From Russia with love…

The renowned dance ensemble “Kalinka” from Russia performed at the Russian Centre For Science And Culture on October 29 as part of the ongoing Rosatom Festival of Science and Culture, an event organised by Russia’s Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation in Nehru Centre, Mumbai and Russian Centre For Science And Culture in Mumbai and New Delhi. 

“Bollywood movies still find their way towards the hearts of Russians and inspire artistic community there,” said choreographer Natalya Levitskaya-Filippova, the artistic director of “Kalinka”, on the sidelines of their performance at Rosatom Festival of Science and Culture. “There was a time when the tunes of Raj Kapoor’s Bollywood melody “Sar par lal topi Rusi, phir bhi dil hai Hindustani” reverberated on the streets of Russia.

Times have changed, but the India-Russia bilateral ties have stood the test of the times even as the paradigm of friendship has changed. A testimony to this is that an artistic community still finds its inspiration from Bollywood movies,” Natalya added.

“People are the biggest asset of India. They are highly sensitive when it comes to the taste in art, especially music and dance,” said Irina Filippova, Director General of Kalinka.

Rosatom Festival of Science and Culture was held in Mumbai and New Delhi. The programme of the event included scientific and educational activities focused on nuclear science and technologies. Andrei Lebedev, Vice President in India of ASE Group of Companies, Rosatom's engineering division, said that around 5000 attended the festival. 

“The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is a symbol of Indo-Russian relations. The aim of the festival is to strengthen the friendly relationships between Indian and Russian youth, encourage their creativity, and provide a platform to get the knowledge about a variety of cultures,” Andrei added.

The legendary children's folk dance group Kalinka named after A Filippov was founded in 1968 in Moscow by one of the most famous children's choreographers in the USSR - Alexander Filippov. More than 20,000 children were trained in “Kalinka” in the 50 years of existence.

There are more than 150 dances of the folk dances including Russian folk, military and sport variety dances in the repertoire of "Kalinka Filippova". Also, students of “Kalinka” are proud of 3,000 unique hand-sewn costumes. Today "Kalinka” is the most famous Russian children's folk dance group in the world. "Kalinka" toured in 45 countries on four continents. This year is the 15th anniversary of first Kalinka concert in India. In 2003 they performed in New Delhi. This is the third edition of Rosatom Festival of Science. In 2016 and 2017 the event was held in Chennai and Delhi respectively.