anglysky

The choreography of performances is kept at the highest level due to the work of the troupe teaching coaches, whose artistic careers are closely connected with the Academy of Russian ballet. Due to carefully kept choreography even the unsophisticated spectator during the performances of Russian ballet feels the power of author's ideas "at first-hand", he emotionally understands why these performances have become the world hits. When we speak about Russian classic ballet we mean the Petersburg ballet, the refined Petersburg style of dance. The troupe has performed more than 50 tours in large Russian cities and more than 30 tours abroad. The performances were awarded by applauses in France, Holland, Belgium, Japan, England, Ireland, Spain, Germany and Malta. The performances are also successful due to the accompaniment of the orchestra and to the sound track.

Due to the united performing school the theatre performances, created more than a hundred years ago by the classics of Russian ballet such as Marius Petipa, Leo Ivanov, Mikhail Fokin, and Vasily Vaynonen, are still actual and up-to-date. They are filled with the original author's choreography and artistic idea.

1.Scan the text and find information about Diaghilev’s profession, his early years, his relations with famous people of that time, way to success.

2.Work in groups of 4. Retell each part to your partner.

Diaghilev and his Ballet

Russian impresario, patron and art critic Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev founded and directed the popular Ballets Rousses that produced famous choreographers and dancers. He had strong associations with famous composers including Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel.

Sergei Diaghilev was born to a wealthy family in Novrogod, Russia, on March 31, 1872. He completed Perm Gymnasium and studied law at St. Petersburg University while also enrolled in music and singing at the Conservatory of Music. One of his music professors was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He was primarily aided by Alexander Benois who introduced Diaghilev to the influential circle of artists focused on developing Western and Russian Art. Initially, Diaghilev’s dream was to become a composer.

With strong support from influential associates including Alexander Benois and Leon Bakst, he published an important art periodical “The World of Art” in St. Petersburg and mounted a massive exhibition of historical portraits. From Russia Diaghilev travelled to the West. He visited Paris, where he exposed an exhibition of Russian painting, organized concerts of Russian music and the first performance, outside Russia, of Modest Mussorgsky's “Boris Godunov” with Chaliapin.

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Diaghilev's success based on an inspired collaboration with leading composers of that time - Eric Satie, Sergey Prokofiev and Manuel de Falla. He also formed a close relationship with artists such as Picasso, Rouault and Bakst and choreographers Fokin, Balanchin, Massin and Nijinsky.

After a performance of Boris Godunov in Paris, Diaghilev presented his first Ballets Rousses season. Ravel's “Daphnis et Chloé” was performed in 1912 and Debussy's “Jeux” the following year. An association with Igor Stravinsky began with the commissioning of “The Firebird” and continued for 18 years until 1928. Later, new and exotic ballets by Fokine, with Benois and Bakst as designers, were followed by Nijinsky's modern works. Stravinsky's “The Firebird”, “Petrushka” and “The Rite of Spring”, and Ravel's “Daphnis and Chloé” rank among the most important musical scores commissioned by Diaghilev.

Through ballet, Sergei Diaghilev found an art form which combined the disciplines of choreography, music and painting: his passion for experiment along with patronage of artists in these fields produced numerous 20th-century masterpieces. Ballets Rousses had a profound influence on Europe's cultural life. He died aged 57. Diaghilev's enormous achievement can be measured by the range of artists he employed and 'discovered'.

3.Project work. Imagine you had a chance to interview S. Diaghilev. Think of questions you would ask him. Write them down and present in the class. Is there anyone among your classmates who could answer your questions as if he (she) were Diaghilev?

UNIT 7

Russian Fine Arts

Lead-in

1.How many styles of painting are known to you? Name them.

2.Match the words in a) group to their definitions in b) group:

a)quest, relief, utilitarian, savior, easel, canvas, aftermath, genesis, embroideries, treatise, excerpt;

b)a piece from a book, music, painting; the beginning or origin of something; a shape of decoration that is raised above the surface it is on; a serious book or article about a particular subject; a period of time after something such as a war, storm or accident when people are still dealing with the results; a painting done with oil paints or the piece of cloth for painting; search; a wooden frame you put a painting on while painting; a decoration made by sewing onto cloth; someone or something that saves you from difficult situation; useful or practical.

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Reading

1.Work in groups of 5. You are going to read 6 parts about different styles in Russian painting. Each student reads 1 part (Cubo-futurism and Neoprimitivism go together) and afterwards retells it to the group mates who may ask questions. The listeners, while the one is speaking, make an outline to the points: the founder of the style, the main features of the style, and the names of artists working with the style.

