It is a play that raises the veil of the demanding and at the same time passionate life of a dancer, played by Barbora Hruskova, with text and staging by Tiago Rodrigues and original music by Mário Laginha.
Did Tiago Rodrigues wrote and stage this play "Tchaikovsky's left leg" for you in paticular?
Barbora Hruskova: The project already existed, it was about a dancer at the time of retirement, where she stops dancing. It was an idea of Luísa Taveira, artistic director of National Company of Ballet, it was and idea already with a few and somehow "fell” on my lap the moment I said goodbye, it was fortunate that I was chosen. When Tiago Rodrigues began to write, clearly, it became more personal, although it is the story of all the dancers when they stop dancing.
Are 44 years of career?
BH: I'm 44 years old, but I have more than 25 years of career.
The dancers have to retire early, because of the body wear off and the problems that arise from it.
BH: It depends on the dancers, it's very personal. There are professionals who can dance more than others, depends on the injuries that have throughout the entire career. Nowadays, because of the versatility of the different dance styles that are asked of the dancers of the national companies, in the same season we do contemporary, classic and neoclassical one after another and this is a huge wear on the body, more than before.
To what extent is it really biographical, I saw the documentary about CNB and in it appears a small part of this play, where Barbora says that your parents always told you that you did not have the body to be a dancer.
BH: Everything that appears in the play is totally true.
That is, it has been adapted to your reality.
BH: Yes.
I have this curiosity, if your parents who were both dancers told you that you did not have the body to be a dancer, how does someone like this become the prima ballerina of a dance company?
HB: My initial idea was to dance and not be a principal dancer, because of what my parents had told me about my body. I had a passion and I did not let anything stop it, I just wanted to dance. What I've been told throughout my career is that I had a great devotion to my art and that made me go further. Maybe because I was always told that I had to work harder than the others, and that made me go beyond.
Is it a retrospective of almost 30 years of career what you see when you look back?
BH: Very lucky indeed. When I see the dancers, nowadays, who face many difficulties in finding work and opportunities, I think I was a lucky one in my career. I always found work with incredible choreographers, also directors who let me dance major roles and believed me, there was a lot of work, but luck, too.
Why the title, "Tchaikovsky left leg"?
BH: The main dancer has a base leg, it's the one where you do more pirouettes with the boy and everything goes back on her. From Tchaikovsky because it was the decision of our director Luísa Taveira and Tiago Rodrigues, it could have been Prokofiev, or Mahler.
Mário Laginha: I think it's because he's a very remarkable name in ballet.
BH: I think it makes more sense to people, because my left leg was damaged, the final blow was with Prokofiev. My knee surgery results from "La Sylphide" and then I slipped in "Romeo and Juliet." Tchaikovsky is a name closely linked to dance and the "Swan Lake" is also very focused on the play.
What was the peak of your career as a principal dancer?
BH: I think it was not a peak, but I always dreamed of "Romeo and Juliet" and it was one of the most beautiful moments of my career, because I was lucky to dance with the choreography of John Cranko, to work with two fantastic masters and of having as patner Carlos Pinillos, he is technically and mainly artistically incredible. We "lost" for two hours which was the time that lasted the show and was wonderful. Another noteworthy ballet for me was "Giselle," because I was the first dancer I did at age 19, and with it I finished my career. It was three very different times in my life, at age 19, still innocent, at 30 in the top of the technique and at 42 when the body begins to fail, but maturity makes everything stronger, with more emotion.
Now, you, Mario Laginha, how do you enter in this dance universe, in "Tchaikovsky's left leg"?
ML: Because someone called me. (laughs). I was lucky to be invited, I find this show beautiful and I love it. It was a challenge of Luiza Taveira initially who asked me if I wanted to get into a project of this sot and I said yes and did not even know Tiago Rodrigues, my bad. At first I remember noticing why there was no choreographer? Actually, it turned out to be, Barbora's husband was always attentive to the choreography, but this is a play, the way it was so well thought out and with this intimacy that I think touching to see on stage, beyond the obvious, of what you see. Normally, we see in the end the result, here it is the opposite, it is all that route. On stage all this is materialized by Barbora and I agree with her, it's really her story, but also the dancers. The shape of the body, what is demanded over the years is of a violence that people do not imagine. It's a beauty that is won with a lot of fighting, this is wonderful to see.
So let's address the creative process, had you create original music for this particular piece. You had to talk to Barbora Hruslova first, and only then did you create the melodies?
ML: I went there, we were having ideas together, everyone gave us ideas. It made sense for me to write original music and the "Swan Lake", which is "pax de deux", goes around what I would play, although I do not interpret the whole orchestral part, not in a strict way, but there is piece I am faithful to Tchaikovsky's original. Everything was being set up.
But how did you write? As a result of your conversations with Barbora and Tiago in a CNB room?
ML: I always wrote out, at home. Sometimes I took sketches and showed them. And I just made an arrangement.
BH: In the cantata.
ML: And so, the music was always being built together and then we felt that it was already.
Does your background as a jazz musician and the fact that you have a classical piano training helped a lot in this play or not?
ML: I think we are all the sum of everything as people, in this case, as a musician, is the summary of all this past. I cannot tell if it was this or that, I think it all helps what I do. Whoever hears is more influenced by the European classic, in some grafts jazz, but for me it is difficult to distinguish what touched and helped me the most.
How does music adapt to bodies? Should it be difficult because you have to consider the times as in a classic ballet?
BH: Not in this play.
ML: Time, or balance is always important. As there is more freedom in this play, there is not so much this count, but of course, when Barbora is dancing I try to make her gesture coincide with an accent of mine, because I think it is better, but it is not something obsessive, each gesture represents that time. There is even a song that plays only with that, with time, the word, but then I went to the extreme, it is a spoken choreography that comes from watching the dancers rehearse all the steps that have to do on stage, I remember to hear it and I thought it had a neat side so musical that I found it amusing to use in music and we ended up doing it.
BH: It was incredible, I wanted to say that this play for a dancer is a great freedom, because we are both on stage, to feel each other, that is, there is nothing marked and it is liberating, I can take a step smaller, or slow, or just stand in balance and I know he's there with me, who will follow me. Every show is always different, I go to the stage without fear, without stress, because I'm not alone there, we are both, I know that the play is created, but we are creating every day still on stage, it is always different, like a sensation.
What you just said goes to my next question, what did each of you took away from this experience? And for you, Mário Laginha, this kind of show was really a debut?
NL: Yes, I had played Chopin waltzes a few years ago with choreography and everything, but strictly. This show is very different, I've never done anything that looks like this, what brought me? It was unique by the sum of the disciplines, in this case, dance, music and theater. The text is long, I think it's up to an actress and Barbora is overwhelming, she's a dancer, so the way she "grabs" the text gets people into that story and it was new to me, it is being perfect to be together with people who have become special to me, I have a great admiration for them that never ended.
So how did you prepare a text, being a dancer who when on stage does not speak.
BH: No, no. It was very challenging, it was theater in Portuguese and I'm not Portuguese. I said no, two, three times, then I was introduced to Tiago Rodrigues, when I met him I thought he was an extraordinary man and it was a huge failure not to work with him, so I accepted. But when I went home talking to my husband, I thought I was crazy, because I could never do a play in Portuguese, since I do not speak the language well. It was also extremely enticing with Tiago and Mario all this process of creation, they are both people of great generosity and humility and very humane, all of which made the experience incredible and enriching. We seemed to be great friends in a room just to take advantage of each other's talent and to share it, I felt myself and still feel very comfortable, although I have the notion that I work with a genius. (Laughs) Not that I feel small working with him, it helped with the text, because really I always expressed myself with the body and the word was different. The relationship with the public was also evolving, it is something much more present, I know they are there, it was different, the first time was very special.
This is always happening you in advance to my next question, there are differences between the premiere and this show that is the ...
BH: The premiere was eight or ten shows. It must be the twentieth.
So, are there differences? Since both refer that all the presentations are different and there is a great freedom of expression.
BH: Before the premiere, I had many difficulties with pronunciation and decorating the text. This made me very stressed, but at the same time conscious when I was saying the text, I had the concern to pronounce it well. Yes, I was giving myself, but it was different, I was very focused. This year I worked the text in a different way, the creation was done, it was different from when we were in the first fifteen days before the debut that gave me little time to work the lines. Now I've had more time, I focused on the pronunciation, to look more natural, to be able to live the text more, or even more and I think clearly, I'm enjoying much more because of it. In terms of pronunciation, as there is a work base behind, let me more at ease.
What about Mario?
ML: In a debut there is always a level of nerves that is a little above, then stabilizes a little below.
I say this, even though I know you are always on stage.
ML: I'm always afraid, there's nothing to do. What Barbora said just now, there is a freedom here that does not implie many nerves, if you make it slightly different it is not the end of the world. I can play something differently, because if it was with an orchestra, where the music is all written, if I fail a note there is problem. In this play, there is a process in our head that makes us have a minor concern, but for all intents and purposes I am offending myself. Apart from that, it is a show that gives a lot of pleasure.
But after the premiere did you notice that you had to make some improvements or not?
ML: I think I'm making small changes, but they do not come from the reaction of the audience. It comes from the awareness that it is better this way, or a prolonged gesture from Barbora and it was often she herself who told me, I take a little more time here and this was fundamental, it makes the play always alive and always ready to be improved even one millimeter to one side or another and this makes the play fascinating, because it never crystallizes and I think it's fantastic, it's the most exciting aspect of it.
How does your specific audience react, the dancers to this work? You are a dancer who does not dance only, you speak, despite being a very intimate play.
BH: It's very intimate. Many of my colleagues thought it was incredible that I could talk so much on stage. They were extremely excited because we all went through this, they felt this sharing with the people, spoke a little about them to the general public.
It's a bit of their story, too.
BH: It's not just a little bit, but people who are also not dancers also experience the same emotion. Everyone feels when time passes, that everything changes and sometimes the public can recognize itself through it.
And for Mário Laginha what was it like to be approached in a context in which we are not accustomed to see you?
ML: I am those who argue that anyone can see any kind of show, what happens is that they are not properly stimulated for this and close such doors. This play can be understood very well, even coming from different areas is very possible. What I felt is that if it is a crowd of musicians are more attentive to a certain kind of things, you even notice at the end, the dancers immediately go to Barbora and stay there and the musicians come my way (laughs). But in the last or penultimate show in Lisbon there was an American jazz musician who gave me some classes 38 years ago that in the end was emotional, loved the music and came to Barbora crying, that is, people can perceive more than one area, but understand others and this is wonderful.
