Welcome to Russia

Russian ballet

The first ballet company was the Imperial School of Ballet in St. Petersburg in the 1740s. Sergey Diaghilev, (1872-1929), an enormously important figure in the Russian ballet scene, founded the ballet company Ballets Russes in the 1909. Diaghilev entered into every phase of ballet - direction, production, lighting, scenery, and performance. A protégé of Diaghilev, George Balanchine, founded the New York City Ballet in 1948. Today, the Kirov Ballet company (now known as the Mariinsky Ballet Ballet) and the Bolshoi company are two world-renowned Russian ballet companies that tour the world.

Russian folk dances

Russian folk dance is an important part of Russian culture.The roots of Russian folk music date as far back as to the middle of the first millennium AC, when Slavic tribes settled in the European part of the present territory of Russia. Typically, the clothing for the dances was based on specific events, such as holidays, and would vary between these events. Women wore holiday headdresses, embroidered shirts, belts, and ornamented aprons. Men wore shirts, a belt, narrow pants, and high boots. The color red was incorporated in many of the costumes because it is associated with beauty in the Russian tradition.

Russian folk music

Besides ethnic Russians, who make up the majority of the people in the country, there are dozens of distinct cultures within the Russian borders. Even Russian culture varies greatly from region to region. Studying the music of such a huge area has been challenging for Russian ethnomusicologists and music scholars. Their efforts were further complicated by the fact that, during the Soviet era, the government made a concerted effort to discourage or prevent people from performing folk music. In spite of this official repression, many styles of Russian folk music have been able to survive, and in some cases flourish.

Russian classical music

Russian composers have created some of the most beautiful and powerful classical music. Since there are so many of them, and they're a tight-knit bunch, I've put several of them here on one page. In the 19th century, a group called The Five (Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Borodin and Cesar Cui) banded together and made their goal the promotion of purely Russian music.Their compositions were inspired by Russian history and folk stories, and used traditional tunes and harmonies. It's the perfect example of nationalist music, which had a huge rise all over Europe towards the end of the 1800s. Here are some of the big names:

Russian literature

The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old Russian were composed. By the Age of Enlightenment, literature had grown in importance, and from the early 1830s, Russian literature underwent an astounding golden age in poetry. Prose was flourishing as well. The first great Russian novelist was Nikolai Gogol. Then came Ivan Turgenev, who mastered both short stories and novels. Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky soon became internationally renowned.The 19th century is traditionally referred to as the "Golden Era" of Russian literature. Writers of "Golden Age":

Art

Classical painting.The Russian Academy of Arts was created in 1757, aimed to give Russian artists an international role and status. In the early 19th century, when neoclassicism and romantism flourished, famous academic artists focused on mythological and Biblical themes, like Karl Briullov and Alexander Ivanov. Realism came into dominance in the 19th century. The realists captured Russian identity in landscapes of wide rivers, forests, and birch clearings, as well as vigorous genre scenes and robust portraits of their contemporaries. By the turn of the 20th century and on, many Russian artists developed their own unique styles, neither realist nor avante-garde. Russian art auctions during Russian Art Week in London have increased in demand and works have been sold for record breaking prices.

List of Russian artists

Russian animation

The first animator in Russia was Aleksander Shiryayev, who was a principal dancer at the Imperial Russian Ballet. He made a number of pioneering puppet-animated ballet films between 1906 and 1909.The second person in Russia to independently discover animation was Ladislas Starevich. Being a trained biologist, he started to make animation with embalmed insects for educational purposes, but soon realized the possibilities of his medium to become one of the undisputed masters of stop motion later in his life. His first few films were dark comedies on the family lives of cockroaches, and were so revolutionary that they earned Starevich a decoration from the Tsar. Yet, these pioneers did not adapt to the new realities of filmmaking after the Russian Revolution and the real origins of Soviet animation can be said to belong to the much younger generation of artists, trained in the fine arts puppet-animated ballet films.

Cinema

The cinema of Russia began in the Russian Empire, widely developed in the Soviet Union and in the years following its dissolution, the Russian film industry would remain internationally recognized. In the 21st century, Russian cinema has become popular internationally with hits such as Night Watch, the popular Brother. The Moscow International Film Festival began in Moscow in 1935.t in Russia, by Lumière cameraman Camille Cerf, a record of the coronation of Nicholas II at the Kremlin in Moscow. The first permanent cinema was opened in St Petersburg in 1896 at Nevsky Prospect. The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography was founded in 1919 by the film director Vladimir Gardin and is the oldest film school in the world.During World War I, imports dropped drastically, and Russian filmmakers turned out anti-German, nationalistic films. In 1916, 499 films were made in Russia, more than three times the number of just three years earlier.

Architecture

Russian architecture began with the woodcraft buildings of ancient Slavs. Since the Christianization of 'Kievan Rus', for several centuries Russian architecture was influenced by the Byzantine architecture. The main stone buildings were Orthodox churches. The 16th century saw the development of unique tent-like churches in Saint Basil's Cathedral. In the 17th century, the "fiery style" of ornamentation flourished in Moscow and Yaroslavl, gradually paving the way for the Naryshkin baroque of the 1690s.The 18th-century taste for rococo architecture led to the splendid works of Rastrelli. During the reign of Catherine the Great, the city of Saint Petersburg was transformed into an outdoor museum of Neoclassical architecture. The 19th century was dominated by the Byzantine and Russian Revival style. Prevalent styles of the 20th century were the Art Nouveau, Constructivism, and the Stalin Empire style.