Je Suis Malade by Irina Perren and Marat Shemiunov

Je Suis Malade by Irina Perren and Marat Shemiunov, Choreography by Dmitry Pimonov, Music by A. Dona, lyrics by S. Lama. Taken at Dance Open Vilnius 2013.

Irina Perren is principal ballerina with Mikhailovsky Theatre, St Petersburg, Russia. She has born in 1980 in Leningrad (St Petersburg), in 1998 she graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy. The same year joined the Mikhailovsky Theatre.

Marat Shemiunov is principal danseur with Mikhailovsky Theatre, St Patersburg. He was born in Leningrad (St Petersburg) in 1983, he graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet (class of professor Yury Tsvetkov) in 2001 and the same year joined the Mikhailovsky Theatre in 2001.

Dmitry Pimonov, choreographer, was born in Volgograd (previously named Stalingrad). In 1989 he graduated from the Studio School of the Leningrad State Music Hall and joined the company as a ballet soloist the same year. Remaining a guest soloist at the Music Hall in St Petersburg, from 2000 he danced at the Lahti City Theatre (Finland) in Vladislav Uspensky’s musical drama Anna Karenina, in addition to collaborating with the Neoclassical Dance Company of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain, 2002), the Academia de Bailado Fernanda Canossa (Porto, Portugal, 2003) and the Madeira Casino and TV Ballet Company. Has danced at the ERI dance theatre (Turku, Finland, 2007-2011).

In 2010 he graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet having specialised as a choreographer (class of Professor Edvald Smirnov, Honoured Artist of Russia). His degree work was Musical and Choreographic Suite with Reader after Motifs from Hoffmann’s “Nußknacker und Mausekönig” (co-production with the Vaganova Academy and the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra at Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan). Since 2011 he was choreography coach for the musical The Fearless Vampire Killers at the St Petersburg Musical Comedy Theatre.

For the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet he has staged the choreographic miniatures The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, The Post-Industrial Faun, Passions: Judith and Holofernes, Les Biches (specially for the Diaghilev P.S. festival, this miniature was awarded a special diploma at the Mikhailovsky Theatre Grand Prix competition, 2009) and Aria (awarded a special diploma at the Mikhailovsky Theatre Grand Prix competition, 2010). For the ERI dancer theatre he has staged Hereafter – Dedication to Glenn Gould and the miniatures Nausicaa and Le Roi danse. Specially for the TV project Bolero he created the work Je suis malade for the Mikhailovsky Theatre prima ballerina Irina Perren and Peter Tchernyshev, the American figure skating champion. In the project Day and Night for Mikhailovsky Theatre principal dancer Marat Shemiunov, together with video designer Maxim Svishchov he created the performance Nerve. Collaborates with Mariinsky Theatre principal dancer Igor Kolb, for whom he has staged the miniatures Malachi and Solo.

Photos by Jack Devant Ballet Photography © with kind permission of the Dance Open, Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, special thanks to Ekaterina Galanova, Karina Matvejeva and Adelia Mukhamedzhanova.