Russian ballet to perform at Southeast

~ The Moscow Festival Ballet will perform "Giselle" as part of the 2013-2014 Southeast Missouri State University River Campus Touring Series at 7:30 p.m. April 25 in the Bedell Performance Hall.

Under the direction of Sergei Radchenko, the Moscow Festival Ballet continues to expand its repertoire. In addition to commissioning new works from within Russia and abroad, the company specializes in 20th-century full-length ballets such as "Cinderella," "Romeo and Juliet," "The Legend of Love," "The Stone Flower" and "The Golden Age." Radchenko has researched the original choreography and stage productions of several of Marius Petipa's classic ballets, including new productions of "Don Quixote" and "Paquita" and a recreation of Jules Perrot and Jean Coralli's "Giselle."

"Giselle," according to Bob Cerchio, assistant director of Southeast's Earl and Margie Holland School of Visual and Performing Arts, is rarely performed.

It's "not because it isn't a beautiful ballet, but because it isn't 'attached' to a well-known name like 'Swan Lake' or 'Romeo and Juliette,' Cerchio said in a news release from the university. "The story, like many more well-known pieces, is one of beauty, love, loss and redemption. Giselle, a peasant girl, falls in love with a Count Albrecht, who is pretending to be a common villager. As the story unfolds, Albrecht is revealed and then lost to her. Giselle, in her grief, takes her own life, later returning as a spirit to guide her lover away from danger. She returns to her final resting place with her honor restored. Now that's a great story being told by a great director, Sergei Radchenko."

Born in 1944, Radchenko graduated from the Moscow School of Dance in 1964 and 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. Radchenko presents a large number of master classes, inviting leading teachers from the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters to ensure the continuation of the traditions of the Russian classical school.

The Moscow Festival Ballet was founded in 1989 when Radchenko sought to realize his vision of a company that would bring together the highest classical elements of the great Bolshoi and Kirov ballet companies in an independent new company.

Since its inception, the Moscow Festival Ballet has completed two acclaimed tours of Europe. The company also has performed 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 1997 and returning in 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010.

Tickets may be bought by at the River Campus box office, 518 S. Fountain St., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, by calling 651-2265, or by visiting rivercampusevents.com.