As the saying goes, good things take time. Often, the best ideas can take the most time to develop. It is rumored that Leonardo Da Vinci spent nearly 16 years perfecting the Mona Lisa. James Joyce devoted 17 years to writing Finnegans Wake. In 2026, Barcelona’s landmark basilica, La Sagrada Familia, will be completed after 144 years of construction.
For choreographer Boris Eifman, the ballet Crime and Punishment was over three decades in the making. Known for turning literary classics into whirlwind ballets with his St. Petersburg-based company, Eifman admits to having approached Dostoevsky’s masterpiece with a mixture of enthusiasm and hesitation.
“I’ve been approaching a production based on the novel Crime and Punishment for about 30 years,” said Eifman in a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post.
“I started working on it several times and always stopped. Each time, I felt I wasn’t yet ready to create this ballet. Apparently, years, perhaps even decades, had to pass. Only after our theater had gone through a significant journey of professional and artistic evolution did I decide: now or never. And in the end, I staged a production I’m very proud of.”
The Eifman Ballet will return to Israel next week to present Crime and Punishment at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center. This tour will mark the company’s 17th visit to Israel.
Crime and Punishment premiered exactly one year ago in Russia. The production pushed Eifman and his collaborators to delve deeper into the genre of psychological ballet. “Crime and Punishment is an ‘inconvenient’ book to stage, completely "non-balletic,” explained Eifman.
A Dostoevsky masterpiece
“It has not even a hint of theatricality, no outwardly dynamic plot, no love lines in the familiar romantic sense. What is there for a director or choreographer to latch onto? And is it even possible to interpret on stage the endless clash of theories and ideas that Dostoevsky analyzes?”
These questions arose time and again throughout the process. To answer them, Eifman drew on years of experience translating the essence of beloved literature onto the body. As in his previous works, such as Eugene Onegin, The Seagull, A Ballet Story, and Anna Karenina, here Eifman did not attempt to create a literal, narrative ballet but rather an emotional and mental portrayal of the moral dilemmas broached by Dostoevsky.
“Dostoevsky’s work raises questions that feel especially urgent and relevant today; for example, the duality of human nature, the eternal struggle within each of us between light and darkness, good and evil forces that tempt and ensnare people.
“Another major theme in both the novel and our ballet is the inevitability of punishment for violating the highest moral laws. Dostoevsky understood well that rejecting these laws would lead humanity to apocalypse, to bloody chaos. However, his characters, after committing crimes, endure terrible inner torment and strive toward spiritual redemption.
“Today, we see people rejecting all existing moral principles without even thinking about repentance. Sin is no longer followed by atonement. Dostoevsky saw in every person a universal mystery, an unfathomable metaphysical abyss.”
The challenge in mounting the production was not exclusive to Eifman; his dancers were also pushed outside of their comfort zones. “The dancers faced an extremely difficult task: to penetrate deeply into the psychological and emotional worlds of their characters. Not just to convey some recognizable traits or visual details, not to mechanically act out their actions, but to truly understand the characters, their torment, their innermost experiences.
“I believe the soloists rose brilliantly to this serious artistic challenge. Although the production process was quite difficult, at times even agonizing, fortunately, that agony wasn’t in vain. Our repertoire gained a unique 21st-century choreographic production that radically reshapes ideas about what ballet theater is capable of.”
Whereas in previous years, the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center’s season was full of international guests, this year, Eifman Ballet is one of two foreign companies scheduled to perform. For Eifman, the decision to come was easy. “Our theater is nearly 50 years old now,” he said. “Of those, probably 40 have been devoted to presenting the achievements of modern Russian choreographic art to the world.
“That is our creative mission. The troupe has fulfilled it for many years and is genuinely proud to be considered one of the leaders of Russian cultural diplomacy. In Israel, where we’ve been regularly performing since 1996, the theater has a huge number of long-time friends and wonderful, devoted audiences.
“In the end, what, if not ballet, the most beautiful and essential of the arts, can bring people together and give them energy, positive emotions, and a sense of life that is more needed now than ever before?”
The Eifman Ballet will perform “Crime and Punishment” at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center from September 8 through September 13. For more information, visit www.israel-opera.co.il.