BACK TO LIFE - Yury Smekalove

Musical director, conductor – Evgeny Khokhlov

Author of electronic musical compositions – Vlad Zhukov

Music editor, orchestration – Ilya Kuznetsov

Set designer – Vyacheslav Okunev

Costume designer – Sergey Illarionov

Video designer – Victoria Zlotnikova

Lighting designer – Irina Vtornikova

Assistant choreographer – Victoria Litvinova

Curator of designers’ collections of the Samara region – Maria Kazak

Project photographer – Yulia Mikheeva

Project videographer – Sergey Kolobov

Vyacheslav Zarenkov is a St. Petersburg philanthropist, member of the St. Petersburg Union of Artists and the St. Petersburg Union of Writers, Honored Builder of the Russian Federation, founder of the “Creating World” project and the charitable foundation of the same name, as well as the Kilize Theater, author of about 200 patented inventions, 6 monographs, 3 textbooks, more than 100 scientific articles and a number of literary and artistic works.

Vyacheslav Zarenkov wrote a short but meaningful story “Back to Life” based on real events that he had to face. The empathy and participation that he showed towards an unknown woman who accidentally met him on his way became a powerful incentive for her to live on and move forward.

The work inspired Yury Smekalov to stage the couture ballet BACK TO LIFE, its premiere took place on December 12, 2020 at the Samara Opera and Ballet Theater named after D.D. Shostakovich.

BACK TO LIFE is the second successful production by Yury Smekalov in collaboration with Vyacheslav Zarenkov at the Samara Opera and Ballet Theater. The first is the parable ballet "Three Masks of the King", the premiere of which was seen by the audience on February 15, 2019.

Both performances were staged by Yury Smekalov with the support of Vyacheslav Zarenkov's "Creating World" foundation. In addition to the theater and concert direction, the foundation also works with fine arts, literature, cinema, music and church construction. The mission of the project is international socio-cultural exchange, revealing the potential of different generations and uniting people who are close to the idea of creativity in the name of peace and harmony.

Before the performance, a show of new collections takes place in the Column Hall, where ballerinas, along with professional models, participate in the fashion show, which is a full-fledged part of the performance. The audience is immersed in the action as soon as they cross the threshold of the theater. The capsule collections for this fashion show are presented by designers from the Samara Region – according to Yury Smekalov’s idea, involving regional fashion in a theatrical production helps popularize the Russian fashion industry. The curator for working with designers is Maria Kazak, a fashion designer, theater artist, member of the Union of Designers of Russia, and art director of the Povolzhskie Seasons.

Yury Smekalov:

“In these difficult times, returning to life does not mean living the old way, as if nothing had happened. The return to life is happening right now on a new turn of the spiral, and it depends on us what this “new” life will be like…”.