Beryozka Folklore Dance Ensemble: A Cultural Trademark of Russia

For the hundredth time, the world-renowned Beryozka (Little Birch) Folklore Dance Ensemble created a sensation in China, earning storms of applause in packed houses in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Shenzhen. As always, their tour passed in triumph!

In the early 1950s, the Beryozka ensemble gave its first in China. The ensemble was one of the first foreign groups to visit Beijing after the formation of the People’s Republic of China. Since then, lovers of Russian dance all over China have attended Beryozka’s performances with steadfast devotion. This year, the performers are dancing two jubilee programs, one to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the ensemble, and the other to mark the 100^th anniversary of the birth of the ensemble’s founder, Nadezhda Nadezhdina. Her choreography of the “Maiden’s Round Dance” is the still the “calling-card” of the company. It casts a spell over the audience with its floating pace, poetic beauty, and gracefulness.

The group’s current leader, Mira Koltsova, said, “Our compositions have long since become classics in the female lyric dance repertoire. Our ensemble has preserved the theme of the traditional Russian love story. It is very nice to see that it is now going through a renaissance. There are so many beautiful teens, adults, and kids attending our concerts and they all say they experience a great catharsis through our performance”.

For years, the Beryozka troupe was regarded as a trademark of the Russian culture; its artistry has won audiences in 80 countries. Its repertoire is rich and unique, consisting of round dances, comic dances, quadrilles, and sketches of Russian life. Preserving our age-old national culture, the group allows its audiences to better understand the Russian soul, since “it personifies the stories of our people in their highly-professional dance performances”. A critic for the French newspaper Le Figaro once wrote, “It is better to see one concert by Beryozka than it is to read more than 200 books about Russia”.

4 February 2009

Larissa Roshchina

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=100760&cid=24&p=04.02.2009 (in Russian)

Russians did not Limit the New Year’s Holidays to Parties and Christmas Trees

Over the New Year holidays, Russians not only saw traditional presentations and New Year’s trees, but, they also participated in tournaments of fairytale heroes in Yekaterinburg, exhibited collections of family keepsakes in Kaliningrad, played a little “Old Russian Village Football” in Novgorod, and kids saw The Nutcracker in Cheliabinsk, and 1,200 kids came to the Archbishop’s Yolka in Kostroma.

Yekaterinburg: An Orchestra of “Wizards” and “Beasts” Gave a Concert

To mark the New Year, the Sverdlovsk State Philharmonic Orchestra prepared for children a magical adventure-play Poezd na Chunga-Changu (The Train to Chung-Chang), which was staged from 4 to 6 January, a spokesman of the Philharmonic told RIA-Novosti. Children and their parents waited for “wizards” to play live music, and enjoyed a presentation of dances, games, and quizzes, and for the most fearless and curious, a tournament fairytale characters, the spokesman said. At the time of the show, the hall of the Philharmonic Society became a fairyland forest with a New Year’s Tree, and serious musicians dressed as merry “beasts”, and the sombre black grand pianos were draped to match the multicoloured costumes of the players. The Philharmonic prepared a surprise competition with the Wizard of the Snows, games with funny animals, traditional round-dances with beautiful forest-maidens, and a sea of “beautiful and very familiar music”.

Kaliningrad: A Nostalgic Exhibition

With the help of local residents, the Fridlanskie Gates Museum of Kaliningrad assembled a collection of family Christmas and New Year keepsakes, which will be on display until the middle of January, a spokesman of the city press-service told RIA-Novosti. The organisers of the exhibition Traditions of Celebrating New Year and Christmas assembled Christmas toys and decorations made before 1970, as well as postcards and family photos of those years from Kaliningraders. Amongst the items lent by local residents were handmade toys. According to the museum spokesman, the main task of the organisers of the exhibition was to create an atmosphere of holiday magic, wonder, and expectations of fairy tales and miracles.

When this exhibition was first held last year, it attracted an unusual interest amongst the inhabitants of the city, so, it was decided to make it a traditional event. The basis of this year’s exhibition was last year’s collection, when Kaliningraders exhibited approximately 300 toys, to name just one category. Some of the items were immediately donated to the museum, whilst other owners asked for a guarantee of safety and a return of the items after the end of the exhibition. Amongst the objects on display, some were real rarities, Königsberg dishes with Christmas themes, greeting cards from the early 20^th century, New Year’s toys made of pressed cotton from the 1930s to 50s, toys fashioned from ordinary light bulbs, “rain” devised from the copper wire, and much more.

Novgorod: “Old Russian Village Football”

The Folklore Festival Holy Days in Vitoslavlitsakh was held on 8 January at the Novgorod Museum of Wooden Folk Architecture, a representative of the Novgorod oblast administration told RIA-Novosti. The festival invited top-ten-best folk groups from the Novgorod region, as well as guests from other cities in Russia. According to tradition, Holy Days in Vitoslavlitsakh opens with the ringing of bells at noon, after which, those who are attended the festival take part in old amusements, games, and rituals revived by Russian folklore enthusiasts. In the streets of “Vitoslavlits”, people carol under the Christmas star, singing old traditional kolyadki. In addition, there shall be a match of Shchelyge (which scholars describe as “Old Russian Village Football”), skipping rope village-style, stilt races, and snow and ice games. All those who participate in the fun and games, both Novgorodians and tourists, shall receive poteshki, tokens that can be exchanged for prizes in a special “prize shop”.

For those who want to determine their future, the festival shall present a variety of divination methods in the old-style izbas and barns. The festival attendees, as in the old days, could choose to use straw, haystacks, fences, or laptyakh (bast sandals), or look under the dish, or use the hen or beans to guess their fate. Besides, old spinning wheels and looms shall be set up in the izbas, and all who will shall be able to try to use these for spinning and weaving. Visitors shall be able to take part in traditional single combats, and “warriors” from the local Novgorod military history re-enactment clubs shall give demonstrations.

Novgorodians and tourists alike will be able to ride the carousel and on horses. On the streets of the Museum of Wooden Folk Architecture, a Petrushka Booth shall be set up, and mummers and singers shall stroll amongst the guests. Master-craftsmen of traditional decorative arts shall present their handcrafted products. Under the supervision of craftsmen, people can try to make their own handcrafted gifts and fashion so-called “covers” from spill in the “doll shop”. The exhibits shall be open for several hours. At the end of the day, the festival shall conclude with “the funeral of Dudarya”, a straw effigy, which, in old Russia, represented the past year.

The Folklore Festival Holy Days in Vitoslavlitsakh has been held in Veliki Novgorod since 1993.

Kostroma and Cheliabinsk: Celebrating Orthodox Christmas

The Orthodox Church did not remain on the sidelines of holiday celebrations, as it presented concerts and brought the kids to the Christmas tree to give them lots of gifts. On 7 January, the Yolka for the pupils of the Orthodox parish Sunday Schools was held at the Glinka Opera and Ballet Theatre in Cheliabinsk, according to the press-service of the city government. 500 kids were invited to the affair, including students at the Cheliabinsk Orthodox gymnazii (a gymnazia is a traditional high school: editor’s note), the children of Orthodox parishioners, and members of youth groups. They saw a performance of the Christmas fairytale The Nutcracker. After the concert, the kids received gifts, including sweets, soft toys, Christmas cakes, and a specially-prepared colourful collection of Christmas Fairytales. This special book has 92 pages and it was published in a press-run of 5,000. It contains tales for children of Orthodox families, well-known writers from Cheliabinsk edited it, and children’s drawings were used as illustrations.

The Archpastoral Yolka was held on 8 January in Kostroma. In addition, the kids and their parents are waiting for a charity concert to be held three days hence, a spokesman of the Diocese of Kostroma told RIA-Novosti. He told us that more than 1,200 kids came to the Yolka, students of Sunday schools, members of the Orthodox Youth Centre Kovcheg (Ark), and children from the diocesan, oblast, and municipal orphanages and boarding schools. Archbishop Aleksandr of Kostroma and Galich gave his Christmas blessing to all of the children who attended. The traditional charity Christmas concert will feature the Archiepiscopal Choir of the Epiphany-St Anastasia Cathedral, the Blagovest Academic Chamber Choir and Chorus, the Kostroma State Orchestra of Folk Instruments, and other ensembles. The concert shall include a presentation of the Christmas Oratorio written by Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev. All proceeds from the charity Christmas concert will go towards the restoration of holy places and construction of churches.

