February 17, 1672*. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, sitting on the platform, watching with curiosity a young man who went on stage in Orpheus costume.
He, looking around the hall and withstand a short pause, began the entry to production. He sang bits in German, the translation of which was whispered to the king translator; After that, having taken apart, he plunged the hall into the atmosphere of an unprecedented beauty of the ballet dance.
Thus began the history of ballet art in Russia.
Under Peter the Great, the ballet was included in the number of mandatory elements of court etiquette. Everyone who wanted to be considered a worthy and educated nobleman, now they were simply obliged to study the art of this dance. A curious fact: the Russian ballet originated in the imperial army, or rather, in the First Cadet Corps in 1731. Since the graduates of the corps in the future were supposed to become the highest ranks in society and should have known the rules of secular circumvention, they needed to study elegant arts – a special place was given here the ballet.
In the future, the art of ballet continued its rapid growth. In 1738, Frenchman Jean Batist Lande opened the first choreography school in Russia; training for adults and children in it was free. Already in 1742, the first graduates of the school gave the first performance. Since then, the number of ballet schools has increased significantly: even the landowners created troupe from serfs. At the beginning of the XIX century, the ballet overshadowed all other directions of theatrical activity. Emperor Nicholas I was a passionate fan of ballet and, according to eyewitnesses, did not miss almost a single performance in his entire life.
Many fans of ballet art in Russia probably heard names such as Anton Dolin, Alisia Markova and Lidia Sokolova. However, all these people were born in England, and their real names are Patrick Hili -Kay, Alice Marx and Hilda Mannings: by the 20th century, the authority of Russian ballet in the world grew so much that many foreign dancers began to perform under Russian pseudonymers.
Today, our country boasts a significant number of famous dancers of this genre, which were applauded by fans around the world. Any school of ballet for children in Moscow will force any skeptic to stop doubting that ballet in Russia has a great future.
* According to the famous Russian archaeologist and. E. Zabelina. Yakov Reitenfels, a traveler and diplomat of the 17th century, classifies him as February 8, 1675.
