Russian culture: Ballet

Ballet is not for everyone. You can love it or get bored of it. It’s haute couture in the art of dance.

Russian ballet is a huge part of the world culture. It’s originated in 1738, in St. Petersburg by Jean-Baptiste Lande. He founded the first Russian ballet school, named “Her Majesty’s dance school”. Lande choose twelve girls and boys from palace servants and start to teach them. After daily exhausting workouts little dancers performed on the stage. Empress and high society were amazed by the show.
Many years are gone and now this school (currently named Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet) is one of the best oldest ballet academy in the world.
Arabesque, ballon, fouetté jeté, grand plié, pas de chat… words sound like french music, so complicated, but so appealing…

Maya Plisetskaya is known as the legend Russian ballerina with the most long-term career in ballet. Her dad was repressed during the Stalinist purges in 1938, mom was arrested and sent to a labor camp in Kazakhstan, so Maya stayed with her aunt, ballerina Sulamith Messerer.

Maya start dancing in Bolshoi theatre and in 1960 became a prime ballerina. The most known roles: Odette-Odille in Swan Lake, Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Raymonda, Mistress of Copper Mountain in the Stone Flower, Mehmene Banu in Legend of Love and Carmen in Carmen Suite. She could do ballon like no one else, has great plastic and charisma. Just check her Carmen suita video.

It’s really magic, isn’t it? She dance very emotional and people watched the show could not take eyes of her.

She is 85 years old now, happily married to Rodion Shchedrin, Russian composer. Maya doesn’t have children, because she wanted to dance all her life and she thought children can bother career.

Where to see Russian ballet:
Go and see the best Russian classical ballet which performing on stage of the Russian Academic Youth Theatre (RAMT)  in Moscow until August 28! The Summer Ballet Seasons in Moscow are an integral part of the summertime cultural life. Repertoire is here.
Tikets cost from 400 rub to 2000 rub. To book tickets send request to one of these e-mails: event@consarta.ru or zakaz@ballet-letom.ru. Also you can book by phone: +7 495 692 00 69.

Regular performances shows in Bolshoi theatre, season starts in September, 2011. See schedule of performances in the website.

What to do else:
Everyone who admire grace and plastic of ballet dancers can try to go to choreography classes for children and adults. Classic choreography or body-ballet is quite popular trend in dance schools. Body Ballet – is adapted exercise complex based on techniques of classical choreography. Workout includes aerobic dance and stretching exercises. Body ballet can help to strengthen your body, improve muscles, balance and easiness of movement. You will feel an amazing difference in how your body feels.
In Moscow there are many dance schools and studios with professional dance instructors. Price per one lesson starts from 200 rub. Eight lessons – 2500 -4000 rub.
Dance schools with classical choreography lessons in Moscow:
Vesta dance Tretyakovskaya metro station, Bolshoi Ordynsky pereulok, 4. phone: +7 (495) 543-86-94, 2600 rub/ 8 lessons. Vary time of classes, vary quantity of students per one lesson. May come 3 person, next time – 10. Small, but cozy studio located in Zamoskvorechie old Moscow district. Close to Nikolay bar and buffet.

Ballet reverance Arbatskaya metro station, Novy Arbat st., 2 / 2 (pass the arch and turn right, 2nd floor) phone: +7 499 390 2102  3800 rub/ 8 lessons. During August girls from the Reverance Studio will show their pas, adagio and battement in Sokolniki Park, Trubetskoy place and Ekaterinensky garden. You can not just look, you are welcome to join and learn some exercises for free. The next master class will be held 21.08.2011 at 14:00 in The Trubetskoy place, Frunzenskaya metro station at summer concert stage of Young Talents.

Ballet dlia vsekh  opened in 2001 by Sergey Radchenko, who played with Maya Plisetskaya in Carmen Suite. He was the first art director of the school. Good school for children – only 3-6 person per class.  4650 rub/ 8 lessons (3-6 persons) Tsvetnoy bulvar metro station, Trubnaya st, 29, c. 2. and other address: Taganskaya metro station, Goncharnaya emrankment, 3. phone: +7 (495) 972-50-05.

World Class Profsoyuznaya metro station. Profsouznaya street, 31, build. 5. phone: +7 (495) 510-64-53. To join classes you need to have membership cards in World Class fitness club.

