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A renowned Armenian ballet master is facing an uphill battle in upgrading the local repertoire – a task that has already presented more difficulties for him than originally thought.

Rudolph Kharatian, head of a Washington ballet company, Arka, was invited to Armenia by Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosyan, following 18 months of negotiations, to take the post of ballet master in chief at the Alexander Spendiaryan National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater.

It is already two months that the 62-year-old Washington Ballet faculty member has been in Armenia. But he says technical difficulties so far have stopped him from getting started in earnest.

“At one point I simply understood that I was developing world ballet and giving classes to all leading ballet companies, but when I came to stage “Tango” and “Vardanank” here [in Armenia] a year and a half ago, I understood that our ballet was stalling and it was time I returned,” says Kharatian.

After spending 20 years of his life in Washington, feeling the pulse of the world’s ballet, Kharatian wanted to bring the modern tendencies also into Armenia, which currently works mainly on the basis of the Russian ballet school. But this turned out to be more difficult than expected.

“I had planned to stage about ten ballets within one year, including classical and neo-classical styles, and also ballets of more contemporary stage directors as well as my own production, however coming here I understood that dreaming is one thing and reality is another,” says the ballet master.

Not all in the ballet company are in equally good shape, technical conditions are absent, such as pointe shoes for girls, studios for trainings are not in good condition, there is no TV set or DVD player through which dancers could learn about performances.

“Instead of thinking about creative progress I keep dealing with some stupid but important technical issues that deaden a person’s mind,” says Kharatian.

Like the former ballet master in chief, Hovhannes Divanyan, Kharatian faces the dilemma of trying to get the best from dancers who can only give half a day to their art – as they work other jobs to supplement salaries of from $100-230.

Some tension can also be felt among dancers as they seem uncertain about their future.

“We want new staged ballets, a new repertoire, we have grown tired of dancing the same things – Gayane, Giselle, Don Quixote. It is good that at least Spartacus was also staged,” says Jacqueline Sarkhoshyan, one of the principal dancers.

However, former dancer Elvira Mnatsakanyan thinks that it will be very difficult, since Spartacus was brought into life due to the fact that besides the Culture Ministry there were six large sponsors.

Principle Spartacus dancer Ruben Muradyan thinks that the ballet was staged also due to Kharatian, because it was due to his staging that three years ago at an international contest in Sochi world-famed choreographer and ballet director Yuri Grigorovich noticed him [Muradyan] and the other Armenian guys and decided to come to Armenia to stage “Spartacus”.

“It will be very good if Kharatian stages performances like “Tango”, since it is short and pleasant both for dancers and the audiences,” says Muradyan.

Armenian dancers also want the classical repertoire to be enlarged – also to include “Swan Lake”, “Romeo and Juliet” and others. But only one such ballet could be produced next year. The Ministry of Culture has allocated 21.5 million drams (about $56,500) to produce “The Nut-Cracker”.