­Russian ballet stars crown Russia-Spain year

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Published time: December 06, 2011 16:40
Edited time: December 06, 2011 20:40

Russia’s ballet tradition is the nation’s pride and joy, just as it is a legend in the West. The best dancers from Russia’s top theaters – Moscow’s Bolshoi and St Petersburg’s Mariinsky – have given a performance in Madrid, crowning the Russia-Spain cross

The stars of Russia’s ballet schools, including the Bolshoi Theater’s prima ballerina, Svetlana Zakharova, Mariinsky prima Viktoria Tereshkina and Mariinsky soloist Semen Chudin, performed fragments of such iconic productions as Carmen, Taras Bulba and Don Quixote.

The gala show took place on Monday evening in the Teatro Real and was attended by King Juan Carlos I of Spain, his spouse, Queen consort Sofia, and the wife of the Russian president, Svetlana Medvedeva.

The ballet gala closed the extensive program of the Russia-Spain cross-cultural year, which has seen over 350 events in the two countries. The most significant were of course the tour of the jewels of the Prado Museum to the Hermitage, and vice versa.

“We have never seen so many cultural exchange events before as we have had this year,” Ria Novosti quoted the organizers of the show as saying. “Citizens of our states got a unique opportunity to get to know the other country, to enrich their knowledge about it, to understand its history and culture better.”