Exhibition of Marius Petipa "Two Centuries of Petipa"

As part of the celebration in Russia of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding choreographer Marius Petipa (1818-1910), the exhibition “Two Centuries of Petipa” will be held at the Theater Museum. The exposition will present a picture of the life and work of Marius Ivanovich, and also explain why the image of the great master was mythologized over time. Thanks to Petipa’s vast archive, saved by Alexei Bakhrushin during the revolutionary events of 1917, as well as materials from the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters, visitors will find out exactly how the French ballet dancer ended up in Russia and how he managed to create a classical ballet repertoire that includes such masterpieces as “ La Bayadere "," Sleeping Beauty "," Swan Lake "," Raymond "and others. The exhibition will also present a colorful illustration of entertaining stories and curious facts that are saturated with Petipa’s personal and creative biography.

The exposition will include archival documents, photographs, books, posters, paintings and graphics, including more than 40 sketches of costumes by A. Charlemagne, sketches of K. Waltz, I. Vsevolozhsky, A. Golovin and other famous artists and theater decorators of the era. Excerpts from Petipa’s choreographic heritage, preserved on film, from the era of silent films to recent reconstructions, will be shown on screens.

In addition to the collection of Petipa of the Bakhrushinsky Museum, the exhibition will feature exhibits from the Bolshoi Theater Museum, RGALI, and the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Music. As an official partner of the Theater Museum, the National Center for Dance in France (Center national de la danse) has developed a virtual form of Petipa’s exhibition, available for viewing from anywhere in the world.

Throughout the work of the exhibition, excursions will be organized, including directly from the curator of the exhibition - theater expert Sergei Konaev.

In addition, the Theater Museum. A.A. Bakhrushina prepared a unique edition of Marius Petipa. “Memoirs and documents” (scientific editorial, introductory article, commentary and translation by S. Konaev, decoding of the French text by Pascal Melanie), in which the reader will get the opportunity to get acquainted with the French script for the first time and compare Petipa’s life story, as the choreographer himself told it, with materials discovered as a result of many years of archival searches.

Finally, on June 5–8, 2018, the International Scientific Conference “Marius Petipa. The Ballet Empire: From Rise to Decline ”, organized by the Bakhrushin Museum in conjunction with the State Institute of Art Studies and the Bolshoi Theater. The conference is timed to the date of the conclusion of the contract between M.I. Petipa and the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters.