The word bolshoi is the Russian for ‘big’. With the profile and pomp of the performances, this name is certainly deserved. On stage, the movements of the dancers are precise. Perfection is a strong part of the history of the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow. It is Joinville, in southern Brazil’s Sanata Catarina state, that the distinctly Russian School of Bolshoi Theatre finds its Latin American home. Joinville has a reputation as the ‘City of Dance’, and each year in July, the world’s largest dance festival is held in the city. It was at this very dance festival that the seeds of the Brazilian school of Bolshoi were first sown.
In 1996, Alexander Bogatyrev, the artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatre, attended Joinville’s dance festival. Bogatyrev, inspired, participated with the company, and began to design a partnership. He died just two years later, but the project lived on. Spurred on by Brazilian politicians and Bolshoi’s board of directors, the school became a reality.
The School of the Bolshoi in Brazil has lasted 15 years, and has so far trained an astonishing 227 dancers.
For participation in such a precise production, discipline is paramount. Students must rehearse for 6 hours a day under the strict gaze of the teachers. The Bolshoi uses the Classic Ballet Vaganova method of training, an intense programme that takes 8 years. Judging by its glowing reception, this approach has certainly proven successful.
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