Moscow City Ballet is on tour around the UK, with a dazzling duo of full scale ballet classics, Giselle and Swan Lake.
The epic story of Odette and Prince Siegfried, who are tricked by the evil sorcerer and his daughter Odile, Swan Lake is performed in all its original splendour by some of the world’s finest dancers, and Tchaikovsky’s unforgettable score faithfully rendered by Russian musicians.
The romantic ballet Giselle, danced to music by Adolphe Adam, tells the tale of a carefree village girl who goes mad and dies, when her peasant lover Albercht is unmasked as a nobleman betrothed to another. When Albercht visits her grave, he finds the spirits of other maidens who died before their wedding day (the Wilis) dancing among the graves in the moonlight. Any man who sees the Wilis dancing is doomed to dance until he dies from exhaustion, but Giselle’s spirit and everlasting love for Albercht saves him from death.
Both works will be accompanied by Moscow City Ballet Orchestra, complementing the dancers’ sublime artistry with live music and a strong narrative, in the grand tradition of the Russian “big story” ballet. The audience can not only marvel at the perfection of its corps de ballet but witness the superb dexterity, grace and vitality of the principal dancers from this young and talented cast.
Founded in 1988 by Victor Smirnov-Golovanov, who sadly died in 2013 after a long battle with cancer, Moscow City Ballet remains in the safe hands of his devoted wife LudmilaNeroubashchenko, who has been leading the ballet company for the last few years, will now officially take on the position of Artistic Director and will continue to preserve Victor’s unique choreography and productions as well as the commitment to promoting ballet in the Russian Classical tradition all over the world.
For more information and tour dates click here
Twenty Interesting Facts & Figures
1. A male dancer lifts over 1-1/2 tons worth of ballerinas during performances.
2. Most ballerinas wear out 2-3 pairs of pointe shoes per week.
3. One tutu costs up to £1,500 to make.
4. Every tutu uses 10-12 metres of fabric and there are between 10 and 12 layers of net in the skirt.
5. Each tutu takes over 40 hours to make and they are all made by hand.
6. A three hour ballet performance is roughly equalivant to two 90 minutes football games back to back or running 18 miles
7. The Moscow City Ballet dancers used 3546 pairs of pointe shoes in 2012.
8. The dancers use up to 105 pairs of false eyelashes a year.
9. The Company tours with 3 washing machines to wash the costumes that can be washed such as skirts, tights and pants.
10. 50-60 pairs of men’s tights are used in every performance, which are washed every night.
11. On average a ballet dancer’s day starts at 10.30am with ballet classes and they can be in the theatre as late as 11pm.
12. One dancer make take up to 3 and 4 roles in each ballet, that means changing costumes, hair, make-up and shoes each time. That’s approximately 24 transformations per performance week.
13. Every time a dancer jumps on pointe 3 times her body weight is carried on the top of her big toe
14. A ballerina dancers an average of 2032 hours in a year
15. 3.5 miles of ribbon is used by the company
16. The Sugar Plum Fairy pirouettes 62 times per performance
17. Moscow City Ballet has given almost 2,000 performances in the UK since its first tour in 1991.
18. Moscow City Ballet tours with over 40 dancers
19. It takes a 45 foot truck, 2 coaches and a minibus to tour MCB throughout the UK including staging, crew and dancers.
20. Ballet was first performed in Italy in the early 1600’s.
