Moiseyev, Russian folk choreographer

MOSCOW – Igor Moiseyev, a celebrated Russian choreographer who left the Bolshoi Ballet in 1937 to form a world-renowned folk ballet troupe, has died, the Agency for Culture and Cinema said Friday.

He was 101. Described as a “genius and an innovator” by the New York Times on his 100th birthday, Moiseyev died of heart failure on Friday morning, RIA Novosti news agency reported.President Vladimir Putin on Friday offered his condolences to relatives and friends of Moiseyev, who continued to direct his troupe until shortly before his death.”Moiseyev played an exceptional role in world dance,” former Bolshoi star Lyudmila Semenyaka told Interfax news agency on Friday.”He took folk dance to an incredible height, creating a new form of choreography,” she said.”Today’s tragic news has shaken me.”Born in Kiev on January 21, 1906, he formed the “Moiseyev Ballet” in Moscow at the height of Stalin’s purges after several years dancing for the Bolshoi, the country’s top ballet company.His idea of forming a school to focus on the national dances of the Soviet Union received the personal approval of Soviet prime minister Vyacheslav Molotov.Moiseyev travelled across the Soviet Union, from the Caucasus to the Ural Mountains, collecting material for his repertoire.A disciple of the avant-garde choreographer Kasyan Goleizovsky, Moiseyev transformed the dances, infusing them with classical ballet techniques.”His greatest achievement was forming a genre in which he synthesised the classical choreography of the Bolshoi Theatre…with elements of folk dance,” Russia’s minister for culture, Alexander Sokolov said Friday, RIA Novosti reported.During World War II the troupe toured the country, performing for soldiers, workers and the infirm, according to a biography posted on the troupe’s Web site.Later touring extensively in the West, the troupe’s dancers became famous for kicks and acrobatic jumps inspired by the Caucasus mountains dances and the Cossacks.Moiseyev earnt an exalted place for himself in Moscow’s cultural hierarchy that he managed to retain after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.Nampa-AFPDescribed as a “genius and an innovator” by the New York Times on his 100th birthday, Moiseyev died of heart failure on Friday morning, RIA Novosti news agency reported.President Vladimir Putin on Friday offered his condolences to relatives and friends of Moiseyev, who continued to direct his troupe until shortly before his death.”Moiseyev played an exceptional role in world dance,” former Bolshoi star Lyudmila Semenyaka told Interfax news agency on Friday.”He took folk dance to an incredible height, creating a new form of choreography,” she said.”Today’s tragic news has shaken me.”Born in Kiev on January 21, 1906, he formed the “Moiseyev Ballet” in Moscow at the height of Stalin’s purges after several years dancing for the Bolshoi, the country’s top ballet company.His idea of forming a school to focus on the national dances of the Soviet Union received the personal approval of Soviet prime minister Vyacheslav Molotov.Moiseyev travelled across the Soviet Union, from the Caucasus to the Ural Mountains, collecting material for his repertoire.A disciple of the avant-garde choreographer Kasyan Goleizovsky, Moiseyev transformed the dances, infusing them with classical ballet techniques.”His greatest achievement was forming a genre in which he synthesised the classical choreography of the Bolshoi Theatre…with elements of folk dance,” Russia’s minister for culture, Alexander Sokolov said Friday, RIA Novosti reported.During World War II the troupe toured the country, performing for soldiers, workers and the infirm, according to a biography posted on the troupe’s Web site.Later touring extensively in the West, the troupe’s dancers became famous for kicks and acrobatic jumps inspired by the Caucasus mountains dances and the Cossacks.Moiseyev earnt an exalted place for himself in Moscow’s cultural hierarchy that he managed to retain after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.Nampa-AFP