Igor Moiseyev Ballet

In 1936, Igor Moiseyev was made dance director of the new Theater of Folk Art in Moscow, and helped organized a folk dance festival.{{cite news |last=Segal |first=Lewis |title=Igor Moiseyev, 101; elevated folk dancing into a theatrical art |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-nov-03-me-moiseyev3-story.html |access-date=12 July 2023 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=3 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712011626/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-nov-03-me-moiseyev3-story.html |archive-date=12 July 2023}} The next year, on 10 February, the Moiseyev Ballet came into existence, with just 35 dancers. According to Moiseyev, the dance troupe had early difficulties: politician Alexander Poskrebyshev promised to dissolve the ensemble, however, the ensemble had Stalin's patronage. Therefore, neither Poskrebyshev nor any other politician dared to dissolve it.{{cite web |last=Shamina |first=Lidiya |title=ИГОРЬ МОИСЕЕВ: "Выгоню любого, кто возомнит себя солистом" |trans-title="I will fire anyone, who makes himself out to be a principal dancer" |url=https://iz.ru/news/290985 |website=Izvestia |date=10 June 2004 |access-date=3 June 2022}} Allegedly, Stalin enjoyed the Moiseyev Ballet so much that they were constantly invited to the banquets and parties he threw. At the time, the Moiseyev Ballet had its headquarters in a small building on {{ill|Leontyev Alley|ru|Леонтьевский переулок}}. When Igor Moiseyev asked for a larger building to house the studio, Stalin ordered politician Aleksandr Shcherbakov to organize headquarters for the dance company. Thus, they began to occupy the {{ill|Tchaikovsky Hall|ru|Концертный зал имени П. И. Чайковского}}, a building that was previously meant to be Vsevolod Meyerhold's new theater.

File:The Soviet Union 1971 CPA 3982 stamp (Romani Dance).jpg dance |alt=A drawing of a female dancer in a traditional Romani dress in the middle of a jump, with arms outstretched. The skirt is red and the top is pink.]]

The first foreign performance of the Moiseyev Ballet occurred in 1945, in Finland. It began to tour around the world in 1955, and has toured in 60 countries, including the USA, France, Israel,{{cite web |last=Lenkinski |first=Ori J. |title=In his footsteps |url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/culture/in-his-footsteps-599278 |website=Jerusalem Post |date=21 August 2019 |access-date=3 June 2022}} the UK,{{cite web |title=Moiseyev Dancers Perform in London |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/23/archives/moiseyev-dancers-perform-in-london.html |website=New York Times |access-date=4 June 2022 |date=23 September 1964}} Japan,{{cite web |last=Terent'yev |first=Viktor |title="Хореография Игоря Моисеева – философия мира, добра и любви!" |url=https://lgz.ru/article/-46-6860-16-11-2022/khoreografiya-igorya-moiseeva-filosofiya-mira-dobra-i-lyubvi-/ |website=Literaturnaya Gazeta |language=ru |trans-title="Choreography of Igor Moiseyev: a philosophy of peace, goodness and love!" |access-date=26 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126184557/https://lgz.ru/article/-46-6860-16-11-2022/khoreografiya-igorya-moiseeva-filosofiya-mira-dobra-i-lyubvi-/ |archive-date=26 November 2022}} and China.{{cite web |title=В Китае выступит ансамбль народного танца имени Моисеева |trans-title=Moiseyev Folk Dance Ensemble to perform in China |language=ru |url=https://ria.ru/20161125/1482131474.html |website=RIA Novosti |date=25 November 2016 |access-date=4 June 2022}}

In 1958, they began to tour in the United States, as part of the Lacy-Zarubin Agreement.{{cite thesis |last=Halliman |first=Victoria Anne |date=May 2013 |title=Cold War cultural exchange and the Moiseyev Dance Company:American perception of Soviet peoples. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210716024249/https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:1462/fulltext.pdf |archive-date=16 July 2021 |url=https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:1462/fulltext.pdf |degree=PhD |publisher=Northeastern University |access-date=4 July 2024 |url-status=live }} Impresario Sol Hurok invited the Moiseyev Ballet to perform at the old Metropolitan Opera House, marking the first time a major Soviet dance group had ever performed in the United States. They also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.{{cite web |last=Gould |first=Jack |title=Moiseyev Dancers; Russian Troupe Scores a Resounding Hit on the 'Ed Sullivan Show' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1958/06/30/archives/moiseyev-dancers-russian-troupe-scores-a-resounding-hit-on-the-ed.html |website=New York Times |access-date=4 June 2022 |date=30 June 1958}}

File:Optreden van het Moisejev Ballet uit Moskou in de Ahoy te Rotterdam, Bestanddeelnr 911-7965.jpg in Rotterdam, 1960]]

