Igor Moïsseïev

Born in 1906. Soviet dancer, choreographer, and company director.   

Born in the Ukraine to a bourgeois family, in childhood he discovered the diversity of Russian folklore. In 1919, his father sent him to a dance school in Moscow “to keep him busy”. Impressed by his gifts, in 1921 his teacher presented him to the Moscow School of Dance, where he was admitted. He joined the Bolshoi in 1924, had a career as solo dancer until 1939, and produced his first choreography, “Footballer” in 1930. In 1936 he was appointed director of the choreographic section of the Theatre of Folk Art, and in 1937 was assigned the creation of the Soviet Folklore Dance Ensemble, for which he was the artistic director and choreographer. In 1943, in Moscow, he founded his school, for classical and character dance classes. During the war, the young troupe gave performances in the factories or to the armies. From 1947, the tours were crowned with triumph, first in the Soviet Union and then around the world under the name of the Moiseyev Ballet, with a hundred dancers accompanied by an orchestra playing traditional folk instruments.

At a time when creativity was stifled by the condemnation of modernism, Moiseyev found in his deep love for folklore an outlet that met the authorities’ nationalistic objectives. He then undertook to collect folklore from all around the Soviet Union, and masterfully adapted the rich and varied material for the stage. He thus created ballets reflecting the rural tradition (“Moldovian Suite”, “Ukrainian Suite” and “Asian Suite”), humorously describing town life (“Football”, “Vieux quadrille citadin” [Old City Quadrille]), evoking work (“Un jour un navire” [On Day on board a ship]), the war (“The Partisans”), and training his dancers (“Le chemin de la danse” [The Road to Dance]). He also explored a poetic vein (“Tempête de neige” [Snow Storm]), the folklore of other countries, and gave his version of “Polovetsian Dances”. A demanding perfectionist, he constructed a team with an exceptional level, perfect ensembles and spectacularly acrobatic, and made them one of the most prestigious artistic showcases of the Soviet Union.

Source: Dictionnaire de la danse, Larousse, éd. 1999, en ligne