Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Founded in 1965, the National Dance Company of Siberia has wowed audiences worldwide with their colorful and expressive traditional Folk and virtuosic performances. The remarkable jumps and pirouettes by the men, the graceful smooth gliding movements of the women, the leaping and twirling, and gymnastic feats lead up to a dashing spirit of fire and electrifying tension. Never leave spectators indifferent. 50 dancers. Authentic costumes.
From the foot hills of Sayan Mountains to the icy Kara Sea proudly rolls its waters the mighty and majestic Yenisey River. On its banks live many peoples of Siberia, which have their own culture, literature and art. This vast and beautiful Land has become a source of inspiration for the Krasnoyarsk Dance Company of Siberia, which by choreographic means reveals the spiritual wealth of the Siberians, glorifying their labour feats and telling of the wonderful nature of the land.
The Company was Founded in 1960 and has been a success from the very outset its original manner of performing Siberian dances as well as its dash and vigour never leave spectators indifferent. The treasures of folk art are eternal and inexhaustible but only when touched by the hand of an artist, alert to modem images and rhythms, do these treasures acquire value Mikhail Godenko, who founded the Company and had directed it continuously till 1991, was an experienced and talented director, a choreographer of great artistic taste and creative imagination, always searching for original compositional solutions. The successful efforts of the Company to create modern artistic pictures has found expression in such popular dances as “My Siberia”, “Krasnoyarsk Merry Tunes”, “Cossack’s Dance”, “Down the Street”, “By the Well”, “Men’s Dance”, “Siberian Fun” with their rapid cascade of cheerfulness merriment and humour.
A great love of dancing unites all the performers who are constantly striving towards a higher degree of mastery. The secret of the Company’s success lies not only in the rich imagination of its director and the mastery of its dancers. Its orchestra of national instruments greatly contributes to the Company’s success. M.Godenko created dances in collaboration with the Company’s musical director, composer Vladimir Kornev, Merited Artist of Russia, whose music is distinctive for its folk character and melodiousness. His deep knowledge of folk dances and Siberian folklore help him weave the music into the fabric of the dance in a most original manner, assigning the greatest role to the folk instruments in the orchestra.
One of the most important elements in the scenic dance is the costume. It helps to bring home to the spectators the idea of the choreographer, making the image of each personage more expressive, contributing to a finer perception of each dance. The costumes of the Company are designed by Merited Worker in Art of the Tuva Republic Yelizaveta Akselrod, Merited Workers in Art of Russia Boris Knoblok, Vladimir Mamontov and Paulina Korotkova who combine vivid imagination with fine taste.
Since its foundation, the Company has appeared in all parts of our country. It was warmly welcomed by the fishermen of Kamchatka and the Baltic republics, by the loggers of the North and Trans-Carpathia, by the oil workers of Tyumen, Bashkiria and Azerbaijan, by the miners of Kuzbass and Donetsk, by the farmers of the Ukraine and Siberia, by the Builders of бюл (the Baikal – Amur Railway). The Company has visited more then 60 countries of the world. It has won enthusiastic applause from audiences in Mongolia, the DPRK, Viet Nam, Laos, Algeria, Syria, Tunisia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, France, countries of Latin America, the USA, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Japan, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and others.
During the Company’s tour of Latin America, the newspapers highly acclaimed its performances. In its review, entitled “The Siberian Ballet Conquers America”, a Mexican newspaper wrote: “It is hard to write about the ballet of Siberia. There is such a variety of movements and color. But it must be said that the impression made by the Company can be summed up, without fear or mistake, in a single word – “a fairy tale”. The Spanish newspaper “ABC” wrote: “Fantastic! Sensational! Thrilling! The ten thousand spectators in the Sports Palace gave a standing ovation to the wonderful performance by the Siberian ballet, the most interesting in the USSR”. From the French newspaper “France Soir”: “The performance of the Siberian ballet of Krasnoyarsk was an unexpected revelation for us. Parisians have never seen such dashing spirit, such fire and electrifying tension”.
When the Company toured the USA, the “Washington Post” wrote in its article under the heading “Russian Folk Dance” that the folk dances of the Soviet Union seemed broader and more effective than the dances of any other country, due to their choreography and cultural traditions, that Godenko’s direction proved that he had a keen eye for effect and fine taste for directing folk dances never in the provincial manner, that it was not a folk dance “in the rye”, as it were the master’s hand was everywhere to be felt, and though the original material was naturally of peasant origin, the dancers of the Company were not simple village dancers, but wonderfully trained subtle professionals. The article added that words fail to express the deep impression created by the beautiful figures, swift movements and virtuoso performance including the smooth, gliding dances of the girls, the remarkable jumps and pirouettes of the men dancers.
In one of its articles , a Russian magazine wrote: “The performances of the Krasnoyarsk Dance Company of Siberia are invariably a great success….. Everybody dances in his soul if you will, in his imagination. And this is the most important and wonderful impression one takes away from the concert”.
The Company’s popularity is growing with every year, and with every year grows the number of people in our country and abroad, admiring its bright, vital talent.