Igor Moiseyev
 |
Igor A. Moiseyev |
Igor Alexandrovich Moiseyev (; born
Kiev, ) has been widely acclaimed as the greatest 20th-century choreographer of
folk dance.
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 â€" the highest civilian decoration of the
Russian Federation.
*
The Guardian's tribute to Moiseyev*
New York Times: "A Visionary of Balletic Folk Dance Turns 100"*
Autobiography
