14.05.2013

Twenty sixth Rudolf Nureyev international classic ballet festival opens in Kazan

(Kazan, May 14, Tatar-inform, Lucia Kamalova). The 26th international classic ballet festival named after Rudolf Nureyev that this year marks 75 years since the outstanding dancer’s birthday on Tuesday opened at the Tatar Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kazan.

The oldest ballet pageant was opened by the choreographer Vladimir Vasiliev and ballet critic Sergei Korobkov. Before the festival began, they answered questions from journalists. Participants in the news conference held at the theatre’s parlour, were Jalil Theatre director, Raufal Mukhametzyanov, ballet company head, Vladimir Yakovlev, and Bolshoi Theatre principal, Evgenia Obraztsova.

R. Mukhametzyanov noted the festival had for 21 years been named after the great dancer, Rudolf Nureyev. The “flying Tatar” once agreed to the festival being named after him. The Nureyev and Shaliapin festivals, for dozens of years held by the Tatar Opera and Ballet Theatre, are the oldest ones in Russia.

The “gems of the world ballet”, including Don Quixote, Giselle, La Bayadere, Le Corsaire and Swan Lake were included in the Nureyev festival programme, R. Mukhametzyanov said. The Soviet-era 20th century ballet would be represented by Anyuta, choreographed by V. Vasiliev, and Shurale by L. Jacobson and the festival will conclude with two gala concerts, he added.

In the two weeks, 9 shows and galas will be presented within the festival. Tickets were traditionally sold out in a few hours.

Famous ballet dancer and choreographer, Vladimir Vasiliev, thanked the Tatar Opera and Ballet Theatre for the name of the great dancer having been immortalised while he had been alive. “His influence in the world is incomparable with that of any other person. Nureyev’ s influence on the world of classic ballet is unspeakably great,” he noted.

This year’s edition of the festival was the biggest in terms of contents and number of guest performers, V. Yakovlev said. Over 100 artistes from 14 Russian and world theatres will take part in the festival.

Famous ballerina, Evgenia Obraztsova, said it was the fifth time she participated in the Nureyev festival and she considered it one of the best in Russia.

“The Kazan audience is quite pampered, so they need to be surprised and every time be shown something new and better that you can do,” she shared. “I was told that dancing Shurale in Kazan is like dancing Giselle in Paris. So I practised really hard for it,” she said.

A display of unique photos of Rudolf Nureyev in various years of his life is presented in the theatre’s foyer. Theatre representatives said regretfully that no monument to the famous dancer had yet been built in Kazan, remarking that the man was one of the most famous Tatars known to the world.