Russian Ballet. From its origins to triumph

The book of the Russian playwright, the historian of the theater and librettist Sergei Khudekov (1837-1928), is one of the first monographic studies of the Russian ballet phenomenon: from the “overseas dances” of the times of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov to the era of Anna Pavlova, Vaclav Ninzhinsky, Isadora Duncan, Mikhail Fokin , Tamara Karsavina ...
The basis of the book was the collection of Khudekov himself, who collected more than 15 thousand documents and exhibits about the history of the theater. The History of the Russian Ballet was to become part of a multi -volume "dance history", but the fate of the book was tragic: its circulation died during a fire in a printing house in 1918, only a few copies survived miraculously.
The work of Sergei Khudekov is not only an eyewitness’s unique look at the "Golden era" of the Russian ballet, but also the panorama of the entire history of Russian ballet art - from copying Western samples to the consciousness of the truly national school of ballet skill, which has become a standard for the whole world.
The publication is richly illustrated by rare engravings and photographs