8 January 2009

RIA-Novosti

http://www.rian.ru/society/20090108/158766816.html (in Russian)

The Day Dreams Come True

New Year’s is a time when the most secret of dreams come true and miracles occur. It’s up to the adults to see to it that their kids’ dreams come true. So they did a few days ago, when hundreds of children from all over Russia arrived in Moscow to get presents from Dede Moroz (Grandpa Frost) and see Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre. For more than one hundred years, kids across the globe have been mesmerised by this lovely fairytale. All dream that, one day, Drosselmeyer will walk in, bring the toys on the Christmas tree to life, and present the toy Nutcracker, the brave prince, who fearlessly fights evil.

The children who came to watch The Nutcracker at the Moscow Bolshoi were orphans or they were disabled. For them, it’s particularly important to believe that good will take the upper hand at last and defeat evil. Madina is a school student who underwent a serious operation recently. “It was my long-time dream to visit the Moscow Bolshoi, and, now, this dream has  come true. I want to get well and live a normal life. This fairytale, The Nutcracker, I liked it so much because it took my mind off my problems and I forgot all about my illness for some time. When you know you are going to a concert, you anticipate it, and you get so emotional that you forget about the bad things”.

Volodya Kondratiev, who is seriously ill too, liked the Prince, the Nutcracker, for his audacity and wants to be like the character. “New Year is one of my favourite holidays and I’m happy I came to see the ballet. I liked it so much. The dancers are superb and the costumes and settings are out of this world. Tchaikovsky’s music is divine; it pumps up your spirits”. Volodya’s mother, Natalia, said, “The organisers did a good deed and The Nutcracker has turned into the most ‘delicious’ of remedies. The kids are smiling, and that makes us adults happy. The doctors too, notice that shows of this kind leave the kids in better health. Back in hospital, their condition improves radically, which, the doctors say, is due to psychological, not medical, factors. A child sees something captivating and this elevates his mood and improves his condition”.

Thousands of children who need help will be surrounded by particular care and attention this New Year. Moscow alone will hold hundreds of charity concerts and shows with presents and all cities across Russia will donate what best they have to these children.

25 December 2008

Svetlana Andreyeva

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=37246&cid=62&p=25.12.2008 (in English)

Pierre Cardin: The Newest Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts

Pierre Cardin (1922- ) (left) at his solemn investiture in Moscow  as an Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts with Zurab Tsereteli (1934- ) (right), the President of the Academy

On Thursday, French couturier Pierre Cardin wore a black satin cape with a bright red lining at his solemn investiture when he was made an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts.  Pierre Cardin and Russia are time-tested friends. For the past forty years, M Cardin paid regular visits to Moscow. “I have made over thirty visits to Moscow, and I am always glad to return. As you must know, haute couture is what normally calls me here. But, there is a link between my work in haute couture and the theatre, in my collaboration with the great Russian prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. I have many friends in Russia and I greatly love your people. I am glad to say that you are a musical people and that culture brings us closer together”, M Cardin said at the ceremony.

Back in 1986, Pierre Cardin signed the contract to launch his first Russian venture. In 1991, he stunned an enormous audience with an open-air catwalk show on Red Square in Moscow. Pierre Cardin sees Maya Plisetskaya as his muse. For Maya, he created beautiful costumes and Maya danced in these costumes in Anna Karenina, Chaika (The Seagull), and Dama s Sobachkoi (A Lady with a Dog). M Cardin organised a tour of Moscow’s Lenkom Theatre that was hosted by the Cardin Theatre in Paris. The dazzling and emotionally-brilliant dancing of the Lovzar Chechen folk dance company impressed M Cardin so much that he advised the French producer of Tristan und Isolde to sign up the Lovzar troupe. Zurab Tsereteli, the President of the Russian Academy of Fine Arts, said last Thursday at M Cardin’s solemn investiture, “Although he was a famous couturier, Pierre Cardin never tired of surprising his admirers with his creations right up to the present. He was unbelievably inventive; he learned to perfection the art of playing with abstractions, exaggerations, and new technologies. We are glad to say that Pierre Cardin is now joining the ranks of the best Ambassadors of Russian and foreign culture, a line that stretches back to the formation of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1757″.