Russian Painting of the 20th Century

Constructivism may be considered the natural development of the tendency towards abstraction and the quest for new methods of artistic representation characteristic of the early 20th century in Russia. First introduced by Tatlin in 1915, it began with a focus on abstraction through "real materials" in "real space." Tatlin expressed his ideas through unique three-dimensional constructions, Counter reliefs and Corner Counter reliefs, made of paper, glass, metal, or wood. For Tatlin, the material reality, texture of wood, metal, glass, paper, cloth, paint, etc., dictated the very form of the construction. After the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, Constructivism was embraced by most of the avant-garde artists. They tried to apply the laws of "pure" art to objects of utilitarian purpose and mass consumption, and to "build a bridge" between art and the new "savior" of the people - industry. In this connection, the Constructivists heralded the death of easel painting and asserted that the artist was a researcher, an engineer, and an "art constructor." The Constructivist artists and their works affected many facets of Russian life, including architecture, applied arts (particularly furniture, china, textile and clothing design, book illustration), theatre (stage and costume design), and film.

Cubism (a term suggested by Henri Matisse in 1909) is a non-objective approach to painting developed originally in France by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque around 1906. Between 1909 and 1911, the analysis of human forms and lives (hence the name - Analytical Cubism) led to the creation of a new stylistic system which allowed the artists to transpose the three-dimensional subjects into the flat images on the surface of the canvas. An object, seen from various points of view, could be reconstructed using particular separate "views" which overlapped and intersected. The result of such a reconstruction was a summation of separate temporal moments on the canvas, fragments. Since color supposedly interfered in purely intellectual perception of the form, the Cubist palette was restricted to a narrow, almost monochromatic scale, dominated by grays and browns. A new phase in the development of the style, called Synthetic Cubism, began around 1912. In the center of the painters' attention was now the construction, not the

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analysis of the represented object - in other words, creation instead of recreation. Color regained its decorative function and was no longer restricted to the naturalistic description of the form. Compositions were still static and centered, but they lost their depth and became almost abstract, although the subject was still visible in synthetic, simplified forms. The construction requirements brought about the introduction of new textures and new materials. Cubism lasted till 1920s and had a profound effect on the art of the avant-garde. Russian painters were introduced to Cubism through the works bought and displayed by wealthy patrons like Shchukin and Morozov. As they did with many other movements, the Russians interpreted and transformed Cubism in their own unique way. In particular, the Russian Cubists carried even further the abstract potential of the style. Some of the most outstanding Cubist works came from the brush of Malevich, Popova, and Udaltsova.

Cubo-futurism developed in Russia around 1910. It was essentially a synthetic style, a reinterpretation of the French Cubism (Picasso and Braque) and Italian Futurism (Marinetti, Boccioni) popular at that time in Europe, combined with a strong Neo-primitivism belief in the dynamic possibilities of color and line. The Cubo-futurist movement attracted such talented artists as Goncharova, Larionov, Popova, Malevich, Tatlin, and many others. In Russian interpretation, sometimes there is no significant difference between a Cubist and Cubo-futurist painting. Both feature bold colors, and the fragmentation of the objects on the canvas' surface. Perhaps Cubo-futurism places more emphasis on movement and action; it is also often characterized by the inclusion of various letters, even complete words, in the composition. Cubo-futurism was the last major art movement in Russia before the artists surrendered to non-objective art so forcefully introduced by Suprematism.

Neo-primitivism In the West was an aftermath of the exhibition of the folk arts of Africa, Australia, and Oceania in Paris. The world of art was surprised by the boldness of colors, originality of designs, and the expressiveness of these "unschooled," spontaneous creations of the "primitives." In Russia, flourishing in 1907-1912 and officially launched at the 3rd Golden Fleece Exhibition in 1909, Neo-primitivism was championed by Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, although many other artists went through a Neo-primitivist stage. The genesis of the style can be found in the folk art of Russia - such as the lubok (popular print) and peasant applied art (distaffs, spoons, embroideries), but even more in icon painting. Goncharova, Larionov, Malevich, Tatlin, even Chagall and Kandinskii incorporated into their works ideas and compositions common in icon painting. Neo-primitivism canvasses share with icons a pronounced one-dimensionality (flatness), lack of depth and perspective, distortions of "reality," as well as a bold, striking colors. Although the forms are intentionally distorted and resemble

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children's pictures, the paintings' rhythm and harmony come from "the music of color and line". Deliberate violation of the laws of perspective by making the surface of the canvas flat and decorative, disproportions of the composition (e.g. the horse is small and the head and hands of the soldier are unusually large: The Soldier in the Woods, by Larionov), a limited number of primary colors, applied without shading and blending are the artistic devices of neo-primitivism which find parallels in the art of the Russian folk, particularly in icons, street signs, wooden toys, decorated distaffs, and lubok.

