For Beijing theatre patrons, classic Russian ballet is always at or near the top of their list of favourite performances. In fact, the popularity of ballet has tended to make audiences neglect Russia's other contributions to artistic excellence.

A performer with the famed Moiseyev Dance Company whirls around in a folk costume. [File photo]

To help remedy that situation, a Russian Art Festival organized by the China Performing Arts Agency is presenting a variety of performances such as folk songs and dance, jazz and classical presentations that are at least as equally captivating as Russian ballet.

The week-long festival, marking the 110th anniversary of the death of the great Russian composer Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky, opens tonight and runs through next Monday at the Beijing Exhibition Hall Theatre.

Tonight's gala opening will feature award-winners from the Tchaikovsky International Music Competition, along with the Moiseyev Dance Company, the Garanyan Jazz Troupe and the China National Symphony Orchestra.

Tomorrow evening Tchaikovsky Award winners, including bass Vladimir Matorine, cellist Boris Andrianov, soprano Marina Andreeva and pianist Denis Matsuev, will perform a concert under the baton of Russian conductor Mark Gorenshteyn at the Forbidden City Concert Hall.

The 28-year-old Matsuev gave a recital on October 17 and the next day performed with the China Philharmonic Orchestra at the Sixth Beijing Music Festival. His passionate and sensitive style has captivated local classical music fans.

They will also go to Shanghai to give a concert at Shanghai Great Theatre on Sunday.

The world-renowned Moiseyev Dance Company will give two shows featuring dazzling choreography and eye-popping gymnastic moves at the Beijing Exhibition Hall Theatre on Thursday and Friday.

"This is a company that lives up to its hype as a national treasure, potently demonstrating the Russian genius for dance," says Zhang Yu, general manager of China Performing Arts Agency.

Only certain troupes seem able to defy the laws of gravity when they dance. The Beijing Opera, with its tumblers and acrobats is one; the Moiseyev Dance Company is another.

Dancers with Moiseyev seem to begin where all other troupes leave off when it comes to speed and spinning in the air. And neither the 66-year-old troupe nor its founder and artistic director Igor Moiseyev, who turned 97 in January, show any signs of slowing down.

In 1936 Moiseyev, then master of the Bolshoi Ballet, was asked by the government to organize the first Festival of National Dance, an idea that strongly appealed to him.

Since his school days, Moiseyev had passed his free time travelling throughout the country, mostly on foot, immersing himself in the study of Russian folklore and the treasury of songs, dances, customs, traditions and festivals that had grown out of the 180 national cultures comprising the then Soviet Union.

He sought to establish a unique style for his company that would be at once dramatic, entertaining in a theatrical sense, and larger than life.

In August 1937 the Moiseyev Dance Company gave its debut performance with a programme that included dances from Ukraine, Armenia, Belorussia, the Far North and Azerbaijan. The public was vociferous in its acclaim, and the success of the company was immediate.

To its ever-growing repertoire, Moiseyev has added dances of Spain, Japan, China, Bulgaria, Argentina, Mexico, Poland, Hungary and the American beat of jazz and rock 'n' roll.

From a lifespan including revolution, two world wars and Russia's social and political upheavals of the late 20th century, Moiseyev and his company have survived.

The sheer range of folk styles and the delirious flamboyance of the vocabulary are astounding. From the tiny, drilled stepping sequences that make the dancers look like they are gliding on wheels, to the giant Cossack-style kicks, wheeling jumps and proud clicking of heels, this is a folk tradition that aims far higher than a couple of mild circle dances and a merry jig.

And that original group of 30 dancers has now grown into a company of more than 200 that has its own orchestra, its own school and a repertoire of more than 200 dances.

All Moiseyev's energetic dancers are ballet trained, with their feet pointed, their limbs stretched and burnished.

The dance company will also give a show at Shanghai Great Theatre next Monday.

On October 31, Russian popular jazz musician Georgy Garanyan and his band will give a concert at Peking University and at Shanghai Exhibiton Centre Friendship Hall next Monday and Tuesday.

Garanyan taught himself the saxophone when he was young and later formed a jazz band whose members have been the leading jazz players in Russia.

The State Academic Kuban Cossack Chorus will perform at the Cultural Palace of Chaoyang District to close the festival next Monday.

The history of the ensemble dates back to 1810 when Cossack general Bursak founded a military chorus. For more than a century (1811-1921) the Kuban Military Chorus fulfilled a noble mission of artistic enlightenment in the south of Russia.

In 1936 the Kuban Cossack Chorus was reformed and two years later, a dance ensemble merged with it.

The Kuban land boasts rich harvests and a long tradition of beautiful folk songs, dances and rites abundantly scattered over the Cossack villages and settlements.

Today the repertoire of the chorus is based on the folk Cossack songs collected in the villages of the Kuban Province and arranged by artistic director Victor Zakharchenko.

Zakharchenko's song arrangements are simple: to return to the folk song its life truth and content embodying its natural environment - labour, feats of arms, young people's gatherings and weddings, thus to overcome the margin between stage and life.

Most of its dance numbers are choreographed by Nikolai Koubar, an Honoured Art Worker of Russia, Ukraine and the Republic of Adygueya.

The dancers are remarkable for their exceptional energy and power. They perform incredible stunts and many of their dances are based on horsemanship.

"The art of the Kuban Cossack Chorus is a flood of songs, colours, music and dances. It is a spiritual health of the nation," says choir conductor Vladimir Minin.

Chinese conductor Bian Zushan concurs, adding: "The music and dances of the Kuban chorus are permeated with the passionate and independent spirit of the Cossacks."

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