"Asoulful flight," said Alexander Pushkin about Russian ballet. It has made a name for itself over the world, and its success is usually, and not surprisingly, associated with the Bolshoi. But no single, even the most famous theatre could keep up world fame. Alongside with the Bolshoi, the country has several other brilliant ballet companies, among which one of the most prominent places justly belongs to the ballet group of the Moscow Musical Theatre named after Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko.

This theatre happily blends the traditions of the Russian classical ballet school with a search for and advancement of novel forms.

The theatre itself stands in the very heart of Moscow, in Pushkin Street. Its attractive old-fashioned auditorium seats 1,500, and is packed every night. The men whose name it bears were great figures in the Russian theatre who have gone down in its history as reformers of both the drama theatre and opera and ballet. Stanislavski's and Nemirovich-Danchenko's productions rose to the summits of the art, marked as they were by harmony of all expressive means. This original ballet company has always remained faithful to the principles of its founders.

The history of the theatre's ballet group (there is also an opera group) goes back to the late 1920s, when Moscow acquired a dance company that called itself Art Ballet. Its productions caught the ballet lovers' attention right away. The audiences were captivated by the performers' excellence both as ballet dancers and drama actors. Credit for this goes to the founder of the new company, former Bolshoi ballet star Victorina Krieger, who used Stanislavski's and Nemiro vich-Danchenko's system in her ballet productions. The new company was also obviously determined to abandon the hackneyed cliches of the art and the traditional themes. Its members earned the name of dancing drama actors.

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