Kevade (Spring) presented in form of ballet in Vanemuine Theatre by a multinational team of dancers.

I asked one of the foreign dancers whether she knew what the Kevade was about. She answered it seemed as if it was the Bible for Estonians.

She was quite right considering the statistics that over 76% of the Estonian population states no specific religious affiliation. Therefore it is most likely that Kevade, among couple other special Estonian books, is more frequently found on the book shelves of Estonian homes than the Bible.

In 2002 movie adaptation of the novel by Oskar Luts, Kevade, was chosen to be the best movie through the whole history of Estonian movies (source: Tallinnfilm).

With this much popularity and respect for the movie it is obvious that Estonians get rather defensive if someone attempts to tamper with Kevade and turn it into multinational experiment.

Despite all the bias and unmet expectations the audience was filled with laughter and I heard only positive feedback after the performance. Looks like the risk paid off and Ruslan and Vanemuine have given people a new enjoyable and successful production.

Steven asked me whether I liked his costume. I had to restrain myself to give a modest answer – ‘Oh Yeah!!!’

The initial idea had been to have them representing Spring in slightly different costume – totally naked. As exciting as it sounds for me, the ballet audience is not usually that open minded, so the skimpy costumes of Spring are a good compromise.

Choreographer: Ruslan Stepanov,
Stage Designer: Liisi Eelmaa,
Costume Designer: Mare Tommingas,
Lighting Designer: Aili Eras,
Official web page: Kevade in Theatre Vanemuine.