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BANGKOK, Mar 24 Russian dances and ballet performances choreographed by Russian and Belarusian teachers of music and dance schools operating in Thailand drew a standing ovation at a three-hour charity concert at the National cultural center of Thailand in Bangkok.
Smiling Hearts, a benefit concert by children's and youth music and dance groups of Thailand in favor of the Thailand branch of Special Olympics International, an organization of the Special Olympic Movement, was attended by more than 420 young artists from 15 music and dance educational institutions operating in different provinces of Thailand, as well as several » adult» professional musical groups.
All 2,000 seats in the Main Hall of the National Cultural Center, one of Bangkok's most sought after theatrical and concert venues, were filled. As it turned out during the concert, each performing group had its own support group among the audience, especially for those who took part in the presentation of several well-known young Thai pop stars in the country. However, with no less enthusiasm, the audience also met young artists from music and dance schools, mostly trained by Russian teachers.
An ovation was received by the performances of the students of the Russian Academy of Dance «Katyusha» from Bangkok, the dance «Kalinka» and other performances of the Ballet Studio of the School at the Russian Embassy in Thailand, the performances of the children's and youth ballet group «Rosinka» from Pattaya, the dance troupe «Art House» from the island of Phuket , and adult artists: singer Alla Dubnavitskaya and the choir of the Russian Orthodox St. Nicholas Church in Bangkok.
The concert opened with the Royal Anthem of Thailand by the Russian composer Pyotr Shchurovsky, performed by the choir of St. Nicholas Church of the Russian Orthodox Church. The anthem was sung in Thai.
Of the 33 numbers of the concert program, 22 represented Russian culture in one form or another: they were either performed by Russian artists, or by Thai artists trained by Russian teachers. These were both dance and vocal numbers, and a solo performance of classical music on the piano with dance accompaniment. Even the Irish dances, staged by Russian choreographers and performed by mixed groups of dancers, were no exception.
The show was accompanied by complex lighting and sound effects, completely in harmony with what is happening on stage.
«The idea of such a concert-festival was born two or three months ago,» said Ekaterina Alekseeva, the organizer and chief director of the Smiling Hearts performance, head of the Katyusha Russian Dance Academy, a private children's and youth dance school operating in Bangkok, after the concert.
«Initially, I wanted to make a big concert, a friendship festival, bringing together in one performance all the groups in Thailand, in which the teachers are Russian speakers. The goal was immediately set to make the concert charitable and transfer all the proceeds to children who need help, for example, to an orphanage», she said.
«And then I found out about this organization — Special Olympics Thailand, where there is a children's section covering 33,000 children with disabilities with developmental disabilities, and I thought it would be nice to transfer money to them to pay for children's trips to international competitions. The proceeds from the concert will provide they have such trips throughout the year,» Alekseeva added.
The organizer of the performance told how she began to assemble a team — not only artists, but also everyone who provided the show — lighting and sound engineers, equipment operators and other necessary specialists, which took about two hundred people. The Russian Orthodox Church in Thailand provided great assistance in the preparation: the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archimandrite Oleg (Cherepanin), not only allowed the church choir to perform at the opening and during the concert with his own program, but he himself assisted in organizing the concert, Alekseeva said.
«As for how our artists and the concert program itself were received by the public, I myself was surprised by such a warm reception in our time, when information about the «cancellation of Russian culture» comes from some countries. And the fact that all tickets for our concert were sold out instantly through the main Thai website for the sale of concert and theater tickets, also says a lot,» she said.
Many Thai spectators at the concert perceived from the Russians in the hall ways of expressing their admiration for the artists, including shouting «Bravo!», which does not always happen at performances in Thailand, Alekseeva noted.
«It's also great that we managed to unite on one big stage all the teams in Thailand with which Russian-speaking teachers work. These are teams from different places in Thailand, and their leaders and teachers often do not even communicate with each other, but they all agreed take part in this performance together,» the organizer of the concert emphasized.
«I plan to make this concert-festival an annual event, and I have already sent a letter to the Thai Ministry of Culture with a request to reserve two days of using the Big Stage of the National Cultural Center for us for next year's concert,» Alekseeva said.
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