On September 25, 2026, the Grand Hall of the Kremlin Palace will host the opening of the 90th anniversary season of the Igor Moiseyev State Academic Ensemble of Folk Dance.
Igor Moiseyev, who received a classical ballet education at the Moscow Choreographic Technical School, danced on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre and also staged his first productions there — innovative, vibrant performances that followed traditions and engaged in a lively dialogue with them. However, Igor Moiseyev’s main focus was folk dance, which impressed him with its primordial nature, authenticity, and spontaneous beauty. A special genre of choreographic art — folk‑stage dance — was born from the combination of the strict rules of classical ballet with elements of folklore that had existed in the historical memory and been passed down from generation to generation. Igor Alexandrovich Moiseyev was its pioneer!
The concert program offered to the audience of the State Kremlin Palace can, on the one hand, be called a «golden collection» — a unique collection of pieces staged by Igor Moiseyev; on the other hand, it can be seen as a «living biography» of the world’s first professional folk dance ensemble, which was created in 1937 and conquered the entire planet with its art.
Igor Moiseyev called folk dance a plastic portrait of the people, and the choreographer — a director who thinks in terms of choreography, that is, the author of a theatrical action expressed in the language of choreography.
Plastic portraits of the peoples will appear on stage in the Russian dance «Summer,» the Belarusian dance «Yurochka,» the Dance of the Bessarabian Gypsies, the Chinese dance with ribbons, the suite of Mexican dances «Zapateo» and «Avalulco,» the suite of Greek dances «Sirtaki,» the «Aragonese Coda» to the music of Mikhail Glinka, and the dance of Argentine shepherds «Gaucho.» In each of them, there is not only the character of the people, their history and traditions, but also a living, «visible song”—a melody and a special plot—manifested through the relationships between the characters, through the plastic characteristics that express the feelings of the dancers and evoke emotions in the viewer.
«The Golden Collection» and «a living biography» are, in the words of Igor Moiseev, «a charge of fun and vigor that is capable of overturning all the sorrows, worries, and fears that loom over the people of our day.»
