Moscow Festival Ballet Coming to Harris Center

The renowned Moscow Festival Ballet returns to the Harris Center for the Arts in Folsom to perform two of the most popular classical ballets of all time: Swan Lake, a ballet composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Cinderella, the classic fairytale of the cinder girl and her stepsisters, featuring Prokofiev's exuberant score.

Artistic Director Sergei Radchenko - the former principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet, where he worked for 25 years- has fused the highest classical elements of the great Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet companies into The Moscow Festival Ballet. Leading dancers from across Russia have come together to participate in this exciting company under Radchenko's direction, staging new productions of timeless classics such as Giselle, Don Quixote, Paquita and Carmen with great success.

He brings his company back to the Harris Center for the Arts with two iconic ballets. Fashioned from Russian folk tales, Swan Lake tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. In Cinderella, the fairytale comes to life with the tale of the cinder girl and her journey to the palace and her prince.

Both ballets feature exquisite costumes, lush scenery, and exceptional dancers.

Taken in sum, Moscow Festival Ballet "deserves 'bravos' within minutes of the opening steps," (Las Vegas Review-Journal); "the dancers of the Moscow Festival Ballet spoke to the soul through the body" (Post and Courier; Charleston, SC)

Moscow Festival Ballet: Swan Lake takes place on Tuesday, February 2, 2016 at 7:30 pm and Wednesday, February 3, 2016 at 7:30 pm. Cinderella is performed on Thursday February 4, 2016 at 7:30 pm. Tickets for each show are priced at $39-$59, Premium $65; Students with ID and Children 12 & under $25. There is a 10% discount for Tuesday and Wednesday single tickets. Tickets are available online at www.harriscenter.net or from the Harris Center Ticket Office at 916-608-6888 from noon to 6 pm Monday through Saturday, and two hours before show time. Parking is included in the price of the ticket. Harris Center is located on the west side of Folsom Lake College campus in Folsom, CA, facing East Bidwell Street.

Since its inception, the Moscow Festival Ballet has toured Europe, with extraordinary receptions in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. Two tours of the United Kingdom, including capacity audiences at London's famed Coliseum, have resulted in numerous re-engagements. The company has also performed with great success in Turkey at the Istanbul Festival and in Greece at the Athens Festival, and recently completed a two-month tour of Japan, Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The Moscow Festival Ballet has toured extensively throughout the United States, beginning with a coast-to-coast tour in the winter/spring of 1997 and returning in 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2014, now returning to the United States and Canada this year.

The Moscow Festival Ballet continues to expand its repertoire. In addition to commissioning new works from within Russia and abroad, the company specializes in Twentieth Century full-length ballets such as, Romeo and Juliet, Legend of Love, Stone Flower and The Golden Age. Mr. Radchenko has researched the original choreography and stage productions of several of Marius Petipa's classic ballets, including productions of Don Quixote and Paquita, and a recreation of Jules Perrot's and Jean Coralli's Giselle.

Born in 1944, Sergei Radchenko graduated from the Moscow School of Dance in 1964 and then joined the Bolshoi Ballet, where he worked for 25 years. He danced the entire repertoire at the Bolshoi, but enjoyed a special reputation for Spanish dance, particularly the role of the bullfighter in the Bizet-Schedrin Carmen Suite. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Moscow Festival Ballet and has achieved a remarkable feat in the establishment and development of this young-but-great Russian ballet company. Mr. Radchenko presents a large number of master-classes, inviting leading teachers from the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres to ensure the continuation of the rich traditions of the Russian classical school.

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