Hay Zinvor

THEY WENT TO BRING VICTORY

Interview with Asatur Kalashyan, Founder and Artistic Director of the Kalashyan Dance School

– Asatur, the subject of our conversation and the main topic is your last play, which you called “Antoni”, which is based on the recent war. And before talking about the performance, I would like you to briefly reflect on your life and introduce our readers to the activities of the Kalashyan Dance School.

– I graduated from the school of “Barekamutyun” state dance ensemble, the Theater Institute Master’s degree at the Pedagogical University, I am a choreographer by profession. At the age of 18, I founded the “Interdance” dance ensemble, staffed with professional dancers. Based on classical dance, we performed all the world-famous dance styles, from ethnic dances to jazz ballet. There were many dance groups in Armenia at that time, of different levels and styles. Considering high professionalism as an inviolable value, we presented the world image of dance to the audience, the whole palette for more than 7 years, we had a large audience, and most importantly, in the motley reality of dance we did not pay attention to commercial innovations, captivating the audience with extraordinary performances.

Then I decided to work in the field of art education, so to speak, and founded the Kalashyan Classical Dance School. My motto in this field is “there was and still is professionalism”, educating an art-loving, highly aesthetic individual. There are about 20 students in each of our classes, and they take part in our big concert at the Opera House every year. Our graduates can be very successful in dance with their skills, but I will consider our mission accomplished, even if they complement other areas as an educated, receptive, art-loving, sensitive, developed and virtuous individual …

– How did the idea to stage “Antuni” come about?

– All my emotions, feelings and thoughts born from the war were to be expressed in the language of art, to become a dialogue between my “audience”. When I listened to Georgy Gyurjin’s work performed by pianist Hayk Melikyan, I realized that it was very much in tune with my feelings, what I had to say, my aesthetic ideas. I staged what I felt, what I wanted to say … My language is dance, I spoke to people in my language, in my means of expression. By the way, 40 dancers, students of our dance school, took part in the performance, and the chief experimentalist of the Kalashyan dance school Anna Kalashyan was solo.

– The performance was very beautiful, touching, the messages were very tangible. Still, what do girls in uniform and boys in military uniform tell people on stage?

– Your question is almost the same if I asked you to retell one of your articles in, say, a symphonic or ballet language. It will be more interesting for you to tell me in your own language, in words, what you have heard or seen while watching the play.

– At the beginning of the play, young women in black, Armenian mothers, sisters, our people, mourned the loss of the Homeland … Then their mournful movements became sharper, their bent bodies straightened and stretched up, embodying the hope of our rebirth. Then the boys in military uniforms, men of Armenian descent, appeared on the ruins of our house, and the girls in uniform sat next to them, leaning their heads on their shoulders, saying that our hope, our support, is the Armenian man-soldier. We did not see their faces because they were standing in front of us and looking to the future, and we were behind them and seemed to be waiting for their guidance. Then the men left, leaving only the women. They went to bring victory …

– We, every Armenian, must fight with our weapons for tomorrow’s victory. We each need to know what we have to do for tomorrow’s victory, what our place is in the ranks, what is our weapon with which we shoot the most accurately. And we have to start today. Our time is very short, and there is a lot to do…