Russian Nutcracker dances into Meridian

By Staff
CLASSIC BALLET Female dancers stage a scene from the "Great Russian Nutcracker," which will be performed Dec. 19 at the Temple Theatre in Meridian.
By Penny Randall / staff writer
Dec. 7, 2003
The Moscow Ballet, featuring a company of 50 Russian performers, will dance into Meridian this month and bring the "Great Russian Nutcracker" to the stage of the Temple Theatre.
The classical ballet company, which will stage one performance only at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 19, brings the grand tradition of a century of Russian ballet to audiences throughout the world.
Its all-Russian cast of 50 dancers features graduates of the Moscow Choreographic Institute and the Vaganova Institute. Moscow Ballet's performers range in age from 19 to 30 and begin their training at the age of 8 to 12.
The company's repertoire includes such classics as "Swan Lake," "Romeo and Juliet," "Don Quixote," "Valpurgisnacht," "Fountain of Bachsisheri" and "The Nutcracker."
More than a dozen of Moscow Ballet's cast members have won dance competitions in Varna, Bulgaria; Moscow; Paris; and Osaka.
Also touring with the Moscow Ballet is ballet designer Valentin Fedorev, a graduate of the Stanislavski Institute and the resident designer of the Chibarksari Opera House.
Known as "the Russian Bear" to his colleagues, Fedorev is a prodigy of Valery Leventhal of the Bolshoi Ballet, known for his diverse and often wonderfully comical sets.
The Moscow Ballet is currently in its "summer series" tour of the United States. The company hopes to enrich local children with the tapestry of Russia's ethnic, historical and cultural diversity.
Unlike many American adaptations, the Moscow Ballet version ends not in the Land of the Sweets, but in the Land of Peace and Harmony a message that is as timely as it is timeless.