Perestroika Pirouettes and Glasnost Glissés: The Kirov and the Bolshoi Ballet, 1977-1991

Perestroika Pirouettes and Glasnost Glissés: The Kirov and the Bolshoi Ballet, 1977-1991 Public Deposited

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Creator

Buxton, Jennifer L.
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies, Russian, Eurasian and East European Concentration

Abstract

This paper examines the developments of the Soviet art form of classical ballet during the twilight years of the Soviet Union. Throughout the Soviet era, art and politics were closely intertwined; the country's ballet institutions served the government abroad, as cultural ambassadors, and at home, as educational representatives. As Gorbachev's political and economic reforms progressed, state funded institutions sought to adapt to the ever-changing environment. Through an investigation of the activities of the two preeminent ballet theaters in the county, the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, this project explores how two cultural institutions navigated the dynamic landscape of perestroika and challenges the trope of Brezhnevite stagnation.Through the utilization of memoirs, periodicals, and secondary sources, my study illustrates how ballet artists in Moscow and Leningrad responded to the changes occurring outside of the theater during this time and complicates our perception of the otherwise improvisational nature of the Soviet Union's last years.

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