September, 1 9 , 2014. Issue No. 3

September, 1 9 2014 -W e do not prepare anything especially for this project. The cameras will film whatever will be going on in the rooms. I think that most likely we will broadcast not only morning classes, but also rehearsals for our two ballet premieres: "A Legend of Love" by Yuri Grigorovich, which will be revived at the Historic Stage and "The T aming of the Shrew" by Jean-Christophe Maillot. Because Yuri Grigorovich is in Moscow, and Jean-Christophe Maillot should also come, we hope that we will have a chance to show our audiences those two choreographers at work. - I think this project will not be able to destroy the magic; it will rather become a kind of new experience. The most important thing that a spectator can get at the theatre is some special emotional and intellectual experience; nothing can substitute for this experience, which Aristotle called "catharsis". Thanks to the Internet, people can see what happens in the rehearsal rooms or backstage, but they will never have the same kind of feeling as they do when they come to the theatre and watch a "live" production. So I would say theatre has nothing to be concerned about. What is more, this project will provide the audience with a unique chance to see what our everyday routine is like. I guess, today any person, who is older than 10 years old, understands quite well that ballet is not only about the ability to fly across the stage, but also about tremendous effort and hard work that help to achieve such ability. So the project will not dispel any illusions, but will rather make it more interesting. The Bolshoi Theatre hopes that this project will help it attract new spectators. The Bolshoi Theatre costumes will be exhibited in Belfast An exhibition of traditional costumes will take place in the capital of the Northern Ireland as a part of the bilateral Russia-UK year of culture. The Bolshoi Theatre will present some of its stage costumes that have never been exhibited to the general public outside the world-famous theatre. Our fellow countrymen have been working very hard during the whole year in order to bring costumes from the Bolshoi Theatre and the Russian Museum of Ethnography (St. Petersburg) to Belfast; the exhibition will run from October 17 till November 1. T riumph in Acropolis Y uri Grigorovich's Ballet Theatre and the Bolshoi Theatre's soloists performed at the famous Odeon of Herodes Atticus. The ballets "Spartacus" and "Giselle", choreographed by Yuri Grigorivch, were performed at the amphitheatre Herodium, which seats five thousand people and was packed for both performances. Y uri Grigorovich told the "Kultura" reporter: - The Bolshoi Theatre performed in Herodium in 1977; the Greek audience was presented with the ballet "Spartacus". The cast starred Natalia Bessmertnova and Mikhail Lavrovsky, Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir V asiliev, Nina Timofeeva and Maris Liepa, Lyudmila Semenyaka and Alexander Bogatyrev. There were no traditional curtains and coulisses; we could see almost the whole huge and ancient Acropolis complex as we were dancing. The performances started late at night. The people were very interested to see those guest performances; the curtain calls and the ovations continued for a long time, since the audience would not let us go. W e felt it was a triumph. Almost 40 years later together with the new generation of the Bolshoi's artists we brought there the ballet "Spartacus" again and also presented the ballet "Giselle". The casts starred Maria Vinogradova (Phrygia), Ekaterina Shipulina (Aegina), Denis Rodkin (Spartacus), Alexander Volchkov (Crassus), Anna Nikulina (Giselle) and Ruslan Skvortsov (Albrecht). I was happy with the success of the young dancers that have become real Bolshoi Ballet artists. Grigory Moisaidis (specially for the Bolshoi Theatre) This experience was quite stressful at times, though. Suddenly the rain started; they were trying to dry the stage several times, we started dancing to the striking lightning… but in the finale the audience gave the dancers and the orchestra, conducted by Pavel Sorokin, the same ovations as 40 years ago. We knew that there were people in the audience who remembered our previous visit. I am not trying to draw any parallels between the past and the present. The historic tradition was preserved, and this is the main thing. After guest performances in Athens the artists headed to Salonica. Neighbors that are far and near at the same time Japanese readers sometimes have a much better and more profound understanding of Dostoyevsky, than Russian ones

It is hard to imagine that in the middle of the 19 century neither Russians, nor Europeans really knew what Japanese culture was like. This is what Alessandro Baricco, a modern Italian classic, writes in his book "Silk": "Back then Japan was on the other side of the world, indeed. This island, made from islands, existed in total isolation from the rest of the world for 200 years, as it neglected any kind of connections with the continent and did not allow foreigners to come close". /…/ The sophisticated and everyday culture of Japan and Russia, as well as the connection between the two countries, was discussed at a round table. Japan was represented by the Japanese ballet soloist Morihiro Iwata, who used to dance at the Bolshoi Theatre and is now the artistic director of the ballet company in Ulan-Ude theatre, Tidzy Tada, the Director of Tokyo Toy Museum, Takayuki Matsutani, the President of the animation studio Tezuka Production and Okubo Gensai, the kimono designer. Russia was represented by a rather large group as well: there was Sergei Filin, the Bolshoi Ballet artistic director and Katerina Novikova, the Head of the Bolshoi Theatre Press Office, Vladimir Matveev, the State Hermitage Deputy Director on exhibitions and development, Irina Gonyukova, the Minister of Culture of the Sakhalin region, Arsen Gottlieb, the film producer, Lyudmila Saraskina, the literary historian and the writer and Dmitry Glukhovskikh. The outstanding dancer Morihiro Iwata admitted: "Everything I achieved in my career as a ballet dancer was due to the Newsletter

September, 1 9 2014