Igor Moiseyev

For more information on Igor Aleksandrovich Moiseyev, visit Britannica.com.

Moiseyev, Igor (b Kiev, 21 Jan. 1906). Soviet dancer, choreographer, and company director. Founder of the Soviet Union's first professional folk dance troupe. He studied privately with Vera Mosolova in Moscow from 1919 and at the Bolshoi Ballet School (1921-4), where he was a pupil of Alexander Gorsky. He danced with the Bolshoi from 1924 to 1939, although early on in his career he fell foul of the authorities when he helped to organize a protest by young dancers against the stifling of creativity at the Bolshoi Theatre. He choreographed several works for the Bolshoi, including The Footballer (mus. V. Oransky, 1930), Salammbô (mus. A. Arends, 1932), Three Fat Men (mus. Oransky, 1935), and Spartacus (mus. Khatchaturian, 1958). In 1936 he was appointed director of the choreographic section of the Moscow Theatre for Folk Art, out of which emerged the Soviet Union's first folk dance ensemble in 1937. The group, known abroad as the Moiseyev Dance Company, still travels widely and has enjoyed successful seasons in London and New York. The company made its Paris debut in 1955, its London debut in 1957, and its US debut in 1958. Moiseyev has choreographed many folk dance productions for the company, including Pictures from the Past, The Partisans, Tsam, and Regions of the World, always aiming to set traditional folk dances within a professional theatrical context. In 1967 he formed the Classical Ballet Company, a touring outfit which specialized in one-act ballets and divertissements.

Igor A. Moiseyev

Wikinews has related news: Russian choreographer Igor Moiseyev dies at age 101

Igor Alexandrovich Moiseyev (Russian: Игорь Александрович Моисеев) (January 21 [O.S. January 8] 1906 – November 2, 2007) has been widely acclaimed as the greatest 20th-century choreographer of folk dance.

Born in Kiev, Moiseyev graduated from the Bolshoi Theatre ballet school in 1924 and danced in the theatre until 1939. His first choreography in the Bolshoi was Footballer in 1930 and the last was Spartacus in 1954.

Since the early 1930s, he staged acrobatic parades on Red Square and finally came up with the idea of establishing the Theatre of Folk Art. In 1936, Vyacheslav Molotov put him in charge of the new dance company, which has since been known as the Moiseyev Ballet. Among about 200 dances he created for his company, some humorously represented the game of football and guerrilla warfare. After visiting Belarus he choreographed a Belarusian "folk" dance Bulba ("Potato"), which over the years indeed became a Belarusian folk dance. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, Moiseyev's work has been especially admired "for the balance that it maintained between authentic folk dance and theatrical effectiveness".

Moiseyev was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1953, Hero of Socialist Labor in 1976, received the Lenin Prize (1967, for the dance show A Road to the Dance), four USSR State Prizes (1942, 1947, 1952, 1985), Russian Federation State Prize (1996), was awarded numerous orders and medals of the Soviet Union, Spain and many other countries. On the day of his centenary, Moiseyev became the first Russian to receive Order for the Merits before the Fatherland, 1st class — the highest civilian decoration of the Russian Federation. In 2001, he was awarded the UNESCO Mozart Medal, for outstanding contribution to world music culture. He died in Moscow in 2007.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Игорь Александрович Моисеев

• Official site of the Igor Moiseyev Ballet
• Obituary in The Times, 6 November 2007
• (English) The Guardian's tribute to Moiseyev
• (English) New York Times: "A Visionary of Balletic Folk Dance Turns 100"
• (Russian) Autobiography

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