A prolific choreographer, illustrious ballet master and great patriot… more than these words will characterize Roudolf Kharatian who has been making great efforts for the new developments and tendencies in the Armenian ballet art.
With the foundation of the Russian school of the classical ballet in 1933, Roudolf Kharatian together with other USSR ballet dancers Maksim Martirosyan, Vanoush Khanamiryan, Vilen Galustyan made a splendid triumph on the Soviet stages and out of its borders. With the coming of the Russian choreographer Yevgeniy Changa between 1960s a number of works were choreographed. Furthermore, Vilen Galustyan took the advantage of encreasing the ballet repertoire, consisting Armenian and world famous classical ballets, such as “Spartacus”, “Swan Lake”, “Hamlet”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Ara the Beautiful”, “Gayane” and etc. Armenian ballet art got its highest peak between 1979-1991, when the Russian TV Company launched the ballet proadcasting among them being “Antonio and Cleopatra”, “Hamlet” based on the folk music.
After the Soviet collapse Armenian ballet as well as other spheres of culture were caused to decline, and consequently the ballet dancers were obliged to leave the country and teach others the art of ballet.
While living in the USA Roudolf Kharatian has long been the creator of a number of works ranging from avant-garde-experimental to classical. These include one-act ballets, concert pieces and full-length works, and have been performed on stages worldwide. Kharatian has taught the Kirov Ballet, the Boston Ballet, the Washington Ballet, ABT and is currently the founder and Artistic Director of ARKA Ballet in Washington.
Recently by the invitation of the Ministry of Culture, the ballet master put on the stage two performances “Stabat Mater” and “Bach’s Passion” based on Bach’s music. Judjing by the work, Mr. Kharatian is going to achieve his goal; i.e. to develop ballet art in Armenia, to encrease the repertoire and make the Armenian ballet become world famous. It’s worth mentioning that the performances experienced a triumph in Washington 10 years ago. According to the great ballet master: “There exists a super-natural energetics in
ballet art in which every element represents a major facet of dance: expression, love and fear, daring and energetic, focus, and freedom, and due to the dancer’s movement these emotions are transmitted to the audience”. In addition to the performance, the Armenian orchestra, on behalf of conductor Karen Dourgaryan, has never up to this day played Bach.
To our happiness Mr. Kharatian assured that we’ll still enjoy watching three more premiers: “Bolero”, “Romeo and Juliet”, and the “The Nutcracker” which will not only refer the adults but the children as well.