A new ballet from the company’s award-winning artistic director and choreographer, Boris Eifman, The Pygmalion Effect is inspired by the Greek mythological tale of Pygmalion – a sculptor who became infatuated with his own life-like carving of a beautiful girl.
In this new work the role of the passionate sculptor is performed by a ballroom dancer, who sculpts a young girl into a brilliant dancer. For the first time, Eifman uses the music of The Waltz King Johann Strauss Jr. to underscore the spiritual and physical transformation of his heroine.
The title of this new ballet is a reference to the physiological phenomenon in which a person’s actions are positively influenced by the expectations of others. Said Eifman, “The Pygmalion Effect is a choreographic interpretation of the myth about an artist and his creation, a new view on how art and life are intricately intertwined but never one and the same.”
