May 23 saw the opening of the 21^st Rudolf Nureyev International Ballet Festival at the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater.

      This year it is dedicated to the 90^th anniversary of Yuri Grigorovich, the People's Artist of the USSR, holder of the Lenin and State Awards of the USSR, and the Hero of Socialist Labor.

      The outstanding choreographer is the festival’s honorary president, who initiated this large-scale event in 1993.

      Outstanding ballet dancers from Russia and abroad are taking part in this extensive program. Soloists of the San Francisco Ballet, the Slovak National Theater, the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of Russia, the "Kremlin Ballet" Theater, and the Musorgsky St. Petersburg State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, as well as ballet troupes of Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk theaters are among them.

      The festival has opened with a new scenographic version of the first Bashkir ballet "Crane Song" by Lev Stepanov and Zagir Ismagilov. It will finish with a gala concert of invited ballet stars and leading soloists of the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater on June 2.