The Bolt (2007)

Composed in 1931 by Dmitry Shostakovich, The Bolt is based on a book by Viktor Smirnov and is being revived for the first time in more than 70 years. Shostakovich composed a caustically humourous ballet, blending popular tunes, serious music, circus music, waltzes, marches, tangos. He had imagined his ballet as a joyful lampoon of proletarian drama. His intention was to highlight the eventful and ambiguous relationship existing between proletarian experience and the representation given of it by the Soviet vanguard. Alexei Ratmansky's choreography develops into a true marvel, opening with a ballet of giant robots and ending in a blood red delirious grand parade.