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When you think about the words “dance” and “Russia”, chances are your mind draws up two images: The Nutcracker or the Moiseyev Dance Company. If it is the latter, then today is a day of mourning. Igor Moiseyev, the Bolshoi-trained dancer who turned humble Russian folk dances into an art form, died yesterday in Moscow at age 101.
Media reports say that Moiseyev had been in failing health for some time. His last public appearance was last year in Moscow for his 100th birthday.
According to an obituary in Russia Today, Moiseyev was born in Ukraine to a Russian lawyer and a French hat maker and was educated in both Russia and France. He joined the renowned ballet company housed at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater in 1924. But by 1937 he was out on his own, creating dance shows based on the then Soviet Union’s many ethnic cultures. According to the Associated Press, Moiseyev found such favor with Joseph Stalin that his dance troupe was the first that the Soviets allowed to travel abroad. And travel Moiseyev did, taking his dancers to more than 60 countries around the globe.
I got to see a Moiseyev performance when I was in my early teens. I don’t remember the venue; it might have been Lincoln Center. But I do remember what seemed to be an endless whirl of red costumes, the classic high leaps and of course those angular squat kicks. I remember trying to duplicate some of the moves at home–I’d done ballet for most of my childhood–and being unbelievably stiff and sore afterwards. If the Moiseyev’s acrobatics were in any way responsible for making its founder a centenarian, then they should be packaged as an exercise regimen.
Moiseyev’s troupe continues to tour: The University of Arizona has them booked for next February already. And there are many past performances recorded to video and DVD, which makes it easy to share this gem of Russian culture with the children you have adopted from Russia.
But perhaps the greatest legacy for Igor Moiseyev is that he now has so many imitators. The Georgian State Dance Company has been touring in the Chicago area recently, and you might have noticed that this month’s cultural calendar also includes performances by two folk dance groups. Maybe we could get a little tribute on Dancing With The Stars.
Image, credit: Igor Moiseyev in “Salambo”, Wikimedia Commons
