Title supplied by cataloger. Kirov Ballet, one of the two major ballet companies of Russia (the other being the Bolshoi Ballet), was originally founded in the 1740s as the Imperial Russian Ballet, following the formation of the first Russian dance school. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Imperial Russian Ballet rose to prominence and employed some of the most influential and famous names in ballet history. In 1889 the company moved into the Mariiinsky Theatre and flourished, but went into decline after the Russian Revolution in 1917. Following the assassination of Sergey Kirov in 1934, the company was renamed the Kirov Ballet, which is the name most commonly used to this day. During the cold war, the company experienced difficulties as many of its prominent dancers defected to the West. After the end of communist rule, both the ballet company and opera company at the Mariinsky Theatre were linked to the theatre by name, becoming the Mariinsky Ballet and Mariinsky Opera. Today, the Mariinsky Ballet is recognized as one of the world's greatest ballet companies, hiring over 200 dancers, including a reserve troupe and character artists. Photograph caption dated May 27, 1989 reads, "Sergei Vikharev leads a corps of winged sylphs, whose ethereal dancing in "Chopiniana" made the ballet seem less than modern".
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;27x 33 cm. on sheet 29 x 36 cm. Photographic prints
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