Bar and buffet Nikolay

Nikolay is the small cozy bar buffet with 18 types of pies in the menu and shelves with rum from all over the world. I met the owner Kirill and asked him a few questions.

Why pie is the main course in Nikolay?
I worked as a bartender for many years and dreamed of opening my own bar. My mom baked delicious pies and wanted to open a buffet. So we combined our ideas and opened this bar-buffet. By the way, bar-buffet is a very rare type of restaurants in Moscow.

I’ve noticed a lot of different rums on the shelf…
Rum is my favorite drink. I like pure dark rum… The point is that people in Moscow think that rum always should be mixed with coke. And we’re trying to suggest people to understand the different variations of the rum.

What can you recommend to a Frenchman?
It’s very individual. Traditional Russian cabbage pie is very popular and loved by many guests. We cook using old recipes, but also create our own recipes of pies. For example, we cook a pie with tomato, eggplant, sweet pepper and cheese.

I see a lot of portraits of famous Nikolay’s actors, artists, writers here. Which Nikolay did you name your bar-buffet after?
It was Nikolay Andreevich Peregoudov the outstanding cello player and my grandfather. I’ve created the design of bar-buffet by myself: It is all natural and simple: wooden tables and chairs, tubs with real grass are located on window sills, green walls with illustrations. We tried to create a quiet and relaxing atmosphere. Many young people, local elders and businessmen like to visit our place.

Do you organize any events?
Actually, no. But there are a lot of guests with children on weekends, so usually it becomes a little bit noisy. We deliver pies to the office or home. It’s desirable that customers make orders the day before. It takes 4 hours to make a pie because it is done by hand. In this case, you get exactly the pie you want and always on time. Of course you can make an order right away, but you’d have to choose from current set of pies keeping in mind the traffic.

Reason to visit: A perfect place to feel the quiet, relaxed atmosphere and to try traditional Russian pie. Prices in the menu are pretty low, 60 -100 rubles per pie. Meat pie – 100 rubles per piece, Spinach & cheese 125 gr – 80 rub, Cream cheese pie 125 gr — 60 rub, 90 rubles Americano coffee, Milkshake with Cookies 300 ml — 120 rub.

Bartenders speak English, Accept credit cards. Smoking area is well ventilated and separated from the non-smokers.
How to visit:
From Novokuznetskaya metro station go to Pyatnitskaya, 53. It takes 15 min.
Find the sign “Николай” with the illustration of a pie. Go upstairs. Open the door and you will see the bar counter with many pies. Chose one, two, three…

I’ve never been in Moscow and i have 1-2 days for sightseeing

Points of interest:

Red Sq., Kremlin, GUM, Historical museum, Saint Basil’s Cathedral (Okhotny Ryad metro station), MGU, Sparrow Hills, The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, The Red October Chocolate Factory area, Strelka institute

Tip: In GUM Trading house, there are well-known boutiques like Luis Vuitton, Bosco, Adidas, in front of Kremlin at 3 floor located Canteen №57 , we recommended it for a lunch, there you’ll find traditional Russian cuisine, cheap prices, English-speakers waitress.

Don’t spend much time to look around, take some outstanding photos in front of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, go to Kremlin inside. Enter to Kremlin is located from other side of Red Sq.: approximately 5 minutes walking from «Man on the horse» statue of Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov (He was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers’ occupation and conquer Germany’s capital, Berlin). By the way it’s a great point to find each other if you lost! Go through «Aleksandrovsky Sad» garden, pass McDonalds, you’ll see red-brick building and many tourists buying tickets. Armory Palace and the Diamond Fund (closed on Thursdays). Go inside the Kremlin walls, get on top of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower to see the Cathedral Square as it was 400 years ago.

Skip the Mavsoley, (it’s working in a special days, from 10.00 to 13.00, I bet you won’t get there). By the way, I live in Moscow for a long 7 years, and I’ve never been at Lenin’s place yet.

After visiting Kremlin, if you’re not tired, go by metro to Vorobievy Gory and Moscow State University («Universitet» metro station).

