Russian Ballet

Activity Type: 
Teacher Training--Area Studies
Promo Image: 
Presenter: 
Daria Khitrova
Date: 
Wednesday, November 19, 2025 - 18:30 to 20:00
Event Status: 
As Scheduled
Location: 
Zoom
Contact Person: 
Sandra Grudic
Contact Email: 
sgrudic@fas.harvard.edu

This webinar is the third in a six-part series, The Arts of Eastern Europe and Eurasia, designed to support K-14 educators in bringing the arts of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia into their classrooms. During this session, we will learn about the Russian ballet as a powerful cultural force shaped by political, religious, and aesthetic pressures from the 19th to the 20th century. We will examine how ballet was viewed by critics, dancers, and administrators—as both an “impossible” art form and a near-religious practice of survival and expression. Educators will gain tools to connect performing arts with broader historical and cultural themes, enriching classroom discussions around artistic expression under authoritarian regimes, the role of tradition in modernity, and how art can serve both resistance and conformity.

UCIS Unit: 
Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies
Non-University Sponsors: 
“Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
Harvard University”
“Center for Russia
East Europe
and Central Asia
University of Wisconsin-Madison”
“Center for Russian
East European
& Eurasian Studies
University of Kansas”
“Center for Slavic
East European and Eurasian Studies
The Ohio State University”
Eurasian and Eastern European Studies
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill”
“Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute
Indiana University”
“Russian
and Eurasian Center
University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign”
World Regions: 
Russia/Eastern Europe
Is Event Already in University Calendar?: 
No