Interview: Milena Sidorova
Young Creative Associate at Het Nationale Ballet
Can you explain how you started with dance?
'To be honest, I don't remember myself not being in dance. I started when I was 3 years old. I do have flashbacks of being on stage about that time in Kiev, Ukraine. When I was 7 years old, I went to the ballet academy and at the age of 9 I joined the Kiev Choreographic Institute - but choreographic is just a name and means the State Ballet School.’
‘When I was 12 or 13, I started to do ballet competitions. Choreography was a requirement and in a way it was a neccesity to have something original, so I made my own solo's. The first one was a spider: I used to be obsessed with spiders as a child. The movement material was succesful and I have been using it up until the Prix de Lausanne and the Moscow International Competition. With a scholarship that I won in 2002 at the Prix de Lausanne I went to the Royal Ballet School. After that I got my first contract here at the Dutch National Ballet.'
Why did you choose to go to the Royal Ballet School?
'Mainly because one of my teachers gave me a very positive advice about it. And also because Gailene Stock, the director of the Royal Ballet School, came up to me at the end of Prix de Lausanne and said she would be really happy if I came to study at the Royal Ballet School. When I went there it was quite difficult because I didn't speak any English and I had to take some private lessons. It was a wonderful time though: I was dancing the lead in Raymonda when the Royal Ballet School went on tour to New York and Japan before graduating from the Upper School with honours. I also had choreographic opportunities there, I could work with students of the school and actually won a Choreographic Development Award from the school.'
How has the Royal Ballet School influenced you?
'I liked the fact that the dancing was more intensive at the Royal Ballet School than in Kiev: more lessons, more rehearsals, it was more intense balletwise. In the beginning I was a little bit rebellious! Coming from a Russian style they really had to calm me down in a way. In England they like very precise arms and positions. Certain things had to be at only 90 degrees height and in Russian Vaganova-style the amplitude is just bigger.'
So, are you as a choreographer now also precise?
(Laughs) 'I believe I have the best of both worlds. I use more of a fusion style. When I work with dancers I think I am easy going. I like to have fun in the process. I think that is also why my pieces come out as being fun.'
How would you like people to see Milena Sidorova as a dancer?
'I would hope as being expressive. My aim is to let the audience feel what the choreographer wants them to feel. To have them get really into the ballet and experience an emotion that ties them to the ballet.'
Who is Milena Sidorova as a person?
'Obviously dance is a big part of my life. Sometimes I get very expressive and I want to start painting. Other times I have dreams in which I see a ballet and I just have to put it on stage or set it in the studio. I almost feel I don't create it because it was already just there. My mom is also very expressive, she studied theatre and taught me some tricks of the trade. When I was young I was living in a boarding school and used to see my parents in the weekends. I learned to be independent at a young age. I like being serious and have fun at times but to be able to work on something concrete and know something will come out of it gives me pleasure.'
November 2011