" BERIOZKA ".
the city of the Hermitage Theatre in Moscow in May 1948 for the first
time.
Dressed in long red gowns that were emphasizing their stately figures, the girls were not marking steps but were "gliding" to the melody of the song "There was a birch tree in a firld" in some special unfamiliar to everybody at that time wey.
The girls had kerchieves in their hands thet were reminding of the blue of the sky and birch branches that were speaking of the beauty of the native nature. The audience liked the round dance a lot and gave the name "BERIOZKA" to it, associating it with the symbol of the Russian land -the white-trunked birch tree.
This round dance became the source of the original artistic style of the future company and even gave its name to the company.
The choreographer of the dance was N.S.Nadiezhdina, the founder and permanent director of the company till 1978, i.e. till the time when N.S.Nadiezhdina passed away.
Nadiezhdina"s successor in the position of the artistic director of the company untill now has been her desciple, former principle soloist of "BERIOZKA" company, who danced in the company for over 20 years, Peoples Artist of the USSR, M.M.Koltsova.
For 50 years of the existance of the company dozens of million of people have seen "BERIOZKA" s performances. The audience in more than 65 countries of the world on the five continents of the globe was applauded "BERIOZKA". The company has always been welcomed as a wanted guest, as an old friend oven by those people who are looking forward to seeing it for the first time. It is known to people through numerous press reviews and articles in whicy the authors add a lot of enthusiastic epithets to the name "BERIOZKA". Some countries have invited the company several times.
While forming its artistic program "BERIOZKA" used the traditional form of the Russian folk choreography - the round dance, dance, quadrille, solo dance. The repertory was bassed on the wide generalization of the best patters of the Russian dance culture, on the basis of the poetic rites, born by people s fantasy, harminically combined with the classical school.
At present there are a lot of dance companies in the world, but as the audience asserts, "BERIOZKA" is unique and unmatced not only among them but also among the Russian companies.