RUDOLF KHARATIAN IS GOING TO STAGE “KHACHKAR” BALLET DEDICATED TO
NAREKATSI

YEREVAN, August 2 (Noyan Tapan). Rudolf Kharatian, the Artistic
Director of the “Arka” Washington ballet group, is going to stage the
“Khachkar” ballet dedicated to Grigor Narekatsi, the great Armenian
poet and thinker of the middle ages. The music for the ballet was
written by composer Ruben Altunian. The ballet-master who is on tour
in Armenia mentioned at the August 2 press conference that his goal is
to represent the image of Narekatsi, the depth and the human character
of his philosophy to the world by means of a ballet staging. “The
first goal of my arrival in Yerevan is to represent the modern
American ballet in Armenia,” R.Kharatian mentioned. According to him,
he has worked in Armenia for many years, profoundly studied the
peculiarities of the Armenian and Russian ballet schools. In his
estimation, the Armenian ballet school has deep peculiarities, but
today it’s senseless to stage ballet performances only on the national
ground, one should be able to synthesize the modern peculiarities with
the national ones, as the spectator needs the new. We can’t stage
“Gayane” and “Spartak” for many years running. R.Kharatian mentioned
that he has always wanted to enrich the Armenian ballet with new dance
elements, but he has always met obstacles. Receiving an invitation to
work from one of the giants of the Russian ballet school, Vinogradov,
many years ago, Kharatian left for Washington where he etablished the
“Arka” ballet group in 1999. 4 out of 16 members of the ballet group
are Armenians. According to Kharatian, like the other ballet groups of
America his ballet has no state financing, either, so it’s able to
organize only 2-3 concerts a year. Besides, the group gives several
performances in the Central Park of New York, in schools and so
on. All the members of the “Arka” ballet group also work in other
ballet groups. During the 2-day tour the group will represent the
classical, American and modern ballet to the Armenian spectator. And
especially for this tour the group has prepared the “Khachkar” dance
of Komitas and fragments from the “Gayane” and “Spartak” ballets of
Khachatrian. “Arka” is a prize-winner of a number of international
festivals, and 3 years running the group got the grand prix at the
annual ballet competition held in Washington.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress