Ensemble’s history
The State Dance Ensemble of Belarus Honorary Collective of the Republic of Belarus is the leading choreographic group of the republic. It was formed by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialistic Republic (the BSSR) No.621 dated 26.09.1959 "On Organization of the State Dance Ensemble of the BSSR". The Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus with the decree No. 531 dd. 15.04.1999 conferred to the Ensemble an honorary title of an Honored Collective of the Republic of Belarus.
The Ensemble was created in the very end of the 1950s. At that time there was no a folk dance professional school in Belarus and therefore the founder of the collective (an honored artist of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic, an honored worker of art of the BSSR Aleksandr Grigorievich Opanasenko (1913-2005)) selected the most gifted, most talented dancers from amongst participants of amateur art activities.
On October 29, 1959 fifty of the best youths and girls, who formed the first troupe of the Ensemble, gathered together in the rehearsal room for the first time, and this date is traditionally considered the birthday of the ensemble. A difficult task was set before the young artists - to learn as soon as possible the essentials of the workmanship, to master the most complicated performance technique and feats. It was essential to comprehend the best of that was accumulated in the republic in the genre of folk dance, and having transformed it artistically, to present reference patterns of the professional standard. In other words, in a short space of time the young enthusiasts had to become professional ballet dancers and to create the first professional choreographic collective of the republic.
Shortly thereafter the ensemble by right kept abreast of the best professional dance companies of the ex-Soviet Union. Only in eight months after its foundation the Ensemble toured not only in Belarus, but also performed in the greatest cities of Russia and the Ukraine.
The ensemble's repertoire of that time is immensely diverse: Belarusian, russian, ukrainian, moldavian folk dances, dances of the people's democracy states. There were big choreographic compositions "Belarusian Rhapsody" and "Belarusian Youth Suite"; dances "Lyavoniha", "Lyanok", "Bychki", "Metelitsa" ("Snowstorm"), choreographic pictures "On the Poultry Farm", "Old Man and Old Woman", "The Polesie Guys"; turns "Russian Dance", "Golden Ulitushka", "Ukrainian gopak", "Moldavian Suite", "Gypsy Rhapsody", "Roumanian Folk Dance with Kerchiefs", "Hungarian Dance with Spurs", "The Czech Polka", a choreographic tale-true story "Khatyn" and many, many others.
Thus the Ensemble's dance receptacle was formed, its "choreographic gene pool", a bridge from the present to the future was built. Such dances as "Ukrainian Gopak" and "Metelitsa" ("Snowstorm"), produced by Aleksandr Opanasenko in the first years of the collective's existence, are performed with minimal modifications until now.
In June 1971 the collective was headed by a people's artist of the BSSR, a laureate of the State Prize of the USSR, famous choreographer and in recent times a soloist of the Great Theatre of Opera and Ballet of the BSSR Semyon Vladimirovich Drechin (1915-1993).
Creative work of this choreographer in the folk dance genre is characterized by two words: refined simplicity. The simplicity which conceals an incredible fantasy of the choreographer, a great experience of the explorer (Semyon Drechin took part in folklore expeditions along with ethnographers of Academy of Sciences of the BSSR) and irreproachable artistic taste. Semyon Vladimirovich's creative work enriched the choreographic palette of the ensemble with a fine lyricism of the performance, a smooth plasticity of movements, diverse patterns, every possible curtsies, rotations, interesting supports.
For the first time an integral national in spirit and in substance concert program was created by the efforts of S.V. Drechin. The program revealed to the audience the inner dignity of the genuine Belarusian dance.
It was then that the turns were produced, which subsequently became the "golden fund" not merely of the State Dance Ensemble of Belarus repertoire, but of all the national Belarusian choreography. Amongst them are an anxious, chaste "Perepelochka", an airy "Polka Janka", famous "Kryzhachok", an effervescent "Lyavoniha", that became a visit card of the ensemble. Among them are a choreographic composition "Midsummer games", an ingeniuosly and originally staged vaudeville "Rural sketches", a grotesque "In Belovezhskaja pushcha" and a puppet-performed humoresque "Pavlinka" on motives of Janka Kupala's comedy.
In the beginning of 1973 C.V.Drechin left the ensemble and for the next two years collective existed without an art director. Choreographers and producers Nikolaj Vasilievich Kharlamov and Juri Vasilievich Shurkin worked in that time. They devoted many efforts to keep the artists in a good physical form. At that time the ensemble was spoken about: "It works as a machine".
In November 1975, an honored worker of art of the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialistic Republic (the Mari ASSR), a laureate of the State Prize of the Mari ASSR, Mikhail Petrovich Murashko was appointed art director of the State Dance Ensemble of the BSSR. He was interested in the Belarusian history, studied works on Belarusian ethnography and folk dance; he attracted to cooperation the artists, who explored the national costume stylization, its maximum approach to the scenic image. Mikhail Murashko prepared a big program in two parts, that included such turns as "Belarus", a round dance "Zavivanie Berezki" ("Birch Curling"), a heroic poem "Youth of the Revolution", "Grodno Solemn Dance", "Neglubskie Vecherki", a game-dance "Luchinki". It is worth to mention the trilogy about Lyavon and Lyavoniha produced by him, where the elements of adaptation for the stage where introduced. The first part was called "Once upon a Time there were Lyavon and Lyavonicha", the second one was called "Kolyada or Lyavon Fought with the Dark Force" and the final part was called "Lyavon Came to a Widow".
