The Festival of Russian Art in Cannes opened on August 23, 2016 with the Folkloric Ballet of Khakassia and its legendary show Altin Kook.
The Festival of Russian Art – 19th edition – took place in the prestigious Palais des Festivals in Cannes. In opening, the Republic of Khakassia and its striking spectacle Altin Kook offered to discover the extraordinary culture of one of the most unknown land of the great Russian Federation.
A strong and ancestral friendship
The relations of friendship that unite Russia and France are strong and old. As often, they were built and strengthened via the culture. Since 2006, Russians become for five days in Cannes attentive hosts to present us a beautiful view of their culture and their traditions.
The Festival of Russian Art and its rich program consisting of music, dance, folklore, painting, circus arts, gastronomy, offer a nice dive into the world of artistic excellence in all its forms. A captivating and unique journey of its kind, thanks to the talent and interpretation of internationally renowned artists, acclaimed on the major international stages.
Khakassia, land of legend
For a thousand years, the five hundred thousand inhabitants of the Khakassia, tiny republic of Russia located in southern Siberia, have been living on a land of legend. On this land made of taiga, vast forests, steppes as far as the eye can see, mountains and fantastic rides in nearby Mongolia plains, the Khakassians have the distinction of honoring the spirits of the water and mountains with a shaman.
Spells and ancestral beliefs
With the show Altin Kook ballet, the Debussy theater audience was carried away in a captivating and mysterious dive in the heart of the huge ice Siberian expanses. In the first part, on a contemporary choreography, a story based on an ancient legend inspired a kind of Swan Lake ballet in which wonderful flamingo metamorphose into beautiful girls, on a background of spells, cuckoos, knights, hunters and fighting. Throughout the show, the dancers, wearing their fox fur hats, wearing gleaming dresses and shod in black leather or animal skins boots, offered the spectators a fantastic staging composed of breathtaking acrobatics, impressive improvisations and dance of great artistic technicality.
Music, songs and traditional dances
In the second part, came the artists of the ballet Altin Kook and the ensembles Koun Souzy and Ulguer from the Philharmonic of Khakassia. Musicians and singers accompanied by their six-string chatkhane and singing with throaty voice coming from the depths of time, seeming issuing a sound lava from their bowels, astonished and delighted the audience of the Debussy Theatre. Dancers clad in traditional dresses with bright colors and surrounded by multi-colored ribbons fluttering in the wind, slipped on stage in convolutions adjusted to the millimeter. Each performed the choreographics without effort: a feast of ease and grace.
The Festival of Russian Art
The Festival of Russian Art which runs for five days in August in the Capital of Cinema, from 23 to 27 August this year, is part of the favorite rendezvous that punctuate the Franco-Russian relations. This high quality artistic event elegantly concludes the summer the City of Festivals. It is co-produced by the Foundation for Russian Culture, the City of Cannes and the Palais des Festivals and Congresses.
The show Altin Kook
The show Altin Kook is a creation dating back to 2014. It was achieved through the collaboration of two complex folklores from the Philharmonic Society of Khakassia, Ulguer and Koun Suzi, with the support of the Ministries of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Khakassia.
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