Russian ballet

The really first performence of ballet in Russia was organized by Nicolas Lima (unknown nationality) in February 1673. Ballet came to Russia fron Italy and France. In 17th century Peter the Great (Czar) decided to develop arts in Russia, so ballet teachers from another European countries were invited to teach. Jean Baptiste Lande came to Russia with his students. He was one of the first teahcers of ballet in Russia. After he saw a progress, he suggested to open a ballet school availaible for anyone, not only for rich people but fir poor people as well. His suggestion were considered correct and in 1738 Imperial Ballet School (later known as Vaganova Academy) was opened.
Ballet had a purpose to entertain the royal court. It was really expensive entertainment and it was thought that the lowest class don't understant all the significance of the ballet. Then Russian Ballet gain popularity in another European countries. Tchaikovsky introduced a dramatic symphony to the bullet, giving it life and emotions, some of classical ballets he helped to create were "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Nutcracker". Other famous ballets were “Les Sylphides”, “The Firebird”, and “Petrushka”. In XX there were few famous Ballet companies like Bolshoi Ballet and Mariinsky Ballet (they are famous now as well). The most famous companies would select obly few students a year to teach ballet and travel to another countries. After the separation of USSR and economic crisis that came after it, the ballet troops faced economic problems (before they were paid really good), so a lot of ballet teachers and dancers left Russia to another counries like United States, Germany, France , etc.




The Swan Lake

Sources:
http://it.stlawu.edu/~rkreuzer/pmcmanus/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_ballet
http://www.genon.ru/GetAnswer.aspx?qid=43f772e5-2e2d-4dc1-9e6f-8cb1d932f5e9
http://www.russianclassicalballet.com/id69.html