Immense Russian Soul of Immens Beauty by Elena Matyjenko from Altai Krai Barnaul, Russia.

Immense Russian Soul of Immense Beauty!

Matvienko Elena, Age: 14, Gymnasium 22, Barnaul, Altai Krai, Russia,

       Teacher: Oksana Aleksandrovna Petrova

 

Immense space of immense beauty

You can see in our land!

For example, pretty bushes,

Many mushrooms and big glades,

Spreading trees, the longest borders,

Lovely woodlands, picturesque lakes,

You can see in our country

In my dear motherland.

Fresh, cool air, fluffy clouds,

Only fields around you

I will quickly go down

On the covering and you?

 

I invite you to come and visit Russia! You’ll see such а fabulous beauty, that you can only dream of. But the most important thing is not the wonderful, beautiful world that you see outside, it is the world that lies within the people’s souls. It is certainly even more vivid, intense and inspirational. All this is because the inner world of our people has a soul, a real Russian soul with sheer veritable genuine Russian heart. One way you can discover this wonderful penetrative world very well, is through Russian dance. Being the most ancient and richest of the arts, dance is very interesting, multi-faceted, bright and carries a huge emotional charge. Fashion and time cannot change it, and moreover, make it disappear from the face of the Earth, since it contains the history of the people, who created it. Every generation holds sacred the memory of their ancestors and protects all that reflect their lives.

I am proud to be a part of an amazing Altai Model Dance ensemble called “Ivan da Mar’ya .” I have been performing in this ensemble for more than ten years. And I can say with precision what each traditional Russian dance conveys a certain history, its essence and character. We offer our audiences a marvelous variety of Russian dance-stories sometimes familiar, sometimes esoteric, and always filled with the distinctive Russian mixture of endless energy. Exuberant emotions, bright costumes, happy and cheerful faces, like nothing else show the real happiness and fun of the Russian people. Imagine a wide rampant orgy, flying in the immensity, the very peak, when you want to give a piercing shout from all the deep emotions overwhelming a dancer’s body and soul. Further all of these emotions erupt and fly out like chicks that escape to freedom from their mother’s nest; and all the dancers shout loudly, sensually and expressively: "Hey!" At this very moment, having excited all the spectators, the dancers themselves feel shivers running through the skin. The legs of all the people who are watching, dance by themselves and they continue until the end of the music. But the end of the music is not the end of the dance. Literally, in less than a second all the thoughts and feelings that you experienced and lived in the dance pass by in your head. You make a light sigh, then, you make a graceful bow and then comes the grand finale! You can feel that exhilarating and entertaining feature of Russian traditional dance that makes people intensively watch the performances of “Ivan da Mar’ya” and many other Russian dance groups. They are not only fascinating and enjoyable, they also make one think. You will also notice there is hardly any person in the audience who isn’t admiring the beauty of the Russian music with its distinctive sounds of folk music. During our performances you can hear typical ethnic Russian musical instruments which are usually the gusli, balalaika, zhaleika, contrabass, bayan, accordion, Gypsy guitar and the garmoshka. Our folk music had great influence on Russian classical composers, and in modern times it is a source of inspiration for a number of popular folk bands.

  Russian Folk Dances that our dance group likes to perform can generally be divided into two main types of dances: The Russian Khorovod, a circular game type dance where the participants hold hands, sing, and the action generally happens in the middle of circle, and The Russian Plyaska, a coed circular dance that increases in diversity and tempo. Other forms of Russian Folk Dance which we also like to perform include The Pereplyas, an all-male competitive dance, The Mass Dance, an unpaired stage dance without restrictions on age or number of participants, The Group Dance, a type of mass dance that employs simple round-dance passages and improvisation, and types of Quadrille’s, originally a French dance brought to Russia in the 18th century.

