The Bolshoi From Brazil

Santa Catarina is home to the only Bolshoi outside Moscow
Joinville, in the State of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, is home to the only Bolshoi Theatre School abroad, guaranteeing the same degree of prestige as the original, providing the teaching of the Bolshoi methodology through Russian masters qualified at the Moscow Bolshoi, living in Brazil.

Inaugurated on 15th March 2000, the Bolshoi Theatre School was the first affiliate outside Russia, where its teachers instilled the same discipline and degree of perfection in the application of their methodology as the students at the Russian Bolshoi receive, "guaranteeing the opportunity to be taken on as a professional dancer by any dance company anywhere in the world", in the words of an administrator of the School.

The Bolshoi ballet Company was born in 1776, after the Moscow Choreographic School had been established three years earlier, its objective being to receive orphans and to give them an opportunity to gain a professional training of excellence, giving them both a cultural and a personal and social education, preparing them for a successful and complete integration into Russian society.
 
The Bolshoi Theatre School in Brazil has the same objective, to train ballet dancers to dance, giving them at the same time a high level of cultural knowledge. Three Russian teachers (Galina Anatolieva Kravtchenko, Elena Serebrova and Nikolai Zagrebin), two Armenians (Vilen Glastian and Nadezhda Davtian) and a Ukrainian (Denis Vevidomiy), live in Joinville to administer lessons at the school, where there are also 12 Brazilian teachers. There are 11 pianists, two Russians and 9 Brazilians.

The Bolshoi Theatre building in Moscow has been declared world architectural and cultural heritage by the UNO. Begun in 1776, the first performances by the Bolshoi Ballet company took place in private homes and four years later, it established itself
at the Petrovsky Theatre, which stood on the same spot as the Bolshoi today. However, this theatre was destroyed in a fire in 1805. In 1824, the new "Great Petrovsky Theatre" was built but was again burnt down in 1853. The building which is today the Bolshoi Theatre has over 2,000 seats in the stalls, giving rise to its name ("Bolshoi" means "big"). Built in 1856, it was designed by the architect Albert Kavos.

Photo: Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow