Recorded at the Congress Hall in Moscow as part of the 1980 Olympic Cultural Program. The Moiseyev Dance Company is the Soviet Union's most traveled troupe. They have broken box office records in more than 50 countries. Their extensive repertoire includes dances from all the Soviet regions as well as Poland, Mexico, Japan and many other countries around the world.
Igor Moiseyev was already a distinguished choreographer, ballet master, and leading dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet when he set his sights to establishing a state ensemble of folk-dancing. In 1937, he started with a 30 member Company. "The purpose of my company," he wrote at the time, "is to create classical national dances; to raise the skill of performance of folk dances to the highest artistic level, and to improve ancient dances in such a way as to influence the creation of new national dances." Today, with their own orchestra, they have grown to over 200 members.
The Moiseyev Dance Company made their U.S. debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on April 14, 1958 under the impresario Sol Hurok. The recent 1986 tour played to sold-out audiences.
THE MOISEYEV DANCE SCHOOL
Their own school accepted student at 13 years of into a rigorous 5 year course, where these novices attend classes 4 hours per day after their regular school day. They are trained not only in classical ballet, but also in acrobatics, folk dances, and musical instruments.
"My dancers," says Moiseyev, "should not only master technique, but they should have unusual stamina, the daring of an acrobat, the skill of a juggler, the speed of a fencer and the know how to act as well."
SELECTIONS
1)Suite of Russian Folk Dances (Tartars, Kalmouks)
2)The Moldavian Suite
a) Hora
b) Chiokyrlie (The Lark)
c) Zhok
3)Old City Quadrille
4)The Soccer Match
5)Tajik's Dance of Happiness
6)Azerbaijan Shepard Dance Suite
7)Ukranian "Gopak" Dance
