One of the performances took place in the city of Kant, attended by journalists from IA. The program at the city’s cultural center filled the hall and consisted of two parts. The first part was patriotic: it featured songs and poems about the Motherland and the Great Patriotic War, which the older generation in the audience sang along to. Some of the pieces were unfamiliar to the listeners, but nonetheless evoked genuine reactions: the songs and poems brought tears to the eyes of the audience. There was also a dance to a military medley, demonstrating that there was room for songs even in wartime – not just for heroism. The second part, as announced by the host, was conditionally titled “Little Russia”: for every person has their own homeland, their own Russia – the place where they were born and the environment in which they grew up. Many performers are from the Urals, and therefore their “Little Russia” showcased a slice of Ural culture to the audience. This included not only Russian and Cossack dances and songs, and romances that were highly appreciated by representatives of the Kyrgyz Cossacks with exclamations of “Lyubo!”, but also exotic performances such as the Besermyan folk dance “Chepyshyek” to the same-named song, known to all from its Russian-language cover of a Finnish polka, and the dance of fiery Bashkir horse herders. Even the schoolchildren invited to the concert, who initially paid no attention to the stage, put their smartphones down and applauded.
The reason for this is the unconventional approach to organizing the event.
- We have an enormous repertoire! The program in our ensemble is a conditional name! We select our numbers for each holiday that the audience will enjoy. For example, when we performed at the Russian Drama Theater, there were officials present, and it was more formal, but for the residents of Kant, we chose a lighter and more cheerful program. In any case, we strive to represent the cultures of all the peoples of Russia, - said the head of the ensemble, Anton Sholokhov, after the performance to IA. - We have been to Kyrgyzstan before, but this time we arrived in full force, including the orchestra. Unfortunately, the orchestra could not perform at the Kant cultural center: the venue was booked from the morning. We have already been to Armenia, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan... The audience in the CIS countries is good, responsive, even more so than our Russian audience in some places. Here, the era of the USSR has not faded away so far, and our compatriots enjoy seeing familiar faces and hearing melodies, and not only compatriots – all the audience responds well to our performances.
Therefore, it is possible that next year the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Central Military District will visit the Kyrgyz regions.
- This year, there are no plans for regional tours. But we discussed this issue with the senior assistant military attaché on defense matters and decided to work in this regard. Next year, we hope to visit the regions of Kyrgyzstan. We have a great desire to perform there, and we are now working on the possibilities! – concluded Sholokhov.
In total, this time the artists gave four concerts: for the residents and guests of the Kyrgyz capital, for the people of Kant, for representatives of the Armed Forces of the Kyrgyz Republic, and for the personnel of the Kant airbase.
Reference from IA: The Song and Dance Ensemble of the Ural Military District was formed based on the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR No. 171 dated September 13, 1939. The repertoire included songs and dances on heroic-patriotic themes, Russian folk songs, works of domestic and foreign classics, and modern lyrical and pop songs. The first concert of the ensemble took place on December 4, 1939, at the Sverdlovsk Opera and Ballet Theater. Over the years of its operation, the ensemble has given more than 60,000 concerts, attended by over 9.5 million spectators. In 1989, due to the disbandment of the Ural Military District, the ensemble was also disbanded. A new composition of the song and dance ensemble began to form in 1992, when the decree of President Boris Yeltsin on July 7, 1992, restored the Red Banner Ural Military District. The new ensemble included the most talented graduates and postgraduates of the Ural State Conservatory named after M. P. Mussorgsky, the Yekaterinburg Musical College named after P. I. Tchaikovsky, and gifted participants of amateur performances from the Urals.