The Bolshoi Ballet

Shri Nathji, along with HH Priya Nathji, used to watch the Bolshoi Ballet on television. Shri Nathji greatly admires the artists, as, indeed, He is the Supreme Artist Himself, from whom all the Arts of the world stem. The beauty of the world has derived its Art from Him. As his verse aptly stated in his book, “Jaame Bekhudi”:

"Kisne chirrkaa hai jahaan par ye anokhaa rang aaj,

Akl hairaan, dil hai be-khud, aur zamaanaa dang aaj".

Who has sprinkled this beauteous colour on the world today,

The brain is bewildered, the heart lost in bliss, and the people in wonder.

The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies; it only achieved worldwide acclaim, however, in the early 20th century, when Moscow became the capital of Soviet Russia. Along with the Mariinsky Ballet in Saint Petersburg, the Bolshoi is recognised as one of the foremost ballet companies in Russia.

The earliest origins of the Bolshoi Ballet, can be found in the creation of a dance school for a Moscow orphanage in 1773. In 1776, dancers from the school were employed by Prince Pyotr Urusov and the English theatrical entrepreneur Michael Maddox, to form part of their new theatre company. Originally performing in privately owned venues, they later acquired the Petrovsky Theatre, which, as a result of fires and erratic redevelopment, would later be rebuilt as today's Bolshoi Theatre.

The early history of the Bolshoi Ballet is very sketchy and, despite staging many famous ballets, it struggled to compete with the reputation of the Imperial Russian Ballet, today's Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg. It was not until the appointment of Alexander Gorsky as Ballet Master in 1900 that the company began to develop its own unique identity, with acclaimed productions of new or restaged ballets.

The Bolshoi Ballet performed recently in New Delhi at Siri Fort Auditorium on October 12 2012