"Classical ballet is the best invention of humankind": creative meeting with ballet master Natalia Kasatkina

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Within the framework of the Russian Women's Forum "Women: Preserving Traditions - Developing Russia" a creative meeting with the famous ballet master, People's Artist of the RSFSR, head of the State Academic Theater of Classical Ballet under the direction of Natalia Kasatkina and Vladimir Vasiliev, Natalia Kasatkina and her son Ivan Vasiliev was held.

Natalia Kasatkina spoke about the beginning of her career in ballet, shared her opinion on the present and future of ballet, and recalled meeting composer Igor Stravinsky in New York.

"They say that a ballerina is an artificially created human being. And it's true! We are first built from the inside out - every bone, every muscle. All this is created by time, it takes ten years," said Natalia Kasatkina.

People's Artist of the RSFSR admitted that from early childhood she wanted to become a ballet dancer.

"My parents sent me to the violin. It was terrible, even though I have an absolute pitch! Our teacher, when I left there, cried, because he had few such students. But those lessons helped me anyway, because we staged operas, including Mozart's "Women Are Like That" at the Bolshoi Theater. It all came in very handy for me, but I only wanted to dance - and nothing else. My favorite thing in my life is to go on stage and give myself completely to music and dance. I believe that classical ballet is the best invention of humankind. And especially Russian classical ballet," said Natalia Kasatkina.

The artist also recalled a meeting with the great composer Igor Stravinsky, which took place when the Bolshoi Theater, where Natalia Kasatkina was a soloist, came to New York on tour.

"It all started when he was invited to be the impresario of the Bolshoi Theater - our tour was supposed to open with Stravinsky. But it was not authorized. Nevertheless, Igor Fedorovich specifically flew to New York to see us. Our conversation with him was recorded, preserved. It was crazy, extremely interesting! You know, Stravinsky is the greatest composer. It was so easy to communicate with him, and we interacted with him on our own level! We were choreographers, he was a composer, we discussed working together. We were still very young then, we were still nobodies. We started to become something only after that conversation," said Natalia Kasatkina.

The International RUSSIA EXPO takes place on the territory of VDNH in Moscow from November 4 to July 8. Visitors are presented expositions of 89 Russian regions, leading federal departments, corporations and public organizations. More than 8 million people have already visited the Exposition.