My Professors: Yaroslav Sekh
Classical ballet technique. The foundation of our art form, without which there is no past, no present, and no future for ballet theater. I was fortunate to learn this art from the great masters of Russian ballet. Today, I want to share about my professor, whose lessons opened up the world of classical ballet to me, revealing its richness and immense possibilities.
Yaroslav Danilovich Sekh—a remarkable dancer who performed various roles in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Ballet. An artist, a man for whom the purity and culture of ballet and theater are indispensable and unwavering. This is his life stance. Dancer Sekh worked with the great masters of the ballet theater—an experience he is happy to share with new generations of dancers, teachers, and choreographers.
After finishing his dancing career, he began teaching at the Choreography Department of GITIS (State Institute of Theatrical Arts), where he continues to work to this day.
Yaroslav Danilovich Sekh is a shining example of a guardian of the purity of the Classical Ballet school. He does not tolerate the slightest inaccuracy in the execution of movements and style. I was fortunate to study the composition of classical dance under Yaroslav Danilovich, and I proudly call myself his student.
In addition to his demanding and attentive approach to classical ballet technique, Yaroslav Danilovich guides his students, young choreographers, in their exploration of developing movement, specifically within the technique of classical ballet. The challenge lies in the very precise rules of performing the elements of ballet. He does not accept combinations where a movement is appended with an unrefined “tail” from contemporary dance schools’ techniques.
With an amazing ability to inspire exploration, Yaroslav Danilovich becomes involved in the process and begins to dance alongside you. The result can be the complication of an element and rhythm, a new angle, a combination with an unexpected, previously unused turn…
Now, I recall those lessons with immense gratitude and love. I remember how he jumped and spun with us, delighting in each interesting discovery by a student. How clearly and beautifully he articulated every French term of the classical dance elements. That too is culture! How he found the right approach to each student, as everyone came with a different basic school.
Understanding the student’s level and finding exactly the task that a young choreographer can accomplish at a given stage is an important task for a teacher. It’s not just about creating a combination but doing so with absolute precision. One day, Yaroslav Danilovich said: “Restoring an old ballet is like restoring an icon. It requires deep knowledge and understanding of classical ballet, its technique, and soul.” This became a guiding principle for me in my work.
During that time, the monologues and variations of my future ballets Romeo and Juliet, as well as themes for ballets set to the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s First and Second Concertos, were born.
I recall one moment: I was developing a monologue for Romeo, which I was composing at the time to the music of Berlioz. In Romeo’s hand was a flower; he dreamed of meeting a girl. During lessons, I showed a fragment of the monologue. Suddenly, Yaroslav Danilovich jumped up, ran over to me, and became an imaginary Juliet. He joined me in the dance. My movements began to gain meaning; we followed each other, and the imaginary duet began to speak, the flower started to dance along with my movements. These were a few unforgettable and very important minutes for a beginner choreographer. When we finished, Yaroslav Danilovich said: “This is quite good, in its own way interesting. But the arabesque in the tour lent should be behind you, and you turned your hips out. That’s incorrect.” How did he manage to notice that?
One of my first works, still as a student at GITIS, was at the Satire Theatre, a popular drama theater in Moscow. I choreographed the dances for the play Passions of the Black Sea by Fazil Iskander. This was in the late 1980s. I was very nervous and very proud of this work—one of Moscow’s most popular theaters, a star-studded cast, directed by the renowned Alexander Shirvindt. Naturally, I invited Yaroslav Danilovich to one of the premieres. The next day, I approached him. What he said surprised and deeply impressed me. “How is it possible to present such crude language and themes on stage? Such elements are far from cultured!”—this was Sekh’s stance as a guardian of cultural standards. Later, after calming down a bit, he praised my choreography but stated that he could not accept such plays: “Culture must always emanate from the stage.”
How interestingly Yaroslav Danilovich spoke about his work with Leonid Lavrovsky on the role of Paganini in the ballet of the same name, in which he became the first performer (it is in this role that he can be seen in the surviving film version of this performance), and about the unforgettable work on Mercutio in the ballet Romeo and Juliet. He shared his memories of rehearsals with Rostislav Zakharov on The Bronze Horseman, and with Vaclav in The Fountain of Bakhchisarai. He accompanied all these stories with demonstrations of movements. Even when not performing them to full strength, he was always precise in directions and poses. These were hours of communication with a master of Classical Ballet.
Today, when I work with my students, I tell them about my work with Yaroslav Danilovich, just as he did about his teachers. I pass on to them what he shared with me and with many of his pupils. This is how our unique and beautiful art of ballet is preserved, passing knowledge from generation to generation.
© Konstantin Uralsky