Rayonism, an ephemeral style which lasted only about a year, was not only unique to Russia, but to the entire world. It was invented by Mikhail Larionov and practiced mostly by him and his companion Natalia Goncharova. Introduced to the public in 1913 at the Target exhibition, Rayonism was described as naturally encompassing all existing styles and forms of the art of the past, as they, like life, are simply points of departure for a Rayonist perception and construction of a picture. The central feature of Rayonism is the crossing of reflected rays from various objects; its most powerful tools are color and line. Although short-lived, Rayonism proved to be a crucial step in the development of Russian abstract art.

John E. Bowlt suggests that Larionov's Rayonist theory might have been influenced by the developments in photography and cinematography. In 19121913 the Moscow photographer A. Trapani invented the photographic technique of "ray gum" which enabled the photographer to create the illusion of a radial, fragmented texture. Larionov's derivation of Rayonism was the peculiarly "broken" texture that Mikhail Vrubel favored in so many of his works in the 1890s and 1900s - a technique admired by a number of young Russian artists.

In 1913 Larionov published a pamphlet entitled "Rayonist Painting," which contained an extensive description of the theory and practice of Rayonist art. Below are the most important excerpts:

"We do not sense the object with our eye, as it is depicted conventionally in pictures and as a result of following this or that device; in fact we perceive a sum of rays proceeding from a source of light; these are reflected from the object and enter our field of vision.

Consequently, if we wish to paint literally what we see, then we must paint the sum of rays reflected from the object. But in order to receive the total sum of rays from the desired object, we must select them deliberately - because together with the rays of the object being perceived, there also fall into our range of vision reflected rays belonging to other nearby objects. Now, if we wish to depict an object exactly as we see it, then we must depict also these reflex rays belonging to other objects - and then we will depict literally what we see.

Perception, not of the object itself, but of the sum of rays from it, is, by its very nature, much closer to the symbolic surface of the picture than is the object itself.

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This is almost the same as the mirage which appears in the scorching air of the desert and depicts distant towns, lakes, and oases in the sky. Rayonism erases the barriers that exist between the picture's surface and nature. A ray is depicted provisionally on the surface by a colored line."

Suprematism, considered the first systematic school of abstract painting in the modern movement, was developed by Kazimir Malevich in 1913 and introduced at the 1915 exhibition in St. Petersburg. Among other works, Malevich exhibited the famous Black Square on White, conceived during his work on the opera Victory Over the Sun 3 years earlier. He wrote about the painting and about Suprematism in his treatise The Non-Objective World:

"When, in the year 1913, in my desperate attempt to free art from the ballast of objectivity, I took refuge in the square form and exhibited a picture which consisted of nothing more than a black square on a white field, the critics and, along with them, the public sighed, "Everything which we loved is lost. We are in a desert. Before us is nothing but a black square on a white background!" This was no "empty square" which I had exhibited but rather the feeling of nonobjectivity. Suprematism is the rediscovery of pure art that, in the course of time, had become obscured by the accumulation of "things". The black square on the white field was the first form in which nonobjective feeling came to be expressed. The square = feeling, the white field = the void beyond this feeling. The Suprematist square and the forms proceeding out of it can be likened to the primitive marks (symbols) of aboriginal man which represented, in their combination, not ornament, but a feeling of rhythm. The new art of Suprematism, which has produced new forms and form relationships by giving external expression to pictorial feeling, will become a new architecture: it will transfer these forms from the surface of canvas to space. Suprematism has opened up new possibilities to creative art, since by virtue of the abandonment of so-called "practical consideration," a plastic feeling rendered on canvas can be carried over into space. The artist (the painter) is no longer bound to the canvas (the picture plane) and can transfer his compositions from canvas to space."

As we can see, Malevich stresses almost endlessly that the name of the new style refers to the supremacy of pure feeling in art over art's objectivity. The simplest geometric forms - a square, a triangle, a circle, and intersecting lines - composed into dynamic arrangements on the flat surface of the canvas or into spatial constructions - are to express the sensation of speed, flight, and rhythm. In his 1918 Suprematist Composition, White on White, a step forward from Yellow Quadrilateral on White painted a year earlier, Malevich attempted to eliminate all superfluous elements, including the color; since in 1918 he virtually gave up painting, perhaps these experiments convinced him that he had reached his goal and could not develop his Suprematist ideas any farther.

