova International Ballet Competition in 2000 and immediately thereafter she was accepted into the the Israel Ballet Company, where for four years she danced in works by Yampolsky ("Cinderella," "The Nutcracker"), George Balanchine ("Serenade," "Symphony in C") and German choreographer Christian Spuck.

Since 2004 she has been dancing with the Monte Carlo Ballet under the artistic direction of Jean-Christophe Maillot, and now she has come to Israel with her colleagues - a total of 50 dancers - for the company's first series of performances in this country, which will open this evening at Tel Aviv's Performing Arts Center. In each of the programs they will perform works by Maillot: This evening, tomorrow and Thursday they will perform "The Dream" based on Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and on Saturday night and on Sunday they will perform two works, "Altro Canto 1" and "Altro Canto 2." She calls Maillot "enchanting" and relates that he is very concerned about his dancers, seeing to it that they get enough rest and nourishment.

Could you characterize Maillot's style as compared to other choreographers'?

Blitzova: "It's a neoclassical style that I personally like very much; in English we call this 'dry.' This style suits me very well because it requires classical technique, and at the same time it is possible to express yourself with a lot of movement - it's very 'dynamic.' Young choreographers who come to work with us are usually a lot more modern. With some of them, the work is without toe shoes."

Does the troupe preserve the tradition of the Ballets Russes?

"Day to day, no, but next year there will be a big performance to mark 100 years since the first performance by the Ballets Russes, and in it we will perform a number of works from those days, for example 'Scheherazade' and several more Russian ballets. We also have young choreographers in the troupe. They are planning to produce choreography for dancers who will stand in clothing shops in Monaco in original Ballets Russes costumes. Then that was a wild innovation, but today this is considered 'old-fashioned,' and therefore for us it's a little funny. We're all a bit surprised that all of a sudden we have to do Russian ballets. It's already folklore, after we've danced William Forsythe, but it is clear to me that this is going to be special and I am glad that I will get to experience it."

Recently The Guardian newspaper reported on research that has determined that in recent years the physical requirements from dancers have become more and more demanding. What is your opinion of this? Do you feel more vulnerable to injuries than in the past?

"I don't think that this is true. More than that - it seems to me that in the past, in the very conservative classical ballet, the requirements were stricter. At the Monte Carlo Ballet, we don't work in the strict style of anorexia, they don't hit us if the poses aren't precise. On the contrary, they try for it to be as natural as possible. Discipline is in any case high, but not because they make things difficult for us. This is a group of very professional dancers, so no one dares not to be professional. With respect to choreography, Marco Goecke's style, for example, is characterized by extreme and very fast movements. When I participated in one of his works, people asked me how come I didn't have a headache afterwards. You have to know how to take care of your body and nowadays there are many ways - Pilates, yoga, Feldenkreis; it is definitely possible to avoid injuries. In the troupe, knock on wood, there aren't too many injuries."

What is the difference between working in Israel and working abroad?

"There are lots of differences, to my regret. In Israel there isn't money available for culture - that is known. Of course Berta, who is amazing, gave her all for the Israel Ballet and it is thanks to her that many dancers are dancing in Israel, but she can't give us what we need. The Monte Carlo Ballet has very large budgets, so it can invite choreographers of the first rank, like Forsythe and Jiri Kylian. In addition to that, we go on performance tours all over the world for half a year."

Jean-Christophe Maillot, 59, has been the artistic director of the Monte Carlo Ballet since 1993. However, despite his age the prize-winning choreographer (his awards have included, among others, the Nijinsky Prize in 2001 and the French Legion of Honor in 2002) is blessed with a young and free spirit.

He says that he draws inspiration from music and the people around him. In answer to the question of who his favorite choreographers are, he replies that they are the ones we all know, and the ones we don't know. After all, he says, choreography is all around us, in the street, when two people quarrel or when they make love. A moment later he mentions the names of Pina Bausch, George Balanchine and Ohad Naharin.

"Altro Canto Part II," one of Maillot's works that the company will performed during its Israel tour, walks the line between dance and performance art. I am a choreographer who loves dance, he declares, going on to say that he finds a great deal of interest in the dimension of spectacle, of performance, and he has no hesitations about connecting choreography to show. As far as he is concerned, if someone in the audience gets up and tells him that he loved the lighting, the costumes or the stage set, he will not be insulted. Maillot has only good things to say about Sivan Blitzova: She is a very intelligent and strong dancer, she is beautiful outwardly and inwardly, he says, and he relates that not only is she always in a good mood and wonderfully spirited, she is also well-loved and this is something that he knows how to appreciate.
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