Russian ballet
about Russian ballet
Professional ballet was brought to Russia from Italy and France in XVII century, but the origin of the Russian classical ballet in the proper sense of the word is inseparably linked with the name of the choreographer Marius Petipa, who was the ballet-master of the Mariinsky Theater in the second half of XIX century. It was he who produced the famous Tchaikovsky’s ballets "Swan Lake" and "Sleeping Beauty". The Russian ballet got its world fame due to the so called "Russian Seasons" - the name for round the world tours organized by Sergey Djagilev in 1907-1914. The "Russian Seasons" meant a whole world to the theater-goers - a mixture of the innovative ideas in choreography (Fokine, Nijinsky), music (Stravinsky, Prokofyev), stage design and scene-painting (Golovin, Bakst, Roerich, Serov, etc.). More Russian ballet history: in 1909, these Seasons were honored by participation of the brilliant ballerina Anna Pavlova, who later established her own ballet company and visited virtually every country in the world with them. Dhagilev was so famous that the most prominent people of that time were honored to cooperate with him, such as composers Ravel and Poulenc, artists Picasso and Derain, playwright Cocteau and couturier Coco Channel. The Russian ballet in its new incarnation of “Soviet ballet” school was discovered by the world after the death of Stalin, when the Bolshoi Theater of Moscow went on its first tour abroad in 1956 after a very long break. The public was especially impressed by the art of Galina Ulanova, who combined the highest technique with the finest dramatics in her performance. The further fame of the Russian ballet was created by Vladimir Vasilyev, Ekaterina Maksimova, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nuriev. But the most brilliant ballet dancer of the second half of XX century was Maya Plisetskaya. She is considered a symbol of the Russian ballet.
They are so beautiful!