28 November 2008

Larisa Roshchina

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=91107&cid=24&p=28.11.2008 (in Russian)

World Ballet Stars on the Moscow Stage

The Russian prima ballerina Uliana Lopatkina presents the cream of world ballet art in the “Grand Ballet Gala 2008″ project in Moscow. For two nights, on 11 and 12 November, Moscow audiences will see ballet stars from companies in Moscow, St Petersburg, London, Paris, Milan, Boston, and New York. Uliana Lopatkina, the world’s “first lady of ballet” and holder of a variety of honorary titles and prizes, is dedicating tonight’s performance to the celebrated French choreographer Roland Petit, who turns 85 in January. A jubilee tour timed for the anniversary is now on in Europe. The two concert programs in Moscow will embrace the entire range of choreographic art from classical to avant-garde and will start with contemporary ballet. Roland Petit is the only foreign choreographer who was awarded with the Russian National Prize for the ballet Pikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades) at the Moscow Bolshoi. M Petit declared, “Russia is my special love”.

Uliana Lopatkina told a news conference before the concert that Russia means a lot to the great master. “When I told him about a jubilee concert in Russia, he agreed with pleasure. He spoke so fondly about his last visit to Moscow”. Uliana Lopatkina herself is performing a one-act ballet, Youth and Death, to music by Johann Sebastian Bach, a number that marked the start of her cooperation with the great choreographer, and a comic dance set to the choreography of Roland Petit to music of the Bee-Gees from Saturday Night Fever. On seeing Ms Lopatkina surprised at the suggestion of using music of the Bee-Gees, Roland Petit said, “You are astonished? You have never presented any of the compositions of the Bee-Gees? I shall do this with pleasure, because I love a joke!” Ms Lopatkina said, “Roland was so pleased with our joint work, that now he insists that this light improvised number, a gag, really, to be on all the jubilee programmes”.

The second night of the “Grand Ballet Gala 2008″ is entitled, The Great Classical Pas de Deux. It will feature ballet starts, Uliana Lopatkina included, dancing the most popular duets, the most authentic masterpieces of classical choreography.

11 November 2008

Natalia Viktorova

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=89078&cid=24&p=11.11.2008 (in Russian)

The Starry Duet of Yekaterina Maksimova and Vladimir Vasilyev: A Ballet Festival in Tribute to Their 50 Years on the Stage

A major tribute to Yekaterina Maksimova and Vladimir Vasilyev, “the most beautiful pair in 20^th century Russian ballet”, is now being held from 24 to 27 October on the stage of the legendary Bolshoi Theatre here in Moscow. The four-day festival dedicated to the 50 years Vasiliyev and Maksimova have each spent on stage and teaching young dancers pays well-deserved tribute to dancers who have become a symbol of impeccable mastery to the whole world. It was not for nothing that the towering figure of Italian cinema, Franco Zefirelli, invited them to add their dancing brilliance to his famous film La Traviata. Their splendid dancing in the “Ball Scene” shone brilliantly and embellished the segment.

Long a husband and wife, Maximova and Vasilyev are no longer active dancers, but, are still in great demand in training a young generation of dancers in the grand traditions of classical Russian ballet. In addition, Vladimir Vasilyev is a choreographer and he described his new work to us. “A choreographer is someone in whom thought, feelings, and means of expression come together to get his ideal across to the audience. Nonsense will never be understood no matter how you present it. It seems to me that that contemporary ballet can be described as such only if it gets to your heart and soul the way it did decades and centuries ago. If this is present, one can say that the presentation is truly contemporary”.

People started to call Yekaterina Maksimova and Vladimir Vasilyev a unique phenomenon at the end of the 1950s when the Bolshoi Ballet was touring Britain, the US, and China. Since then, the two have headlined the Bolshoi’s numerous tours of the world. Their inimitable dancing has been immortalized in many films, including two documentaries about the artists themselves, one of them made by the famous French filmmaker Claude Lelouche. It’s entitled simply Katya and Volodya, the way the great dancers are usually addressed by their near and dear. Meanwhile, in Moscow, Katya and Volodya are being fêted by the principals of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky ballet troupes, who are joined by the leading lights of Paris’s Grand Opéra and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma…

25 October 2008

Olga Bugrova

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=87474&cid=24&p=25.10.2008 (in Russian)

30 August 2008. A Shot of Culture, If You Please…

“Window to Europe” Film Festival Announces Winners

Nikolai Valuev (1973- ), Russian heavyweight boxing champion and actor. The poster reads, “Kolya (Nick), Piter (slang for St Petersburg, it’s like saying Da Big Apple) is Proud of You!”

