See Inside Russia's Famed Mariinsky Ballet Theatre | National Geographic

less than 1m read

·Nov 11, 2024

Russians seem to be very good at taking something and bringing it to a whole new level. Take ballet, for example; it was invented in Italy, popularized in France, but the ballet we know now would not be here if it weren't for the Russians.

The heart of ballet here in St. Petersburg is right here at the Mariinsky. The father of ballet in Russia was Marius Petipa, the legendary choreographer who gave us such timeless classics as Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. But the first thing he did in Russia was Paquita, which he staged in this theater in 1847.

Today, we're fortunate to witness something very special: Paquita reimagined for the 21st century by company dancer Youris M. What is ballet for Russian people? [Music] [Music]

It's all made to look effortless, but I can assure you the precision, strength, balance, and endurance of these ballerinas rivals any professional athlete. They rehearse up to 6 hours a day; it can take 40 minutes for them just to put their pointe shoes on.

And all this just to give us a chance to escape from reality into a fairy tale. It's all happening a few moments from now: Paquita reimagined. The orchestra is warming up, and so are the dancers. You can feel the tension in the air, but ultimately, they're not worried. The future of ballet is safe at the Mariinsky. [Music] k [Music]

The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth | StarTalk

Khan for Educators: Basic site navigation

View All

Crowd-funding: Tips

So, as some of you might know already, uh, I’ve been running a crowdfunding campaign to fund the production of the follow-up to my George or to help animation that I made last year. It’s in the final days of the campaign, so if you didn’t check it out alr…

Creativity break: How can we combine ways of thinking in problem solving? | Algebra 1 | Khan Academy

[Music] One of the newest ways of thinking about problem solving for me is, um, something that my math professor would tell me. Um, he would say, “Don’t be afraid to be stuck.” And I think that a lot of the time, when we are doing math and we get stuck, i…

Embrace Accountability to Get Leverage

So why don’t we jump into accountability, which I thought was pretty interesting, and I think you have your own unique take on it. The first tweet on accountability was, “Embrace accountability and take business risks under your own name. Society will rew…

Principles for Success: "The Call to Adventure" | Episode 1

Principles for success: an ultra mini-series adventure in 30 minutes and in eight episodes. Episode 1: The Call to Adventure Before we begin, let me just establish the fact that I don’t know much relative to what I need to know. Whatever success I’ve ha…

Rome becomes dominant | World History | Khan Academy

Last video, we end with the conquests of Alexander the Great. How he’s able to conquer most of the map that we see right up here, especially from Greece all the way through the Middle East, through Persia and getting to the borders of India, co-conquering…

Primary Elections Explained

Primary elections are how political parties in the United States pick their strongest candidate to run for president. The parties do this by holding mini-elections in each of the states, and the candidates with the most votes from these elections become t…

See Inside Russia's Famed Mariinsky Ballet Theatre | National Geographic

More Articles