ACH Dance Performance: Anna Karenina

The dance performance “Anna Karenina,” set to music by Alfred Schnittke and based on motifs from Leo Tolstoy’s novel.

Director and choreographer – Anželika Cholina
Set designer – Marijus Jacovskis
Costume designer – Juozas Statkevičius

The roles in the performance are created by 16 performers from Anželika Cholina Dance Theatre, the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, the State Small Theatre of Vilnius, Kaunas State Musical Theatre and other Lithuanian companies, as well as artists from the ACH Youth Company.

“Anna Karenina” is a legendary performance, one of the most remarkable and audience-beloved works by choreographer Anželika Cholina and the ACH theatre she founded. Since its premiere in 2010, “Anna Karenina” has travelled a long and impressive road, earning applause from audiences in Lithuania and abroad. To date, it has been performed 127 times and seen by a record-breaking number of people—nearly 80,000—a figure that best illustrates its success and the audience’s enduring affection.

For audiences, “Anna Karenina” offers the chance, each time, to relive the heroine’s great yet fragile love story, which awakens the feelings of even the most reserved person. Regardless of nationality, age or outlook, the performance’s most devoted fans return again and again to experience this wonder created on stage by A. Cholina. Some have seen it five or six times, because this universal story touches everyone and prompts reflection on what matters to each of us: happiness, freedom, and the meaning and meaninglessness of life.

So we have long-awaited news for all fans of A. Cholina and this legendary performance! At your request, after a break of several years, “Anna Karenina” is returning and will undoubtedly be a special highlight of ACH Theatre’s latest, 27th season!!! After hearing countless requests to bring the performance back to the theatre’s repertoire, we can confirm that audiences will have a unique opportunity to see once again this masterpiece, awarded the Golden Stage Cross for choreography in 2011 and one that has already left an indelible mark on the history of dance theatre throughout Lithuania.

The return is especially significant because the leading role will once again be performed by ACH Theatre’s longtime principal soloist Beata Molytė, who has played Anna Karenina since the very first premiere performance. Audiences will have the opportunity to admire this timeless and always impeccable stage star’s mastery of movement, expressive and emotional dancing, and dramatic performance not only in Vilnius and Kaunas, but also in several other Lithuanian cities.

Other well-known dance soloists also bring memorable characters to life in the performance: Ernestas Barčaitis, Rūta Lataitė, Paulina Čistovaitė and Stefanija Nosovaitė, along with drama actors and audience favourites Mantas Vaitiekūnas, Leonardas Pobedonoscevas and others.

In writing the novel “Anna Karenina,” L. Tolstoy spoke for the first time about a woman’s right to happiness and personal choice, and about how a woman must not become an instrument of a man’s vanity and satisfaction—an idea that was a major challenge to the conservative, patriarchal European society of the time. Therefore