Stage of the Ages 2019 Festival starts on 13 July (Sat) with our special guest this summer – The Imperial Russian Ballet Company and its famous Swan Lake – the most loved classical ballet of all time.
The Imperial Russian Ballet Company was formed in 1994, at the initiative of the famous Russian ballerina Maya Plisetskaya and headed by the Bolshoi Theatre soloist Gediminas Taranda. The name of the company is a tribute to the Imperial Russia, when the classical Russian Ballet was created and supported by the rulers, including the foundation of Bolshoi Theatre and Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, where the glory of Russian ballet was born and raised.

Since the very beginning, the company has worked with the best tutors and ballet coaches. Nowadays it is Galina Shalyapina, holder of the People’s Artist of the Russian Federation title, whose enormous experience and talent helps the young artists achieve the highest levels of ballet. Artistic Director is Gediminas Taranda, whose name is closely connected with the name of the great Plisetskaya. It was him, who became the follower of her style in modern ways, the holder of personality in ballet, searching for new forms of connecting stage art with the public. Ballet lovers today are the witness of his creative bloom, and his name always promises innovations in the dancing style of the “Imperial”.
The company has worked with some of the brightest ballet stars of our time – Maya Plisetskaya, Patrick Dupond (Paris Opera), Farukh Ruzimatov, Diana Vishneva (Mariinsky Theater), Nikolay Tsiskaridze, Nadezhda Pavlova, Ludmila Semenyaka, Svetlana Zaharova, Denis Matvienko (Bolshoi Theater), Vladimir Malahov and Julie Kent (American Ballet Theatre Tamie Kusakari (Japan) and many others.
“Imperial” is the only private ballet company, which not only survived the difficult 90’s, but became famous worldwide. The company toured Japan, Spain, Austria, Finland, Portugal, Brazil, Uruguay, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Canada, Israel, China, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, USA, Lebanon, Cyprus, Dubai, Malta, New Zealand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Kazakhstan…
Its repertoire includes classical masterpieces of the world ballet – Swan Lake, Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky; Carmen by Bizet-Shchedrin; Gounod’s Walpurgis Night; Boléro by Ravel, “Plolovetsian Dance” form Prince Igor opera by Alexander Borodin; Sheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, etc.
As usual, after the ballet performance, the audience can see The Sound and Light Show from the square in fromt of Tsarevets’ gates for free.