Nevertheless, Malevich's ideas were so bold and innovative that despite the initial shock and fear, Suprematism quickly became a dominant style espoused by both

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the public and the other artists. And even though in 1919 the father of Suprematism announced the movement's demise, the reality-transcending and non-objective nature of Suprematism has had a great impact on the course of modern art.

2.Work in pairs. Answer the following questions.

a)Who of Russian artists are known to you?

b)What styles of paintings do you prefer?

c)Do you know the artworks by Chagall? What styles do they belong to?

d)What niche does Russian fine art have in the world’s culture?

3.Before reading the text, try to guess if the following statements are true or false:

a)Chagall created artworks in every artistic medium.

b)Chagall was born to a wealthy Jewish family.

c)He was an only child in the family.

d)His father didn’t approve his son’s interest to art.

e)Chagall painted his most famous paintings of the Jewish village living in St.Petersburg.

f)During World War I Chagall resided in Russia.

g)After World War II he moved to the USA.

h)The Bible influenced Chagall’s works very much.

i)Chagall never visited Israel.

j)Chagall played the violin.

4.Now read the text and find out if you were right.

5.Explain the words in italics. Use them in your own sentences.

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) born as Moshe Chagall was a Russian-French artist, associated with several key art movements and was one of the most successful artists of the twentieth century. He created a unique career in virtually every artistic medium, including paintings, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramics, tapestries and fine art prints. Chagall's haunting, exuberant, and poetic images have enjoyed universal appeal, with art critic Robert Hughes referring to him as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."

Marc Chagall was born to a poor Jewish family on July 7, 1887 in Vitebsk, Russia. He was the eldest of nine children. Chagall began to display his artistic talent while studying at a secular Russian school, and despite his father’s disapproval, in 1907 he began studying art with Leon Bakst in St. Petersburg. It was at this time that his distinct style that we recognize today began to emerge. As his paintings began to center on images from his childhood, the focus that would guide his artistic motivation for the rest of his life came to fruition.

In 1910, Chagall, moved to Paris for four years. It was during this period that he painted some of his most famous paintings of the Jewish village, and developed the features that became recognizable trademarks of his art. Strong and bright

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colors began to portray the world in a dreamlike state. Fantasy, nostalgia, and religion began to fuse together to create otherworldly images.

In 1914, before the outbreak of World War I, Chagall held a one-man show in Berlin, exhibiting work dominated by Jewish images. During the war, he resided in Russia, and in 1917, endorsing the revolution, he was appointed Commissar for Fine Arts in Vitebsk and then director of the newly established Free Academy of Art. In 1922, Chagall left Russia, settling in France one year later. He lived there permanently except for the years 1941 - 1948 when, fleeing France during World War II, he resided in the United States. Chagall's horror over the Nazi rise to power is expressed in works depicting Jewish martyrs and refugees.

In addition to images of the Jewish world, Chagall's paintings are inspired by themes from the Bible. His fascination with the Bible culminated in a series of over 100 etchings illustrating the Bible, many of which incorporate elements from folklore and from religious life in Russia.

Israel, which Chagall first visited in 1931 for the opening of the Tel Aviv Art Museum, is likewise endowed with some of Chagall's work, most notably the twelve stained glass windows at Hadassah Hospital and wall decorations at the Knesset.

His painting styles are Expressionism and Cubism. In his paintings, he often painted violinists because he played the violin and also in memory of his uncle, who also played. He was also famous for his paintings of Russian-Jewish villages: Over Vitebsk, The Violinist, The Praying Jew, I and the Village.

As a pioneer of modernism and one of the greatest figurative artists of the twentieth century, Marc Chagall achieved fame and fortune, and over the course of a long career created some of the best-known paintings of our time. According to art historian Michael J. Lewis, Chagall was considered to be "the last survivor of the first generation of European modernists." For decades he "had also been respected as the world’s preeminent Jewish artist." Using the medium of stained glass, he produced windows for the cathedrals of Reims and Metz, windows for the United Nations, and the Jerusalem Windows in Israel. He also did large-scale paintings, including the ceiling for the Paris Opéra.

His most vital work was made on the eve of World War I, when he traveled between St. Petersburg, Paris, and Berlin. During this period he created his own mixture and style of modern art based on his visions of Eastern European Jewish folk culture. He spent his wartime years in Russia, becoming one the country's most distinguished artists and a member of the modernist avant-garde, founding the Vitebsk Arts College before leaving again for Paris in 1922.