The last day of the 16th “Window to Europe” film festival in Vyborg is over. The Stone Head, a movie directed by Filipp Yankovsky and starring famous Russian boxer Nikolai Valuev, won the main prize. Critics say Valuev managed to create a very impressive image of a boxer who had lost his memory in a car crash, but, managed to resume his career. A Passenger, a movie by Stanislav Govorukhin, won the audience choice award. The festival was held under the motto, “The Russian cinema art: a forecast for tomorrow”. 

18 August 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=31248&cid=51&p=18.08.2008 (in English)

International Festival of Drumming Opens In Togliatti

Percussionists from Russia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East are in the Russian city of Togliatti on the Middle Volga for three days of concerts and dancing events during the fifth international festival of drumming. There will be exhibitions of drums and a mass dance marathon by close to 8,000 people.

22 August 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=31521&cid=51&p=22.08.2008 (in English) 

St Petersburg Revives the Custom of Holding Free Music Concerts in Rail Terminals

St Petersburg is reviving the old custom of holding free music concerts in the city’s rail terminals. Orchestras directed by renowned conductors will be playing each Sunday in a 19th-century departure lounge at the Vitebsk Rail Terminal. The custom dates back to the mid-19th century when maestro Johann Strauss entertained holiday-makers at a suburban rail station outside St Petersburg. 

24 August 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=31567&cid=51&p=24.08.2008 (in English)

Centenary of Diaghilev’s Ballet Marked

The centenary of the famous Diaghilev’s ballet seasons in Paris will be marked by the Russian Ballet’s Golden Century exhibition, which is due to run from 17 to 23 September. The non-commercial exhibition will open at the famous Galerie Charpentier to become one of the first events in the framework of the celebration of a centenary of Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The exhibition is due to display 150 exhibits, including original actors’ costumes, as well as posters and sketches by Henry Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Aleksandr Benois, and Mikhail Larionov.

28 August 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=31691&cid=87&p=27.08.2008 (in English) 

International Contest of Young Performers Opens In Sochi

The 4th International Contest of Young Performers, “5 Stars: Intervision”, opens today in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. Taking part are 11 singers from the CIS countries, including Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the Ukraine, and also from Latvia. This year, the residents of all these countries will be able to watch the broadcasts. By means of SMS voting the TV viewers will define the prize-winners and the jury will name the best of them. Next year, the “5 Stars: Intervision” music contest will take place in the country whose representative wins the highest number of the TV viewers’ votes. 

28 August 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=31760&cid=51&p=28.08.2008 (in English)

Photo Exhibition Dedicated To 1020th Anniversary of the Baptism of Russia Opens In London

Seraphima (Tatiana Vinnik, 2007). An art-photograph from another Russian photographer, it illustrates the true soul of Russia, a soul that shall never be raped by the neocons.

A photo exhibition dedicated to the 1,020th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia has opened at the All Saints and the Assumption of Mother of God Cathedral in London today. The visitors can see 36 works by the outstanding Russian photographer Vladimir Khodakov. There are landscapes, portraits, and reports, many of which are on display for the first time. The rector of the church, Fr Mikhail, said that through these works the English will have an opportunity to learn more about the sincerity of the Russian psyche, a thing which is rarely covered in the media.

29 August 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=31821&cid=51&p=29.08.2008 (in English)

Mariinsky Theatre Directed By Maestro Valery Gergiev Ended Its Performance in Triumph in Stockholm

Maestro Valery Gergiev (1953- ), Ossetia’s truest son, seen here at a memorial concert in the ruins of Tskhinvali after the end of the Georgian invasion.

The orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg directed by Maestro Valery Gergiev ended its performance in triumph in Stockholm. It performed a concert version of the opera Electra by Richard Strauss as a part of the sixth Baltic Sea Festival. The festival is aimed at not only featuring performances by famous groups in the region, but, also introducing new ones. The Russian orchestra will stage another concert later today. Its programme includes works by Shchedrin, Chaikovsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov.

29 August 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=31852&cid=51&p=30.08.2008 (in English)

An Address from President Medvedev Opened an International Festival in Kazan

President Dmitri Medvedev (1965- )

An address from President Dmitri Medvedev opened an international festival of popular music devoted to inter-ethnic peace in the Russian city of Kazan on the Middle Volga. About a hundred individual singers and groups from all continents will be singing non-stop for ten hours. A duo of singers from Georgia and Ossetia and an ensemble of performers from Israel and the Palestinian Autonomy delivered messages of friendship across conflict lines. 

30 August 2008

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=31859&cid=51&p=30.08.2008 (in English)

Voice of Russia World Service

The Cultural Programme at the Olympics is as important as the Athletics

Vitas (Vitaly Grachkov) (1981- ), Russian pop star who is going to perform at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games

The first group of Russian athletes has flown to Beijing. In their wake, Aeroflot shall also fly in a broadly-based delegation of Russian artists and performers, who shall be in Beijing during the entire Olympiad to support our team in its quest for the gold. “A Little Piece of Russia in China” is what people are already calling the spot in a picturesque suburb of Beijing, set in a block done in an old European style, where the official residence of the Russian National Olympic Committee was arranged. It is also called “The House of the Friends of the Olympiad”. Everyone who comes here during the days of the Olympic competitions shall certainly feel its friendly and cheerful atmosphere. Specifically, to support our athletes, and in order to showcase our rich Russian culture in a fitting and spiritual manner, artists of various sorts are going to Beijing too. Every evening there shall be various kinds of cultural programmes held on the lawn of the residence and in the building as well. “The performances of the artists are an important component of the contemporary Olympic movement”, said Yevgeny Ponasenkov, the director of the Russian cultural programme at the Beijing Olympics, in an interview with VOR.

“One should remember that in the ancient Olympic Games of classical Greece there were not only athletic contests [such as the pankration (a no-holds-barred barroom-style fight where the only winner lived (literally): editor’s note)], there were also competitions of poets, philosophers, and artists that were held in equal regard to the athletics. The man who founded the modern Olympic movement, Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, wished to revive this tradition in all of its fullness. Indeed, through their performances, the artists shall transfer the spark of their skill to the Olympians. When an athlete sees a ballerina take a flying leap over the stage or hears a singer ‘take’ a high note, they shall be inspired to do likewise. Our art… it’s the only drug that we’re going to give our athletes”, Mr Ponasenkov said.

Maria Gulegina (1959- ) (right), performing in Verdi’s Aida

Famous Russian performers shall present programmes together with their Chinese colleagues. We shall see the entire spectrum of Russian ballet from the legendary Maya Plisetskaya to the fresh new talent of Artyom Shpilevsky, and such operatic greats as Olga Borodina, Maria Gulegina, and Oleg Ryabets, perform together with Chinese orchestras. The pop singer Anita Tsoi shall focus her entire presentation on traditional Chinese paper dragons and globes.

Amongst the ranks of the Russian pop stars coming to perform, many are friends of the athletes, and some are even their relatives. For instance, the opening concert of “The House of the Friends of the Olympiad” shall begin with a performance by pop singer Yuliya Nachalova, who is the wife of Yevgeny Aldonin, one of the best-known Russian football players.

2 August 2008

Larissa Roshchina

Galina Avdeyeva

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=78878&cid=24&p=02.08.2008 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

Dancers of the ballet troupe of the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg

In Russia, an Honoured Artist* and an Honoured Trainer of Sport or Honoured Sportsman have equal honour and respect. In fact, there is more respect given to such professions as academicians or soldiers than there is here in the USA. Interestingly enough, lawyers are NOT held in high repute, neither are psychologists. However, it is safe to say that Russia and China are going to give a larger input into the cultural side of the Olympics than the USA is going to. That says a great deal, both about this country and some American performing artists…

By the way, in reply to someone posting on an earlier post of mine on culture and the Olympics, Russians are not “totalitarians”. They are the representatives of a free and vigorous culture, one that is not Western. It would be best if Americans stopped using this term… what it truly means is “someone who refuses to kowtow to Americans in public at high noon”. Grow up…

* In Russian usage, “Artist” means an actor/actress, dancer, or musician. “Artists” in the English usage are called “Painters” or “Sculptors”. Thus, Maya Plisetskaya is an Honoured Artist of Russia, whereas Ilya Glazunov is an Honoured Painter of Russia. 