In the season 1977-1978 the choreographer and producer of the Ensemble was an honored worker of culture of the BSSR Evgeni Aleksandrovich Shtop. For a long time a tender lyric "Kohanochka" ("Beloved") remained in the repertoire of the collective from his choreographic heritage.
In the very end of December 1978 the collective was headed by a laureate of the State Prize of the USSR Genrih Aleksandrovich Mayorov. A strong-willed, energetic person with his own developed choreographic style, Genrih Mayorov agitated the collective, made it clear that the artistic life of one of the leading collectives of the Republic would be rich and interesting. Choreographic canvases "Dnieper Brothers" and "The Grand Suite" were produced for the celebration of 1500 years of Kiev, a lyric round dance "Charot" and "Belarusian Polka" were prepared for the centenary of the national poets Janka Kupala and Jakub Kolas. For the Ensemble's tour in France in 1980 a big program of the dances of the USSR nations was created, choreographers from Estonia, Moldavia, Tataria were invited, the Georgian dance was produced directly during tour in Georgia. However, in 1983 Genrih Aleksandrovich was invited to work in Moscow and he left the Ensemble.
In September 1983 Vitaly Nikolayevich Butrimovich assumed the direction over the State Dance Ensemble of the BSSR. For the first time he tried to adapt the program for the stage. Produced by his predecessors turns, such as "Neglubskie Vecherki", "Trepetuha", "Luchinki", "Veseluha", "Polka Janka" and "Motaliha", united into a composition "Party in the Belarusian house" in the conventional village décor produced an effect of a peculiar play. Butrimovich himself produced his own version of "Lyavonicha", having tried to approach at most the contents of the dance to the famed words of the popular folk songs. He established contacts with the choreography chair of the Belarusian State Institute of Culture and Arts, headed by Julia Mikhailovna Churko. The Chair offered to the Ensemble a richest choreographic material, collected in folklore expeditions, which unfortunately didn't find a practical application in new concert turns of that time.
In April 1986, Valentin Vladimirovich Dudkevich came to the Ensemble
A graduate of the Belarusian State Choreographic College, he graduated from Belarusian State Theatre and Art Institute in the field of Art History as well as post-graduate course of the Ethnography and Folklore Institute of Academy of Sciences of the BSSR, worked as director in chief of the Special Actions Department of the Belarusian State Philharmonic.
In one of his first interview Valentin Dudkevich once said that a good ensemble means a strong program, excellent music and beautiful costumes. As well as a repertoire, that has to be accumulated rather than to be changed. And if there are 50-60 actively used concert turns in the repertoire, it is all right.
Twenty years later we can say with certainty that this accumulation took place.
Today the State Dance Ensemble of Belarus submits to the verdict of the audience several full concert programs, which unite more than fifty dances, produced in the Ensemble in different times and by different choreographers not only from Belarus, but also from ex-soviet republics. "The theatre of folk dance" that was dreamt of by the choreographer in the first years of his work in the ensemble, took place.
The program "Belarusian Casket" is entirely dedicated to the Belarusian folk dance. It was created on basis of folklore material, ancient ritual dances.
The program "The memorial evening of Semyon Drechin" is composed of the turns, which became the "golden fund" of the Belarusian national choreography and were produced by the choreographer in the ensemble and in the theatre.
The program "Round Dance of Friends" has presented Belarus as a multinational country, where the Russians, the Poles, the Ukrainians, the Lithuanians, the Jews, the Tatars, the Gypsies live along with the Belarusians possessing equal rights, where every nationality is entitled to self-determination, to development of own culture.
The program "Viecharyna" ("The Evening Party") acquainted the audience with such an interesting layer of the national culture as urban folklore.
A choreographic fantasy on historical subjects "The Song about Bison" reminded to the compatriots again the names of the "the great Belarusian sons", narrated of the most interesting pages of the national history.
For almost fifty years time of its existence the State Dance Ensemble of Belarus became n integral part of the national culture of the state, its common property. It is by right considered the most authoritative body in the field of folk art. It has accumulated a huge store of choreographic productions, different in style and genre. The Ensemble is a forge of performing and production specialists of the republic. In different years such famous people worked in the cast of the ensemble as a people's actress of the BSSR Svetlana Vujachich, honored actors workers of the republic Victor Turin, Maria Opanasenko, Tamara Mashevich, Alla Gorelik, Galina Belousova, Sergei Stankevich, Larisa Medvedeva-Shumskaja, Ruslan Minin, Mikhail Lipchik, Svetlana and Vladimir Solodkije, laureates of an international contest Tatyana Kupreeva, Alksandr Zubko, Aleksandr Gruzdev, an honored worker of culture of the Republic of Belarus Mamikon Kirakozov.
The Ensemble is renowned in every corner of Belarus, in neighboring and remote foreign countries.
Acknowledging the accomplishments of the State Dance Ensemble of Belarus in the field of the national choreographic art, in the year of its fortieth anniversary, the Ensemble was conferred an honorary title of an Honored Collective of the Republic of Belarus, and its art director was conferred the title of a People's Artist of Belarus.
Despite the venerable age, the ensemble is young, strong and viable. It is proud of its past, creates actively its present, faces the future with confidence.