International Ballet Festival in the Kremlin

The anniversary celebration continues in the Russian capital, X International Ballet Festival in the Kremlin. It will run until September 28th. Traditionally, the dance festival takes place in the Great Hall of the Kremlin Palace.

Since 2002, one of the most significant dance festivals in the world has been taking place on the stage of the Kremlin Palace. This year the project is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

The triumph of Terpsichore is a truly significant event in the cultural life of Moscow, which all fans of the art of choreography are looking forward to. Usually the leading dancers of the leading theaters and ballet companies of the world come to the festival: Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, the Bavarian State Ballet, La Scala and many others. Among them, by the way, there are our compatriots. Thus, the audience is always very warmly received by the prima ballerina of the Berlin State Ballet, Polina Semionova, who, in particular, performed the main roles in the ballet Swan Lake at the Kremlin festival. The sanctions have made minor adjustments to the festival program, but in general, this is just the case when, as they say, there would be no happiness. Holidays cannot be spoiled by sanctions, and culture cannot be destroyed by bans! According to A. B. Petrov, the idea to present wonderful performers from the regions on the capital’s stage has been in the air for a long time, and now it has finally been realized.

Solemnly and gracefully, the participants of the ballet festival speak the language of dance about love and hate, the complexities of the human path, kindness and betrayal, and most importantly, about justice, which invariably prevails in the finale. Ballet helps us to feel the beauty and originality of everyday things.

It should be clarified that classical ballet performances at the Kremlin Ballet Theater are performed in original editions created by such famous choreographers as People’s Artist of Russia Andrei Petrov – artistic director and chief choreographer of the Kremlin Ballet Theater, People’s Artist of the USSR Vladimir Vasiliev, People’s Artist of Russia Andris Liepa. Accordingly, artists from other countries specially learned the parts to perform at the festival, and this has always been a very interesting creative experiment.

As for the repertoire, as Andrei Borisovich Petrov explained, the time-tested and beloved by the audience classics were specially chosen for the festival: The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake by P. Tchaikovsky, as well as La Bayadère by L. Minkus. Thus, the general public could enjoy the most beautiful classical productions in the original edition and brilliant performance, while sophisticated spectators and professionals could appreciate the new inputs. These are the best performances of the “Kremlin Ballet”, each is a sample of classical art, the highest grossing performances, the most visited.

We don’t have time to look back – the New Year holidays will come. Is it possible to imagine the New Year without magic, without a fairy tale? The fairy-tale ballet in two acts was written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto based on the fairy tale by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was created by Marius Petipa, the new edition belongs to the artistic director of the Kremlin Ballet Andrei Petrov, who staged the ballet as a choreographer in 1993.

The idea of ​​the choreographer, according to him, went back to Hoffmann’s fairy tale as the fantastic basis of Tchaikovsky’s music – philosophical and infinitely human. Using the choreographic language of classical dance combined with the grotesque, Andrei Petrov managed to recreate the fantastic and gracefully mocking world of the German writer, composer and artist Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. “The Nutcracker” by Andrey Petrov is not only fairy-tale battles between mice and dolls that come to life under the Christmas tree. This is a humanistic story about the hopes of a maturing soul, about a premonition of first love, about a desperate readiness to defend one’s happiness by fighting the forces of evil and defeating them.

It is no coincidence that there were a lot of children at the festival screening of everyone’s favorite performance. When a child sees the ballet, this event will remain in his memory for life. The child should be brought only to a good performance. Parents should know that it is not allowed to show low-grade performances of any genre to children, and when a young viewer sees a good performance with a real symphony orchestra, amazing scenery and costumes, the world’s best dancers – this is a culture shock, this is a holiday, this is joy.

The magnificent dancers convinced the audience that they were able to show not only good technique, but also bring their acting vision to the parts of the main characters. Their talent, multiplied by passion, rage, beauty, created a real holiday. And of course, the amazing corps de ballet young talents both danced excellently and played very expressively!

For the first time this year the festival takes place in a new format. If earlier invited artists were introduced to repertoire performances, this year they will present separate independent performances at the gala concert. The culmination of the 10th Ballet Festival in the Kremlin will be a gala concert featuring leading soloists from major theaters from Vladivostok to Minsk.

Elena Minashkina.

Photo by Mikhail Kovalev