How an Austrian ballerina became a prima of the Mikhailovsky Theater

From childhood in Austria, the future star of the international stage was surrounded by Russians. At the school attached to the Vienna Opera, her teacher was Galina Skuratova and, at the Bavarian Opera, it was Yana Serebryakova. So, the future star was shaped within the Russian ballet tradition. In 2016, Igor Zelensky, artistic director of the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, invited Prisca Zeisel to perform leading roles.

Since September 2023, she’s been a prima ballerina of the St. Petersburg Mikhailovsky Theater.

– Prisca, you’ve been living in St. Petersburg for three years now. Have you managed to go on tour to other Russian cities?

– Yes, I’ve been to Moscow and Novosibirsk; it’s always interesting to travel and see different places. But, we don’t have that much time on tour to explore the cities.

– I’d like to understand what has changed for you in your profession, aside from your daily life and geography.

– Now, thanks to working with Russian teachers and taking part in stage productions on Russian stages, my dancing style and manner has changed. In the Russian ballet tradition, more attention is paid to the fluidity and plasticity of movement, facial expressions and emotional expressiveness. It’s simply a different kind of work – when, while performing a role, you live through it with your whole soul. It’s hard for me to explain how this happens, but it’s not hard to do it in dance. I feel that I am not merely performing prescribed choreography or certain technical steps. A certain truth comes from within; I want to open my soul and share my emotions with people: look! The language of ballet is dance. And everywhere in the world it’s important to dance in such a way as to carry the beauty that exists in the art of ballet into the surrounding world.

– Your repertoire now includes ‘Swan Lake’, ‘The Nutcracker’, ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ – all of Tchaikovsky’s ballets. Do you interpret these classical images in your own way, adding your own touch to the standard versions?

– Yes, I think any role needs a personal touch. I take the stage in a particular performance as the ballerina Prisca Zeisel, but I don’t want to portray Prisca herself on stage; I strive to show my heroine. But still, the one who dances is me! And, at the same time, every day I learn and feel something new – and I step on stage already carrying today’s baggage: my thoughts, my mood, my emotions. And I consider this very important. For example, today, I’m dancing ‘Odile’ differently than yesterday: a different nuance has appeared in the character, because, during the past day, I experienced something, something resonated in me… You change – and the heroine changes together with you. And it’s also important to understand that this is a live performance! It depends not only on me, but also on my partner – on how he feels about his Siegfried this evening. Maybe, right now, he’s not as psychologically dramatic as he was the last time? In that case, a different emotional exchange is required and I need to respond differently to that change… And this makes the performance interesting every time. Of course, there’s a plot, specific details in the heroine’s character and one must tell the audience a story that cannot be changed — whether it’s ‘The Nutcracker’, ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ or ‘Swan Lake’.

– Even before you moved to Russia, you danced in Tchaikovsky’s ballets. How do you feel about his music now?

– Tchaikovsky’s music is so brilliant that it’s impossible not to feel it, not to let it pass through yourself and sink in. For me, it’s something very personal. Especially the ‘White Adagio’ in ‘Swan Lake’. It’s hard for me to say whether my perception of Tchaikovsky’s works has changed now. But, you know, now this music sounds different to me.

– In order to create the image of the main heroine in ‘Swan Lake’, Anna Pavlova, Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya all observed how swans move and studied their grace… Did you have any trouble finding this image?

– Yes. I think it’s precisely with ‘Swan Lake’ that every ballerina always has doubts. It’s an eternal search. First, this ballet is known all over the world. Second, for a ballerina it's a very serious professional step. Today, many ballerinas perform the roles of ‘Odette’ and ‘Odile’ well. And everyone knows that you simply cannot dance ‘Swan Lake’ poorly – it’s unforgivable! And we, as ballet dancers, expect a great deal of ourselves and are always very strict with ourselves. Especially with this ballet. It’s a huge responsibility for any performer, because it’s a masterpiece of classical ballet. I don’t think there are ballerinas who are satisfied with themselves after a performance, even if they danced everything correctly. For example, I rarely think: “Oh, that went well today!” It’s such a complex ballet that you can work on it your whole life and still not be satisfied. I’m sure you could ask all my colleagues; I think they’d say the same… Ulanova and Plisetskaya observed swans and we do that, too. But, we also now have a great advantage and a real pleasure: we can watch these great ballerinas in recordings – see how they danced this ballet…

– During a performance on stage, do you feel a connection with the audience and the energy in the theater hall?

– Yes! It’s very important! You can certainly feel that exchange, but it varies from time to time. One night, the audience takes the show in calmly: they like it, everything’s fine. Other times, you feel that the audience is on edge throughout the entire performance and only bursts into applause at the very end. And these are completely different reactions compared to, say, audiences in Germany. . Things are taken more calmly there. Yes, audiences there can also “root” for the performers, but after the performance they leave right away without lingering.

When I first arrived in Russia, I was very surprised one day: my partner and I were told that after a variation, we were supposed to take a bow and leave. We finished dancing and my partner was already about to go backstage, so there wouldn’t be a pause, but the audience would not let us go; the bows went on for a very long time! In the West, I had never had anything like that before and I did not always even feel drawn to communicate with the audience. But here, this happens to me very often…!

– So, do you see a difference in the approach to culture in the West and in Russia?

– Yes, of course. Life is different there. For example, each theater there stages far fewer productions. And a performance can be put into the repertoire for only two months. Theaters’ repertoires do include ballets, but it’s not as deeply rooted a culture as is it here in Russia.

A full version of this interview (in Russian) can be found on the ‘Russkiy Mir’ portal.