We like to dance various ethnic Russian dances in our ensemble. They are the khorovod, barynya, kamarinskaya, kazachok and the chechotka (a tap dance in bast shoes and with a bayan).  We have also got a dance called “Masha and the Bear”. In this dance there are a lot of small children who act as bears, one big bear and one little girl “Masha.” The story dates back to 907 when Great Russian Prince Oleg, in celebration of his victory over the Greek in Kiev, kept 16 male dancers dressed as bears and four bears dressed as dancers. Dances with performers dressed as bears are a reoccurring theme in Russian dance competition!

Another part of the story is the folk Russian costume! You will certainly believe it remains a priceless treasure of intrinsic culture which the people have accumulated over the centuries. I don’t think the Russian folk costume is only just a bright original element of culture; it is also the synthesis of various types of decorative art. Until the mid-twentieth century it conveyed traditional cut elements and use of materials and ornaments typical of Russian clothing in the past. I heard from my teachers that the formation of the composition, cut, and ornament features of the Russian costume were influenced by the geographical environment and climatic conditions, the economic way of life. Important factors were the historical and social processes that contributed to the creation of special forms of clothing. The role of local cultural traditions was significant. The folk costume has become an integral part of the artistic look of Russian people at various Folk festivals and other dance parties. People wear costumes performing round dances at wedding ceremonies and gatherings. The Russian national costume is being developed by modern designers.

I like all the costumes in our ensemble and my favorite is “Russia”, as we usually call it. The basic color of the costume is white. The hemline of the dress is embroidered with golden thread. From the bottom stretches an endless band, which represents the earth. Spreading and at the same time curling stems grow out of the land. Beautiful flowers are in blossom on these stems. Paradise birds with long wonderful tails sit on these flowers. A transparent cape covering our arms trembles a bit and soars with every stroke. On this cape there is a collar in the shape of a dome. And on the collar a shiny bell is hanging. There is a crown on the head. It shines like the sun. And all of this costume is embroidered with golden shining glitter.

As you see all the things in Russian dance both music and costume are connected with nature. Russian peasant labor has been creating the beauty of Russian nature for centuries. Peasants still continue plowing the land and so they learn its certain dimensions. They measure fields going through them with the plow. A farmer walking behind a plow, plowing and harrowing has not only created "polosynki" rye, but leveled the forests and shaped its edges, creating a smooth transition from forests to fields and from fields to rivers or lakes. Smoothing the ground, man has been smoothing all its sharp edges, hills and rocks. As a result, Russian nature is soft, neat and tidy. The Russian landscape is mainly formed by the efforts of two great cultures: the culture of man, that softens and sharpens nature and the culture of nature, which in turn softens all the imbalances that have inadvertently been brought into the people. On the one hand, the beautiful landscape is created by nature which is ready to learn and recover all that is somehow broken by people. On the other hand, such beauty is created by man who trimmed all. In this case the balance arises between the environment and a human. And in most dances people show that harmony. An Indian guru and spiritual teacher Oslo said “Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful.  Everything is simply happy.  Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance.  Look at the flowers - for no reason.  It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are.” I can say the same thing about Russian dancers. They always smile! And they do not need any reason for doing that. Moreover, they smile even when something hurts, and all this because when you go out on stage you forget about everything and think only about the stories experienced in dance. Feelings during the dance can be different. You can experience climbing the mountains and getting their good tidings, nature's peace flowing into you as sunshine flows into trees. You can even perceive the freshness of winds blowing into you, and the energy of storms. You can live trough the love of a young girl for a young man who went off to war. Feeling all that while dancing you understand that “all your cares drop off like autumn leaves.”  Whatever thoughts and feelings are, I still remember the nature of my motherland Russia! So I can definitely say “Dancers’ hearts away from nature become hard”.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize the beauty of Russian nature and people! No matter how much you hear about it, how many stories you read or how much you think about it, you will not understand Russia until you see these wonderful Russian landscapes and gorgeous Russian dances with your own eyes. Only then will you feel the real Russian soul!