Event Details: Moscow Festival Ballet, Giselle

The Moscow Festival Ballet was founded in 1989 when legendary principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet Sergei Radchenko sought to realize his vision of a company which would bring together the highest classical elements of the great Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet companies in an independent new company within the framework of Russian classic ballet.

Leading dancers from across the Russias have forged under Radchenko’s direction an exciting new company staging new productions of timeless classics such as Giselle, Don Quixote, Paquita and Carmen.

Since its inception , the Moscow Festival Ballet has completed two tours of Europe, with extraordinary receptions in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. Two tours of the United Kingdom, including capacity audiences at London's famed Coliseum. The Moscow Festival Ballet has toured extensively throughout the United States, beginning with a Coast-to-Coast tour in the Winter/Spring of 1997 and has returned for multiple tours since.

The company has also performed with great success in Turkey at the Istanbul Festival and in Greece at the Athens Festival, and completed a two-month tour of Japan, Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Under the direction of Sergei Radchenko, the Moscow Festival Ballet continues to expand its repertoire. In addition to commissioning new works from within Russia and abroad, the company specializes in Twentieth Century full-length ballets such as Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Legend of Love, Stone Flower and The Golden Age. Mr. Radchenko has researched the original choreography and stage productions of several of Marius Petipa's classic ballets, including new productions of Don Quixote and Paquita, and a recreation of Jules Perrot's and Jean Coralli's Giselle.

About Giselle: Giselle was first seen in Moscow in 1843, just two years after its creation in Paris, and a year after it was staged in St. Petersburg. The ballet's history in Russia since that time has shown a continuous sequence of performances, with Jules Perrot - one of the great originators of the choreography - providing a basic text which has been illuminated by the care and genius of generations of ballerinas and producers. When Giselle was forgotten everywhere else in Europe - it was dropped from the Paris Opera repertory in 1868 - Russian dancers and ballet-masters preserved and honored it. The Moscow Festival Ballet's production maintains the Russian tradition of scrupulous production and loving concern for this gem of the Romantic ballet.

Ticket Prices: $20, $36, $48, $72 / Student discounts available