He was known to have two basic reputations, writes Lewis – as a pioneer of modernism, and as a major Jewish artist. He experienced modernism’s golden age in Paris, where "he synthesized the art forms of Cubism, Symbolism, and Fauvism, and the influence of Fauvism gave rise to Surrealism." Yet throughout these phases of his style "he remained most emphatically a Jewish artist, whose work was one long dreamy reverie of life in his native village of Vitebsk." [2]

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"When painter left who understands what colour really is."[3] Chagall received many prizes and much recognition for his work. He was also one of very few artists to exhibit work at the Louvre in their lifetime.

6.Project work. Use internet or other information sources to write an article into a culture column about one of the artists working in the mentioned styles.

UNIT 8

Sport in Russia

Lead-in

1.Do you like sport? Do you prefer to watch it or do it yourself?

2.Can you name kinds of sport which might be characterized as a) artistic and beautiful; dull; dangerous; spectacular; individual; team; masculine; feminine?

3.Play an association game in groups of 5–6. Each group chooses a core word related to sport, e.g. sportswear. Each student of the group thinks of a word connected with a core word, e.g. trainers, sneakers, plimsolls, tennis shoes etc. Then Student 1 says his/her word, Student 2 repeats the first student’s word and says his/her own one. Student 3 repeats first 2 words and says his/her own etc. A looser is a student failed to repeat the words.

Reading

1.Work in pairs. Scan the text to find out: a) what kinds of sport are written about in it; b) what famous sportsmen/women are mentioned in the text, and what sport they represent. Share information with each other.

2.Divide the class into groups according to the numbers of paragraphs. Each group reads their paragraph carefully and retells it to the other group.

3.Each group asks questions about the paragraph which another group read.

4.Go on working in pairs. Choose equal numbers of paragraphs in the text. Explain to each other the words in italics which are in the paragraphs.

Russia is a keen sporting country, successful at a number of sports and continuously finishing in the top rankings at the Olympic Games. During the Soviet era the team, placed first in the total number of medals, won 14 of its 18 appearances; with these performances, the USSR was the dominant Olympic power of that era. Since the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952 Soviet and later Russian athletes never were below the third place in the world in number of gold medals collection. Since 1994 Russia has finished in the top five at every

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Paralympics winter games, and is continuously climbing the rankings at the Paralympics summer games.

Among the most played sports are football, ice hockey and basketball. Other sports widely played in Russia include team handball, weightlifting, gymnastics, boxing, wrestling, martial arts, volleyball, rugby union and skiing.

Like the Soviet Union, Russia is traditionally very strong in basketball, winning various Olympic tournaments, World Championships and Euro basket. At the moment they have one player in the NBA, Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko. In 2007, Russia defeated world champions Spain and won Euro basket 2007. Russian basketball clubs such as PBC CSKA Moscow have had great success in European competitions such as the Euro league and the ULEB Cup.

The Russian men's national ice hockey team has been competing internationally since 1993 and follows a long tradition of Soviet teams mostly composed of Russian players. The Russian team replaced the Unified Team of the ice hockey at the 1992 Winter Olympics and the Commonwealth of Independent States team of the 1992 World Championships.

The Russian team has not been as dominant as the Soviet team, winning the gold in the World Championships three times in 18 years, but it remains one of the top teams in the world. Russia finished fourth at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Russia's ice hockey team has a long history of tradition and success, and today about 30 Russians play in the NHL. During the Soviet era, hockey was one of the dominant sports, and members of the national team were given the finest apartments and cars.

From 1956 to 1988 the Soviet Union national hockey team won seven gold medals, one silver medal, and one bronze medal in nine appearances. The Unified team at the 1992 Olympics also won the gold medal.

Figure skating is another popular sport. In the 1960s the Soviet Union rose to become a dominant power in figure skating, especially in pairs skating and ice dancing. At every Winter Olympics from 1964 until the present day, a Soviet or Russian pair has won gold, often considered the longest winning streak in modern sports history.

The national Russian figure skating championships are held annually to determine the national champions of Russia. Skaters compete at the senior level in the disciplines of men’s singles, ladies singles, pair skating, and ice dancing. Russian figure skating has a long history. The first Russian national competition was held on March 5, 1878 in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire. The winner was V. I. Sreznevski. From 1897 on, official Russian national championships in figure skating were held. The first national champion in Russia in figure skating was Alexandr Nikitich Panshin, who won the Russian nationals from 1897 to 1900.

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