Russian Ballet’s Japanese Star

Morihiro Ivata, Japanese-born dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow

The Japanese-born ballet star, Morihiro Ivata, is the first full-time foreign dancer in the history of the Bolshoi ballet company. After 18 years in Russia, he sees the country as his home, and, this summer, Moscow audiences saw his début as a choreographer. By the time he joined the Bolshoi company 12 years ago, Morihiro Ivata graduated from the Moscow School of Choreography and the choreography department of the Russian Theatrical Academy, and he danced lead parts with the Russian Ballet Theatre. Born in Yokohama, Morihiro Ivata is now well-rooted in Moscow, where he made his career and has a family, his wife Olga, also a ballet dancer, and two daughters. His compatriots see him as very-Russified, something all his friends in Moscow fully agree with, saying that he has soaked up the Russian mentality.

Indeed, in an exclusive interview with Voice of Russia, Morihiro Ivata reflected, in the first place, on Russia, Russian culture, and Russian ballet. “Classical ballet is one of the most valuable treasures of Russian culture. Russian classical ballet differs from other national ballets by its strong tradition, which was inspired by the masters and is passed from generation to generation. This masterful art makes people happy. Ballet in Russia receives substantial support from the state, and this is a great advantage because classical ballet needs a lot of investment for further development and is doomed to die without financial backing from the government. The Russian authorities are fully aware of that, that’s why Russian ballet art is flourishing and is popular all over the world”. 

Morihiro Ivata has good reason to regard himself as Japanese with Russian cultural roots. His parents learned from Moscow teachers at the Pyotr Chaikovsky Ballet School in Tokyo. His father, mother, and sister went on to set up their own school of ballet, a family business, and young Morihiro learned dancing using Russian methods at an early age. He is now using this method to teach a ballet school at the Japanese Embassy in Moscow. One of his students entered the Moscow Academy of Choreography and the most gifted graduated from the Academy and is dancing with the Moskva Ballet. Who knows, they might choose to follow in their teacher’s footsteps and settle in Russia. 

Morihiro Ivata enjoys huge popularity on Russian Internet blogs, where he is often the hit of the discussions. Morihiro has fans far and wide, from Moscow to Perm in the Urals, where he won the Grand-Prix of the all-Russian (!) Competition of Ballet Dancers 16 years ago and choreographed the ballet Virtual Lady last spring. At a Moscow gala that closed this season, he débuted as a choreographer of ballets in the Japanese tradition. There can be no doubt then that high art does obliterate borders. 

23 July 2008

Olga Bugrova

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=29991&cid=62&p=22.07.2008 (in English)

Opera and ballet stars to support Russian Olympic team

Maya Plisetskaya (1925- ), perhaps, the greatest ballerina of the 20^th century

Russian opera and ballet stars will support Russian sportsmen at the Olympic Games in Beijing next month. A unique show will be organised in the official residence of the Russian Olympic Committee. The world-famous ballet-dancer Maya Plisetskaya, the prima-ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre Mariya Alexandrova, and the famous opera soprano Lyubov Kazarnovskaya have prepared programmes. The demonstration also includes matches featuring such boxers as Kostyu Tszyu and the Klichko brothers are also on the programme.

18 July 2008

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=rus&q=77409&cid=13&p=18.07.2008 (in Russian)

Editor’s Note:

Vladimir (1971- ) and Vitaly Klichko (1976- ), Russian boxing champions

Now, there is something that you do NOT see in America. “Jocks” and “nerds” co-existing in peace. Perhaps, one reason is that, in Russia, they go to separate schools, so, there are no bitter disputes in the high-school years. We could learn from that, could we not? America is a young and immature society, in comparison with other world cultures. We shall be mature when art and athletics are honoured equally… such is not yet the case.