The area around the main building of the oldest and largest Russian institute at Sparrow Hills, one of the Stalin’s Seven Sisters skyscrapers, is a weirdly huge yet imperceptibly attractive place. What I like of that place there a lot of students, they are young, most of them polite and know English. Ask somebody «Smotrovaya ploshadka (means «Viewpoint»)…well, it is difficult pronunciation. Go out of station (use exit «к МГУ» the last car from center), Cross the street by pedestrian crossing and go straight. Pass the circus on the right. Here is a map for you.

This is a great panoramic view to Moscow city. I know one more good point – balcony at Yandex (Russian most popular searcher as Google) business building, but it’s a little private, folks.
After all, don’t go back to «Universitet» metro station. There is more interesting way – to Vorobiyevy Gory metro station. Find the way down to the Moscow river, the station is located on the brigde across river.

And of cause, it’s a wonderful place for rollerblading, biking, walking with dogs, just have fun with friends.

For the evening we suggest you to make a tour to Arbat st. (m. Smolenskaya). This is a most popular street for tourist. A lot of stores, coffee shops like Starbucks, Koffein, cafes, Hard Rock café is located there. Go straight all Arbat st. after go right to boulevard and do down to The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and «Kropotkinskaya» metro station. The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour – It is the tallest Orthodox church in the world. It was build in 1997 instead of it, in Soviet Union’s period there was a big pool. You could go inside, but you should wear a scarf and suit if you are girl and pants if you are boy, no shorts. Or you can go directly to bridge behind the church, there a great view to Kremlin, Pyotr the Great statue.

Across the bridge, there are located Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture and Design, also the bar «Strelka», and others galleries, bars, restaurants. I like «Dome» cinema lounge, «Art academia». One of Moscow’s most beloved manufacturers – the Red October Chocolate Factory, moved to a site further out of the centre a few years ago and as the old building’s conversion into a luxury residential complex slowed down, the artists moved in. The founder of the factory is Teodore Ferdinand von Einem, a German, who in 1850 arrived in Moscow with hopes of starting his own business…

At first, he started producing sawed sugar, then he organized a small workshop for production of chocolate and sweets on the Arbat. Einem’s partner became Julius Heuss, also a German, who was an outstanding businessman. Together they opened a sweet shop in Teatralnaya Square. Having accumulated sufficient capital the businessmen ordered a new steam machine from Europe and started constructing a factory on the bank of the Moskva River. In the directory “Factories and Plants of the Russian Empire” this fact was recorded as follows: “Einem. Partnership of steam factory for chocolate and tea cookies. Year of foundation is 1867.” After the October Revolution the factory was nationalized. In 1918 it was renamed “State Confectionery Factory #1, Former Einem”, and in 1922 it was renamed the Red October Chocolate Factory.

The current residents include the Pobeda Gallery which focuses on modern photography and the Lumiere brothers photgraphy centre that regularly stages great retrospectives of international and local photographers from the modern age all the way back in to the early 20th Century.

Cheap “Russian style” restaurants

Kroshka-Kartoshka – These green kiosks sell stuffed (butter, sour cream or bacon) microwave-baked potatoes, as well as toasted sandwiches and a few drinks. Hot and filling, but rather expensive for what is basically just a hunk of root vegetable.

Teremok – These brown-colored kiosks sell large blinchiki, or Russian crepes that come with a variety of fillings.

Yolky Palky – This chain restaurant offers Russian style food. You can take all-you-can-eat plate for 300RUB.

Grabli– A chain that opened in July 2006 aims to compete with Moo-Moo. While new, it offers better quality than Moo Moo. It’s hard to predict how long it quality standards will live.

§ prosp. Mira, 99 (M. Alexeevskaya), 9-23

§ Pyatnitskaya 27 (M. Tretyakovskaya / Novokuznetskaya), 10-23

§ Evropeyskiy mall (M. Kievskaya), 10-23

Kruzhka (webpage in English) – This is a chain of “beer restaurants” which serves cheap food and, as its name suggests, mugs of beer. It can be found in 20 locations around Moscow. The menu is relatively simple, consisting mainly of types of kebab and shawarma, with fries. Sport events are on often shown on televisions or big screen.

Russian Celebrities at the desk!

Moo-Moo – This chain restaurant offers adequate quality canteen food, with English menus, for around $10 per person.