The
Russian Cossack State Dance Company present Cossack Passion.
The
definitive image in most peoples mind when you mention Cossacks
are rugged, hardy young men mounted on wiry pony’s riding
across the Russian steppes, during one of the dances you get this
feeling/they manage to convey this illusion.
It
is a fairly large company with five singers about 14 dancers, 8
musicians and a cannon. It was difficult to do a definitive count
because of the continuous movement of all the performers. The
dancers both male and female had various changes of costume, all
bright and colourful.
Performed
completely in Russian you don’t feel you are missing out at all,
the words at times sound threatening or challenging and at others
romantic and appealing. The music also varied widely in tempo and
one of the most numerous scenes is when the band come centre stage
and one of the accordionists comes in late with his accordion and
a basket out of which he brings out two smaller accordions and
finally out of his pocket a tiny one. He stacks the smaller three
in a pyramid and proceeds to play the normal size one.
This
show is a feast for the senses and I would love to see it again. I
did feel however that it could have used a much larger stage or an
outside arena just to do it justice.
*****
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