In pre-revolutionary Russia, ballet was very popular. Despite the fact that after the revolution, many dancers of the imperial theater left the country and began to perform on the stages of foreign theaters, in Russia there were many artists who were able to revive ballet art in the country and establish Soviet ballet. And in this they were helped by the first People's Commissar for Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, who made a lot of efforts to preserve and develop this type of art in a dilapidated state. In the 30s of the 20th century, the first stars of Soviet ballet began to appear. Many of them received the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR and the USSR:
- Ekaterina Geltzer;
- Agrippina Vaganova;
- Galina Ulanovna;
- Olga Lepeshinskaya;
- Marina Semenova ;
- Vasily Tikhomirov;
- Mikhail Gabovich;
- Alexey Ermolaev;
- Rostislav Zakharov;
- Asaf Messerer;
- Konstantin Sergeyev and others
40s - 50s
During these years, the Imperial Theater of St. Petersburg was renamed the Ballet. Kirov (now the Mariinsky Theater), and the artistic director of this theater was the honored ballerina Agrippina Vaganova - a student of Petipa and Chekketi. She was forced to transform the plot lines, subordinating them to Soviet ideological principles. So, for example, the ending of the ballet “Swan Lake” from tragic was changed to elevated. And the Imperial Ballet School began to be called the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute. Here the future stars of Soviet ballet were trained. After the death of an outstanding ballerina in 1957, this educational institution was renamed the Academy of Russian Ballet named after Agrippina Vaganova. So it is called to this day. The most popular ballet theaters of the country were the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and the Theater. Kirova (Mariinsky Theater) in Leningrad. The repertoire of theaters included works by both foreign and Russian and Soviet composers. The works of Prokofiev were especially popular: the ballets Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet, etc. The ballet did not cease to function during the years of World War II. However, he reached his heyday in the middle of the century. Hungry for cultural events during the war, Soviet people flooded the theater, and each new performance was sold out. Figures of the ballet were very popular. In these years, new stars of Soviet ballet appeared: Tatyana Zimina, Maya Plisetskaya, Yuri Grigorovich, Maris Liepa, Makhmud Esambaev, Raisa Struchkova, Boris Bregvadze, Vera Dubrovina, Inna Zubkovskaya, Askold Makarov, Tamara Seyfert, Nadezhda Nadezhdina, Vera Orlova, Vera Orlova, and etc.
60s - 70s
Subsequent years, Soviet ballet became the hallmark of the USSR. The troupes of the Bolshoi and Kirov theaters have been touring all over the world with success, they even traveled behind the iron curtain. Some stars of the Soviet ballet, finding themselves “behind the hill” and weighing all the pros and cons, decided to stay there and asked for political asylum. They were considered traitors at home, and in the media they wrote about the famous “defectors”. Alexander Godunov, Natalya Markova, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Valery Panov, Rudolf Nuriev - all of them were very successful and were in demand on the ballet stages of the most prestigious theaters in the world. However, the greatest popularity in the world was won by the Soviet ballet dancer Veliky Rudolf Nuriev. He became a legend in the history of world culture. Since 1961, he did not return from a Paris tour and became prime minister at Covent Garden, and since the 1980s he has become the director of the Grand Opera in Paris.
Conclusion
Today, Russian ballet does not lose its popularity, and young artists brought up by Soviet choreographers are in demand around the world. Russian figures of ballet art in the 21st century are free in their actions. They can freely conclude contracts and perform on the stages of foreign theaters and with their brilliant performances prove to everyone and everything that Russian ballet is the best in the whole world.