Immense
Russian Soul of Immense Beauty! by Matvienko Elena
Gymnasium 22
Barnaul, Altai Krai, Russia
Age: 14
Teacher:
Oksana Aleksandrovna Petrova
Unfortunately
the story of Lena isn't published in our Book. Lena won the regional contest for the right to be published in the
book so she got a diploma! Due to book selective and editorial niuanses Lena`s story cannot be found in the book. :( We do apologise for that and promise to publish Lena`s story in the Book website.
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!