In September 1986, tear gas was thrown at a Moiseyev Ballet performance at the Metropolitan Opera House, forcing the evacuation of 4,000 people and injuring 30. An anonymous caller purporting to be the chairman of the Jewish Defense League, Chaim Ben Yosef, claimed responsibility, saying it was a protest on the behalf of Soviet Jews. However, the actual chairman at the time, Irv Rubin, denied the JDL's responsibility. Ben Yosef also denied making such a call and denied the JDL's responsibility.{{cite news |last=Campbell |first=Mary |title=Tear Gas Greets Russian Dance Troupe at Lincoln Center |url=https://apnews.com/article/245d791efb78cac3c92edbcf3298d938 |date=2 September 1986 |access-date=3 June 2022 |work=Associated Press |archive-date=26 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126185339/https://apnews.com/article/245d791efb78cac3c92edbcf3298d938}}{{cite news |last=Hevesi |first=Dennis |title=Tear Gas Disrupts Soviet Dancers in Performance at Lincoln Center |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/09/04/jdl-denies-tear-gas-attack/6fe0d8ed-2588-4ee8-a9b8-93faba5efa66/ |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=3 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126185835/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/09/04/jdl-denies-tear-gas-attack/6fe0d8ed-2588-4ee8-a9b8-93faba5efa66/ |archive-date=26 November 2022 |date=3 September 1986}} In 1987, Ben Yosef and two others were arrested in relation to a series of bombings in New York, including the tear gas attack at the Moiseyev performance.{{cite news |last1=French |first1=Howard W. |title=3 J.D.L. MEMBERS SEIZED IN BOMBINGS |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/09/nyregion/3-jdl-members-seized-in-bombings.html |access-date=11 July 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=9 May 1987 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210219213331/https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/09/nyregion/3-jdl-members-seized-in-bombings.html |archive-date=19 February 2021 |language=en-US}}

File:Концертный зал им. П.И. Чайковского.JPG

John Martin, then the dance critic for the New York Times, wrote in 1961 "Among the truly creative figures in the art of the dance of our time, place high the name of Igor Moiseyev."{{cite news |last1=Martin |first1=John |title=DANCE: MOISEYEV; Creative Innovator From Soviet Union Opens New Choreographic Vistas |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1961/05/07/archives/dance-moiseyev-creative-innovator-from-soviet-union-opens-new.html |access-date=4 July 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=7 May 1961}} Anna Kisselgoff wrote that Moiseyev "created a new dance idiom that stood on its own" and called the dances "classics of their genre".{{cite news |last1=Kisselgoff |first1=Anna |title=DANCE VIEW; MOISEYEV DANCES ARE CLASSICS NOW |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/14/arts/dance-view-moiseyev-dances-are-classics-now.html |access-date=4 July 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=14 September 1986}}

The Moiseyev Ballet continues to tour and perform to the current day. It has been praised by cultural figures such as Maya Plisetskaya, Tatyana Tarasova, and Marlene Dietrich.

In the West, the Moiseyev Ballet has been described as speaking "the nationalist idiom of folk movement".{{cite web |last=Laine |first=Barry |title=Folk Ballet of Moiseyev: 'People's Art' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-09-28-ca-9446-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |access-date=June 3, 2022 |date=September 28, 1986}} It has also been called "a symbol of Soviet bureaucracy", a "mirror of the Soviet epoch", and "the main cultural tyrant of the [Soviet] regime".{{cite web |title=Пятьдесят лет спустя |trans-title=Fifty years later |language=ru |url=https://www.golosameriki.com/a/a-33-2008-01-25-voa3/595365.html |website=Voice of America |access-date=June 3, 2022 |date=25 January 2008}} However, it has also been credited with helping encourage international cultural exchange, especially between the USA and the Soviet Union.

The Moiseyev Dance Company influenced professional folk dance in Serbia.{{elaborate|date=July 2024}}{{cite conference |url=https://dais.sanu.ac.rs/bitstream/id/11182/bitstream_11182.pdf#page=166 |title=Links between the Moiseyev Dance Company and the Folk Dance Choreography production in Serbia |last1=Bajić-Stojiljković |first1=Vesna |date=2015 |editor-last1=Medić |editor-first=Ivana |editor-last2=Tomašević |editor-first2=Katarina |publisher=Institute of Musicology, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts |pages=165–185 |location=Belgrade |conference=Beyond the East-West divide: Balkan music and its poles of attraction |id= |isbn=978-86-80639-23-9}}

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Category:Ballet companies in Russia

Category:1937 establishments in the Soviet Union

Category:Folk dance companies

Category:Cultural organizations based in the Soviet Union