On 14 December at the Russian Embassy in Tokyo with the collaboration of the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo the historical documentary exhibition Art in Its Pure Form has opened, marking one century since the first tour by a Russian ballet company to Japan.
The Russian ballet company first visited Japan at the height of World War I: soloists of the Imperial (Mariinsky) Theatre had been invited by the Japanese ambassador to Petrograd, Viscount Motono Ichirō, to appear at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo. Elena Smirnova, Olga Oblakova and Boris Romanov presented highlights from the classical Russian ballets Swan Lake, La Bayadère and The Little Humpbacked Horse. That was when Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s music was performed in Japan for the first time.
At the exhibition Art in Its Pure Form, documents, photographs and video materials from the historic archives of the Mariinsky Theatre and Russian collections and museums have been assembled and presented together. From 15 June the exhibition was on display at the historic Mariinsky Theatre (St Petersburg), while from 29 July it was held at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre on the eve of the opening of the I International Mariinsky Far East Festival (Vladivostok).
Today the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev are actively involved in developing partnerships with countries in the Asia-Pacific Region. The ballet and opera companies, chorus and orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre under Valery Gergiev regularly perform on tour in Japan, China and South Korea to packed auditoriums.
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