ALEKSANDRS LEMBERGS IN THE BALLET PRODUCTIONS BY THE CHOREOGRAPHERS HELĒNA TANGIJEVA-BIRZNIECE AND JEVGEŅIJS ČANGA

Abstract

Aleksandrs Lembergs (1921–1985) was a premier danseur in a highly important period of Latvian ballet history. He started to dance in Latvian National Opera in 1939, and within a few years he became the principal soloist in the Latvian ballet. He was a premier danseur from 1949 until 1965 in the period when two prominent ballet masters Helēna Tangijeva-Birzniece (1907–1965) and Jevgeņijs Čanga (1920– 1999) created productions in Latvian State Opera and Ballet Theatre. Tangijeva-Birzniece was a pupil of Agrippina Vaganova and she represented the pure and virtuoso St. Petersburg ballet school. She was one of the most fruitful choreographers in the Latvian ballet, as well as an outstanding re-stager of classical ballets. Čanga was the graduate of the Department of Choreography of the Moscow State Theatre Institute, and he was a notable representative of dramballet, a direction in Soviet ballet. The two ballet masters worked in different styles and created a variety of performances. They quarrelled much in professional terms, and altogether the period between 1945 and 1965 was very fruitful and rich in ballet performances. This was also the bright era of several generations of prominent Latvian ballet dancers.