Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ballet & Dance
Ballet in Russia evolved as an offshoot of French dance combined with Russian folk and
peasant dance techniques. As a part of his efforts towards Westernisation, Peter the Great in-
vited artists from France to perform this new form of dance. In 1738 French dance master
Jean Baptiste Lande established a school of dance in St Petersburg's Winter Palace, the pre-
cursor to the famed Vaganova School of Choreography. The Bolshoi Opera & Ballet Com-
pany was founded a few years later in 1776.
The father of Russian ballet is considered to be the French dancer and choreographer
Marius Petipa (1819-1910), who acted as principal dancer and premier ballet master of the
Imperial Theatre. All told he produced more than 60 full ballets, including the classics
Sleeping Beauty
and
Swan Lake
.
At the turn of the 20th century, Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes took Europe by storm.
The stage decor was unlike anything seen before. Painted by artists such as Alexander
Benois, Mikhail Larianov, Natalia Goncharova and Leon Bakst, it suspended disbelief and
shattered the audience's sense of illusion.
After six years and a US$1-billion-plus renovation, the main stage of the Bolshoi Theatre
reopened to much acclaim in the autumn of 2011.
Bolshoi Ballet
During Soviet rule ballet enjoyed a privileged status, which allowed companies such as the
Bolshoi to maintain a level of lavish production and high performance standards. In the
1960s, Yury Grigorovich emerged as a bright, new choreographer, with
Spartacus, Ivan the
Terrible
and other successes.
Grigorovich directed the company for over 30 years, but not without controversy. In the
late 1980s he came to loggerheads with some of his leading dancers. Many stars resigned,
accusing him of being 'brutal' and 'Stalinist'. With encouragement from President Yeltsin,
Grigorovich finally resigned in 1995, prompting his loyal dancers to stage the Bolshoi's
first-ever strike.
In the next decade, the Bolshoi would go through three different artistic directors, all of
them promising, but none able to pry Grigorovich's grasp from the company. Finally, in
2004, rising star Alexey Ratmansky was appointed artistic director. Born in 1968 in
Ukraine, Ratmansky was young but accomplished. Most notably,
The Bright Stream
-
which received a National Dance Award in 2003 - earned him the promotion.
