Timoor Afshar, Principal Dancer, Vienna State Ballet (Wiener Staatsballett) and the (long-awaited) "Callirhoe Journal" - Part 2

The Mithridates Journal - Part 2

This is the second sequel to the Interview with Timoor Afshar on February 23rd, 2026. You can find the first part of the Journal scrolling down to March 2nd.

Wednesday 01.10.2025

While I did not do any dancing today, I was observing my colleagues in the role, which is good, by taking a step away from the thought process and seeing from the outside how others have interpreted the same character. We all have different musicality and nuances that can either enhance or debilitate our goal in presenting the person in all their entirety. So by leaning back and observing I have learned a lot today. Now time to try and apply it to my own interpretation and body posture.

Thursday 02.10.2025

Nothing happened today. First stage call, and the work was focused on the 1st act, which I am not a part of.

Friday 03.10.2025

Slow work through of the second Act, which got me familiar with the stage and my surroundings. The correction is that I am too nice and that I should appear more dominant. That has to do with how I hold the body. So it is about working on the walking and transitions from part to part.

Monday 06.10.2025

First Run-through of Second Act with Costume and Hair. The costume really takes up a lot of me and eats me up. My dancing and posture need to become more exaggerated and extreme. The hands as well. Because the costume is mostly black, the hands are the only things that stand out. I will look at videos of the Bolshoi when I get home. I believe I need to go more in the Russian direction of dancing.

Thursday 09.10.2025

Today, run-through in the studio. Implemented the new thoughts of my character to see Mithridates in a new light. It felt much more right. I was playing him too nicely before. Now it feels like I am really antagonistic to the other characters. I am not the “bad” guy, but I am very narcissistic and care only about owning women, riches, and land. I want it all. With three casts being prepared at the same time, it is, on the one hand, hard to feel the continuity of the role, but on the other hand, I have a lot more time to process between runs.

Tuesday 14.10.2025

Run on stage again today, but the character still does not feel quite right. I feel that the character is still too much in the thoughts and in the analysis that it has not got the chance to live. The dramaturge, Guillaume Gallienne, came to help us with the piece and had a different take on it than the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, but that is normal since they are approaching it from two different backgrounds. The only problem is that they are at points, not unified, so it is my job to find the one that best suites me. Gallienne gave a lot of emotional information as to the character and his motives, which had not really been specified before. Mithridates is a very complicated character with a fine line between perversion and possession. So with all these thoughts, I am left to think till the General rehearsal on Saturday. It is just a mental game now.

Saturday 18.10.2025

Today, I came to the theatre with one perspective, and that is “Just let the rubber band fly and be!” There is not much left to do. After 7 weeks of preparation, I am at the point that I need to be. So I did just that. These past four days, I have been working on MY text and establishing the key moments for the character, the ones I wanted the audience to see clearly. All that was left to do was just to show the text clearly in my intention, and the character would flourish. And that is that.

Sunday 19.10.2025

Premiere Day. It has been quite a journey till now. Mithridates is a character very foreign to my own, but it is always an intense and refreshing feeling to be able to play these other twisted mutations on stage, which are frowned upon in real life. When playing these characters, one almost gets to be the taboo. It has been a hell of a journey.

T H E E N D

Dear Mr Afshar, dear Timoor,

In the name of all readers, I would like to say THANK YOU for sharing such precious moments with us. It is not an everyday “thing” to be able to accompany an Artist during the arduous weeks of constructing a character in such a Ballet. Thank you!

Ricardo Leitner

a t t i t u d e

Vienna, November 2025