January 21, 1906
Born in Kyiv Igor Moiseyev — ballet master and choreographer. Founder of the world's first folk dance ensemble.
Legs come later. Carry your soul first.
His mother was a seamstress. His father, an anarchist lawyer from the nobility, was imprisoned several times for his beliefs.
At 14, he enrolled in a private ballet studio in Moscow—his parents believed dancing would improve his posture and protect him from bad company. At 18, he graduated from the State Ballet School and was accepted into the Bolshoi Theatre company.
At 24, he became a choreographer (an unheard-of audacity: it was considered the preserve of former dancers who could no longer perform on stage). At 27, he graduated from the University of the Arts.
On Beria's orders, he staged all-Union physical education parades.
I staged parades on Red Square five times during the most dangerous time—Stalin's—and won first place each time. Once, they forced me to stage a parade at Stalin's Institute of Physical Education. They asked, "Why don't you want to? Are you against Stalin?" And to prove I wasn't against it, I had to...
During a trip to Tajikistan, I became interested in folklore.
Folk dance is a mirror of morals. A plastic portrait of the people. Silent poetry, a visible song, concealing a piece of the people's soul.
In 1937, at the age of 31, he founded the country's first professional folk dance ensemble (now the Igor Moiseyev Folk Dance Ensemble). In 1943, he founded the first professional folk dance school in the Soviet Union. He received a space for his ensemble—the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall—on Stalin's personal orders (he mentioned that they had to rehearse on the landing).
We never left the Kremlin. Not a single reception was complete without an ensemble.
My search in folk dance turned out to be consonant with the ideas proclaimed by the party leaders
During the Great Patriotic War, the troupe toured Siberia and the Far East—the proceeds were used to build tanks for the army.
Among Moiseyev's most popular classical ballets are "The Three Fat Men" and "Spartacus."
There are hundreds of staged folk dances: "Sirtaki," "Aragonese Jota," "Pamir Dance," "Peace and Friendship," "Polovtsian Dances," "Russian Dance," "Gaucho," "Jewish Suite," and "Night on Bald Mountain." He approached his productions with scholarly meticulousness: he spoke with researchers and spent hours poring over library textbooks.
If I do something well, and my conscience tells me that I can do it even better, then I am doing it badly.
In 1943, his ensemble debuted the Naval Suite "Day on the Ship," along with a future hit, the sailor's dance "Yablochko." A folk dance, but masterfully staged by him.
You need to keep the audience on edge. Dance with your feelings.
His ensemble became the hallmark of the USSR.
After a performance in New York, a well-dressed, beautiful middle-aged woman asked if she could kiss my hand. I replied, "Please." After receiving the kiss, I asked her name. She replied, "My name is Marlene Dietrich."
Participated in the work of the Soviet Peace Committee.
He recalled how he was asked to join the CPSU 18 times, and how he refused 18 times.
— Why don’t you want to join the party?
— Because I believe in God and I don’t want you to criticize me for it at your meetings.
He is a laureate of three Stalin Prizes, a Lenin Prize, and a State Prize. He is also a recipient of 25 foreign state orders and the equivalent of an Oscar in dance. He is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records three times: as an innovator (the first to transform folklore into high performing art), as the founder of the most frequently touring folk company (to over 60 countries), and as the record-holder for the most productions (over 300).
The only place we haven't toured is Antarctica.
In the 1990s, he was an active cultural activist, serving on the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Arts, the Presidential Commission on State Prizes in Literature and Art, and the Council of Cultural Figures under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The greatest misfortune is when a person doesn't love the work they're condemned to. If you work as a sewer cleaner but see the results of your labor—believe me, that's already quite a lot.
He died in 2007, in Moscow, at 101, from heart failure.
