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The first reveals the beauty of classical dance, clearly, consistently, from basic combinations to sophisticated choreographic constructions, it turns an ordinary exercise into a poetry. ("A sparkling classical ballet - without any trace of boring, pedantic, wretched academicism," said the leading Russian ballet critic Vadim Gayevsky).

The second, on the contrary, destroys the "pillars of beauty" - using the same basic vocabulary, but breaking it and creating completely different "sounds" ("Fingers turned into claws, tentacles, antennas," said Jerome Robbins). A ballet about the life of insects, mantises (the feral instinct compels the female of an insect species to consider its male counterpart as prey).

Of course, both ballets are metaphorical. Etudes is a metaphor for the works and days, alpha and omega of the art of ballet. The Cage stands for the struggle of lively feeling with dark instincts, such as inherent in a woman controversial attitude to the representatives of the opposite sex. ("The Cage was the first of the castration ballets that inundated the dance world through the 1970's. The idea that women instinctively hate men is debatable; The Cage survives because it deals with a wider theme of tribal warfare and simply because Mr. Robbins's harsh reading of Stravinsky's mellow String Concerto in D is so brilliant, " said Anna Kisselgoff, the leading American ballet critic).

Russian Seasons by Alexei Ratmansky (2006, New York City Ballet) was shown on the best world's stages. The premiere at The Bolshoi took place in 2008, critically-acclaimed ballet was established in the repertoire of the theatre for several years. In 2015, it was resumed in honor of Leonid Desyatnikov 's 60th anniversary.

"Russian Seasons is an inventive and exciting combination of dance and musical flavors. Ratmansky’s goal is to explore his Russian roots. The ballet uses classical steps with elements of folk, " Jean Courlas / USA, "The folk nature of the ballet is manifested not only in the resemblance to folk dances, Aleksei Ratmansky succeed in visualizing and translating to movement the main contrasts of the Russian character: its earnestness and humility, cruelty and compassion, equal willingness to die and to have a violent fun ," Tatyana Kuznetsova / Russia.

The Bolshoi’s leading dancers will participate in a Contemporary Evening program (The Cage, Etudes, Russian Seasons). The premiere series of shows will be held on 19, 21, 22, 23 and 24 of March.