Tchaikovsky, pas de deux, ballet skirts - and applause from Iraq, India, Egypt, Uganda and Malaysia

PRMU overseas students keep getting to experience Russian and the world culture in Nizhny Novgorod. It is in Nizhny Novgorod that some students watched a ballet performance for the first time. The students’ advisers decided that the encounter with this art form should begin with the Russian school of ballet and... Tchaikovsky, so the students went to The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. And the genius was just the right thing! The magical, recognizable and easily perceived music, together with the scenery, the artists’ movements, the costumes and the special atmosphere in the hall, created an incredible emotional impression which would later form a vivid memory of Russia.

The neophytes were amazed at the omnipresence of the Russian genius. They were surprised to learn that the sleeping beauty woke up to the music of Tchaikovsky at all the famous theaters of the world, that the swan turned into Odette in Paris, London, Milan to the music of Pyotr Ilyich, too. And they also noted how easily and harmoniously Russian music could be combined with fabulous stories from other countries.

And, as the curtain fell, our foreigners learned one more Russian word – ‘Bravo’, so essential in the theatrical world.