In 2013, Yury Smekalov created the miniature Ne me quitte pas on the well-known song of Jacques Brel for the competition of ballet dancers where his colleague from the Mariinsky theatre Aleksey Popov took part. The miniature was intended to show an artist in modern plastic. High jumps and desperate falls, tremulous dialogues of hands and gentle sighs of wrists made up the choreographic text of the shrilly monologue. Smekalov highlighted the dramaturgy of the danced story by transferring the vocal part to the girl and bringing her up to the stage where she read the letter. The choreographer showed in the plastic action both present and past memories by dividing the stage space with the light. Unlike many other works created for some occasion, the miniature Ne me quitte pas is still performed, and entered the repertoire of the principal dancer of the Mariinsky theatre Vladimir Shklyarov.