YEREVAN / SANTIAGO, Chile – Ballet dancer, teacher and choreologist Carlos Pablo Aharonian — the only choreologist in Latin America — was born in 1956 in Montevideo, Uruguay. He started his dance career in the Maralik Armenian dance company (led by Rosita Chakidjian) at age 12, followed by classical dance studies at 18 under Raoul Severo. He was a principal with the National Ballet of Uruguay (Sodre), soloist with Teatro alla Scala in Milan, principal with Carla Fracci Ballet Company, Teatro Communale di Bologna and Ballet Santiago in Chile. As a highly successful ballet dancer and later as a sought-after ballet master, he has left an indelible mark on many ballet companies around the world: Royal Ballet of Flanders, Royal Swedish Ballet, Western Australian Ballet, Korean National Ballet, Czech National Ballet, Staatsballett Berlin, Teatro Argentino de La Plata and Teatro Colon (Argentina), Theatro Municipal de Rio (Brasil). Pablo had the opportunity to work with and danced in choreographies by Marius Petipa, August Bournonville, John Cranko, Nicolas Beriozoff, Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley, Uwe Scholz and others. His repertoire included “Swan Lake,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Carmen,” “Coppelius the Wizard,” “Firebird,” “Cinderella,” “La Sylphide,” etc.
Aharonian was a guest teacher at many prominent places such as Central School of Ballet in London, San Francisco Ballet School, National Ballet Sodre in Uruguay or New Zealand School of Dance.
At the age of 43 Pablo Aharonian completed his studies in choreology (the Benesh Movement Notation) in London. As choreologist, he uses the Benesh Movement Notation to record choreographies especially by the Brazilian prima ballerina and choreographer Marcia Haydée. He joined the team of Ballet de Santiago in Chile with Ivan Nagy as artistic director. Later when Haydée took over as director, Pablo became “her” choreologist, responsible for staging her various choreographies around the globe. He continues to teach classical dance to this day and is the official re-stager of Marcia Haydée Trust, John Cranko Trust and Ivan Nagy Trust.
Dear Pablo, you have worked in various ballet companies on four continents. What differences have you noticed in approaches to ballet in different countries?
That is true, I have worked in many, many companies through many, many years. And not only dancing or staging ballets, but also working with technicians, lighting, etc. The dances are more or less the same all over the world, because the upbringing is more or less the same for everyone. Since early childhood in the ballet schools you are taught the most important things — the discipline and commitment — so almost most dances are very self-disciplined. In my case I always had a very nice experience with dances because I always go to the studios with my work ready, I never improvise and I always work very clearly with the pianist, the orchestra conductor and dancers. And the differences that you can find, are how the companies are organized, for example, how many hours of rehearsals they have, how long their trainings are, how long the lunch break is, how many days they work per week, etc. And, of course, how the director runs the company, but as I said, everything more or less is the same.
You have danced with many ballet luminaires — Rudolf Nureyev, Erik Bruhn, Svetlana Beriosova, Ronald Hynd, Ben Stevenson, Natalia Makarova, Marcia Haydée, Richard Cragun, Tamara Grigorieva, Olga Lepeshinskaya. What have you learned from them?