Imperial Russian Ballet Arrives at the Teatro Riachuelo Rio This Week

By Jack Arnhold, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – This Tuesday, May 15th, and Wednesday, May 16th, the Imperial Russian Ballet is bringing its blockbuster show “The Best of Tchaikovsky” to the Teatro Riachuelo Rio as part of their first Brazilian tour for nine years.

Presenting their show “The Best of Tchaikovsky”, the Imperial Russian Ballet will perform excerpts from three of the most important ballets in the classical repertoire: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.

After nine long years, the Imperial Russian Ballet finally returns to Brazil as part of a huge tour. Alongside the 28 dancers and much more supporting staff, the company is also bringing scenery, costumes and lighting with them directly from Moscow. For this tour, over one-and-a-half tons of material and costumes are being shipped to Brazil.

The 28 dancers coming to Brazil include soloists Ivan Zviagintsev, from the Bolshoi, Russian Ballet Theater and Russian National Ballet; Kseniia Pukhlovskaia, from the Russian Ballet Theater and Russian National Ballet; Lina Sheveliova, of the National Opera and Ballet Theater of Moldova; and Nariman Bekzhanov, from the Abay State Opera and Ballet Theater in Kazakhstan.

Though the company performs regularly in Moscow at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the E. Kolobov Theater, they are also used to touring, having already visited Japan, China, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Finland, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, and Chile.

Created in 1994 by Gediminas Taranda, star of the Bolshoi Ballet from 1980 to 1993, the Imperial Russian Ballet brings together artists from the best ballet schools in the world, such as the Paris Opera, Mariinsky Theater, Bolshoi Theater, and American Ballet Theater.