Chapter 1797 Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

The name of the Vorkuta Theater sounds very impressive, but it is actually a small theater with a seating capacity of about 150 people. Its shape is very similar to a school lecture hall. Movies can be shown in it on a regular basis, and sometimes there will be musical performances.

Such a place would have closed down long ago in Daxia, not even as big as a screening room in a movie theater, but in Vorkuta it is a high-end venue - it is the cultural center of Vorkuta, and its status is higher than those nightclubs in Vorkuta.

As soon as Xiao Peng and his friends entered the Vorkuta Theater, they heard music coming from inside.

"Tchaikovsky? Anna Karenina?" Xiao Peng was stunned when he heard the music, because it was a clip from the Russian ballet Anna Karenina.

After hearing this, Desalev asked curiously, "Mr. Xiao, are you also interested in ballet?"

Xiao Peng said, "Well, I've seen the Eifman Ballet Company's performance. Can such a grand show be performed in such a small theater?"

As they talked, they entered the theater and saw an old woman sitting in the front row looking at the stage. On the stage, a girl in a ballet costume was dancing to the music, and many other girls were standing at the back watching.

Xiao Peng doesn't know much about ballet, but he can see that this girl has pretty good skills. In this short dance, she does the front wiping, back wiping, side wiping and several other stretching and balancing movements very well, which makes people feel comfortable no matter how they watch it.

To be honest, in Xiao Peng's eyes, ballet is the dance that best showcases the beauty of women but is also the most destructive to women.

Why is it said to show off a woman's beauty? Look at those girls who stretch one leg forward when taking photos to show how long their legs are. But what about ballet? As long as they stand upright, all you can see are the girl's long legs...

Then why is it said that it destroys women?

Practicing ballet is so hard that fifty pairs of feet out of a hundred ballet dancers will be deformed, and almost all ballet dancers walk with their feet splayed, which is very ugly - this is because ballet pays the most attention to balance, especially some slow balancing movements that are extremely difficult to control, and splayed feet helps the actors control their center of gravity and balance, and over time it becomes a habit.

The girl on the stage is doing a pirouette to the music: the weight of her whole body is concentrated on the toes of the supporting foot, and one leg extends and retracts while spinning, taking into account both beauty and balance as well as speed and strength.

This is really super difficult!

After spinning about eight times, the girl finally lost her balance and fell onto the stage, looking at the old woman in horror.

The old woman just snorted coldly: "Do it again!"

The girl spun again, and fell to the ground again, and the old woman shouted again: "Again!"

This time the girl couldn't even stand properly, but she continued to spin there.

When she fell again, the old woman stood up and said, "When you came here, you all had only one hope, which was to live a life without pain in the future, but life is suffering!"

She clapped her hands after she finished speaking.

The girls watching from the back also ran onto the stage and lined up. Then the old woman began clapping: "One, two, three, jump! Little jump, jump, spread out... Six, seven, front toe pirouette, spin, spin, keep spinning... outward, inward, good!"

Xiao Peng frowned and asked in a low voice: "Desalev, what is going on?"

He thought he came here to arrest someone, but when he arrived he saw an old lady teaching people ballet.

It’s a bit interesting to say that everyone who knows ballet knows that ‘ballet originated in Italy and developed in France’. Many people think that the European ballet holy land is a country like France, but they don’t know that the real ballet holy land is Russia - well, Ukraine and Belarus can also be counted among them.

In the 18th century, Peter the Great of Russia carried out a "total Westernization" policy, which meant issuing various laws and regulations ordering the entire Russia to align with Europe.

In 1702, Peter the Great issued a decree requiring Russian women, regardless of whether they were married or not, to participate in high-society social activities. At that time, large balls were held regularly in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and all officials had to bring their wives and daughters to participate. All noble girls over the age of ten had to participate. This move greatly increased Russia's population, and of course, it also created countless single mothers.

Moreover, the trend of that period was: whoever learned well from Europe would have a noble status. At that time, Russia's worship of French culture was almost obsessive - similar to Japan today.

So ballet became the favorite of Russians. In 1738, the first ballet school in St. Petersburg was established, which is now the Vaganova Russian Ballet School. In 1742, the first ballet troupe was established there. They absorbed the essence of the three major ballet schools of Italy, France and Denmark and created their Russian classical ballet system.

The embarrassing thing is that ballet had been declining in Europe for a long time. But Europeans brought ballet back from Russia, which led to the subsequent European ballet revival.

Desarev replied: "That old lady is Yulia Gordeeva. She was the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet of the former Soviet Union. Her brother, Vyacheslav Gordeev, is now the director of the Russian National Ballet."

"What is she doing here?" Xiao Peng was puzzled.

DeSalvatore said: "She is now ABT's artistic consultant, responsible for discovering new talents for ABT."

Xiao Peng frowned slightly after hearing this: "ABT? American National Ballet Theatre?"

Desarev nodded and said, "When the Soviet Union collapsed, Gordeeva went to the United States, while her brother Gordeev stayed in Russia."

Xiao Peng snapped his fingers and said, "We should walk on two legs. We shouldn't put all our eggs in one basket, right?"

Desarev nodded and said, "Yes, many capable Russians did the same at that time."

Xiao Peng expressed his understanding, saying that many people in Daxia did the same during the war.

DeSalvatore said, "Now comes the trouble."

"What trouble is it?" Xiao Peng asked in confusion.

Desarev replied: "We now have evidence that Gordeeva is directly linked to this criminal gang, but we have no way to touch her."

Xiao Peng asked in confusion, "Why? Aren't you from the FSB? How come you can't deal with this old lady?"