Joseph Markey, American Ballet Theatre: On Turning “Crime and Punishment” into a Ballet
Cassandra Trenary (Raskolnikov) and Joseph Markey (Luzhin) in Crime and Punishment. Photo: Kyle Froman.
Fedor Dostoevsky novel Crime and Punishment is a masterpiece of world literature. Published in 1866, the psychological thriller tells the haunting story of impoverished former student Raskolnikov in six hundred plus pages: Raskolnikov believes that extraordinary people have the right to commit horrible acts in the name of the greater good. He murders an elderly pawnbroker and her half-sister who walks in on the crime. Against his convictions, Raskolnikov finds himself struggling with his conscience. He finds his salvation in Sonya, a young woman with a pure soul who has been forced into prostitution. He confesses his crime and gets sentenced to forced labour. Sonya’s love ultimately teaches Raskolnikov that suffering brings happiness. By the end of the novel, he is able to accept and return Sonya’s love.
Not the plot of your typical ballet? Correct. But choreographer Helen Pickett and co-director James Bonas rose to the challenge. American Ballet Theatre presented the world premiere of Crime and Punishment in New York on 30 October 2024, with upcoming performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ins Washington on 12-16 February 2025. TWoA talked to ABT dancer Joseph Markey, who created the part of Luzhin, an unkind, self-important young man who wants to marry Raskolnikov’s sister. Markey will also have his debut as Raskolnikov in Washington.
Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is a major piece of literature and not an easy read. When ABT started working on this production, did a lot of dancers start reading the book?
I'm not a big reader. It's just something I've never really gotten into. Growing up, I was a big math and science kid. I had not read the book before the production. Right when we started working on it, I ordered it. By now I've read it, but going into the production, I didn't know anything about the book and the characters. I'd heard that it was a murder story, but that was about it.
I'd never heard of Dostoevsky before. It was really a journey into the book when we started the process. I thought: “Wow, this is an intense story to tell. It's a big commitment. I really need to read this book to be active in the choreographic process.” Many members of the company probably knew about the book and had an idea of what the story was about. I don't think too many people had read the book in school. A lot of people were walking around the studios with the book, reading in between rehearsals.
What was your reaction when you found out that you would be creating one of the roles in the ballet?
I was excited. I didn't really know what I was getting into and what the process would be like, but it was pretty clear from the beginning that it was going to be really cool. Helen Pickett and James Bonas really encouraged the dancers to respond and work with them. That made it all that more important to read the book. It was a great work environment where we were all working together to try and create something brilliant. There wasn’t a separation between the people at the front of the room and the people at the back, there was no: “You just do what you're told.”
The production is co-directed by choreographer Helen Pickett and director James Bonas, who comes from the dramatic theatre. Helen Picket has also worked as an actress. How did their approach differ from other choreographers?
A lot of times we do ballets that have already been set. It’s easy for us to come in and rehearse something we know. This was really my first time creating a full-length ballet in the company. One difference I found was that you're trying to create the story, you're working almost as much theatrically as you are on movement. You need to be aware where you are in the storyline, to learn how to create the ballet through the process. The big difference was that we were creating a murder mystery. It's a very dark ballet. A lot of the ballets we do usually have a happy ending. Even if they don't have a happy ending, like Swan Lake, the audience usually has a hero and a villain. In this ballet, we didn't know who is the villain, who is the hero.
Christine Shevchenko and Joseph Markey in Crime and Punishment. Photo: Emma Zordan.
What role did the ballet’s music play in the process of formulating the story and defining the characters?
Helen wouldn't necessarily create to the music in specific timing or musicality, but she would use the music to create a tone. The music creates the tone of the ballet throughout. So just by her putting the music on and starting to craft some choreography, we got the tone of the scene and then built it from there. We then went back and put it to the music.
In terms of the movement, the task was always: how do we tell the story through dance? I think there was a lot of energy spent on creating a movement language that told the story but also conveyed dance. We were trying to get away from the mime we see in classic ballets, showing with a little gesture: “Oh, the queen is coming!” We were really trying to tell the story through the movement by getting a hold of the emotions. Emotions show very well in the body, in different ways than they do verbally. We played with: what is “angry” in the body, what are all these emotions physicalized and then turned into dance steps?
What was a particular challenge creating this ballet?
Helen and James challenged us a lot to make the characters unique to ourselves, obviously bearing in mind the intention of the character. We had the freedom to interpret things in our own way and to make our own decisions throughout the choreography. It's a blessing and a challenge because you're a lot more active, it takes more out of you. Everybody in the room was very focused on creating the material. Even if we created just a small scene, we'd come out of the rehearsal a little drained mentally because of the conscious effort and thought that was going into creating the work.
Do you think this intense process will have an impact on how you will approach other narrative ballets in the future?
It was a unique experience, but it'll definitely change the way I work in the future. This was my first time creating a character. Going through an experience of creation in such an open way was such a joy for me. I would love to keep this, but some processes are different. Some choreographers come into the studio with the material set, and it's more about teaching and crafting than about creating in the moment inside the studio.
I would love to keep the communication. The ability to communicate from the back of the room to the front of the room was really special with Helen and James. They were creating a space where, at times, I didn't feel there was separation between the front and the back of the room.
Tell us a bit about Luzhin, the character you created. What type of person is he and how did you build his character?
He is very egotistical and arrogant. He's very proud and confident of himself. A big part for me was imagining how he would walk: very high on the hips, his chest forward. He doesn't relax. Starting with mannerisms like that, we created vocabulary for the character that we made his “theme step.” Then you can go into different scenes. I was encouraged to play with his character.
What elements of the novel do you think resonate most with audiences today?
First and foremost, it's a murder mystery novel. I grew up watching millions of different crime shows. I think that's something that the American public is very fascinated with. As a murder mystery, Crime and Punishment is different because it's told through the eyes of Raskolnikov, who has just committed a murder. It’s a very intense story with many layers to it. Watching a mystery is entertaining, but people then realize they are actually able to relate to the murderer Raskolnikov because of his empathetic sides. This is very intriguing for the audience, because it makes you see that people can be so many different things. Society always expects us to be one thing, but there's a complete range of emotions in every person. That is portrayed through the story.
It's your fourth season with American Ballet Theatre. What advice would you give to young dancers who are just making this transition between school and their first job in a big company?
Keep working like you did in school. It's very different, school and company. In a company, you are responsible for yourself and all the things that you need to do in your repertoire. When I joined, I was a bit lazy at first. If I had to give my younger self advice: keep the mindset as if you were in school, keep working, because once you stop working a little bit, it's so much harder to get it back.
And: just keep enjoying! Sometimes, people get so serious about ballet and dance. Just enjoy it. It's such a gift. We get to take class every morning with beautiful people, beautiful music, beautiful dance and beautiful energy. Just absorb all those things. Be grateful for where you are and keep enjoying it.