Russian Ballet

By

Anita, Katie, Cayla

            Ballet was first introduced to Russia by Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich,  the second Romanov ruler, at his wedding festivities

            Before the reign of Peter the Great, dance in Russia existed only among the common people, the peasants and lower classes living outside the city.  Nobility did not dance, but enjoyed the amusing services of dancing clowns, who were mostly men.  This difference among the social classes in the development of dance culture occurred naturally as a result of one historical event, the Tartar-Mongolian invasion and the destruction of the Old Russian Kingdom.  This invasion ruined the people’s way of life and interrupted the development of the dance traditions. 

During these terrible times for Russia, the Orthodox Church was greatly strengthened.  The church held dancing to be sinful.  Under the influence of this, the upper classes began to call dancing “satanic” and its performers scandalous. 

Russia remained foreign to Europe until Peter the Great appeared.  The nobility’s outlook altered, in particular the attitudes towards dance as an art.  Ballet was introduced to Russia much later than to Western Europe. 

In 1698, Peter the Great returned to Russia after an extended tour in the West and decided to modernize his country.  He introduced the Western dress and encouraged change in the arts, politics, and economics.  He invited artists from other countries to help elevate the spirit of the arts.  The Russian ballet remained a mystery to the West.  The European dancers returned from their Russian tours with stories of the beautiful theatres and the tremendous salaries paid to guest artists.  This caused many of the great dancers and the teachers to the flood the Russian market:  Ivan Valberkh, Avidotia Ilyinitshna Istomina and Maria Danilova, all danced in Russia.  Like the city of St. Petersburg, foreigners heavily influenced ballet in Russia.  Ivan Valberkh was the first famous Russian ballet master to be trained at the St Petersburg academy.  Literature, operas and plays were the sources of his choreography.   Avidotia Ilyintshna Istomina graduated from the St Petersburg academy in 1815 and within 5 years held the rank of premiere danseuse mime.  Her acting abilities also inspired Pushkin to write the ballet “Prisoner of the Caucasus” in 1836.  Maria Danilova entered the St. Petersburg school at the age of eight.  Her talent soon attracted Charles-Louis Didelot’s attention.  Charles-Louis Didelot was often called the father of the Russian ballet, was invited to St, Petersburg by Paul I., where he created ballets that were different from the traditions of the Baroque style.        

In 1847, Marius Petipa arrived in Russia.  Under his artistic direction, Russia became the leading country of the ballet.  He himself choreographed over sixty pieces, introduced the concept of the full-length ballet, and built up the repertoire of the Russian company.  Petipa contributed many of the classic ballets still considered to be the greatest expressions of the form. 

            Russian dancing has been maintained at the highest level of excellence to the present day.  Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet and the Kirov Ballet are the two foremost Russian companies and are ranked among the finest in the world.