Sochi Winter Theatre...Oh Russia! TGIF!

Since moving to Russia, we have created a bucket list of things to see while we are here. One of the items on our list was to see a performance in the зимний театр (Winter Theatre). Mark's colleague and friend gave him two tickets to the theatre as a birthday gift. We are going to the theatre!

The theatre is an impressive old building which you can tell is very loved and well maintained. The inside of the theatre was very grand with an over-sized chandelier on the ceiling. The theatre is no Bolshoi, but the Sochi Winter Theatre is a very beautiful theatre inside and out.

Sochi Winter Theatre

Sochi Winter Theatre

Inside of the Sochi Winter Theatre

The concert we went to see was the Северного русского народного хора (Northern Russian Folk Choir). This was a choir of about 20 women, a dance troupe of 7 men and 7 women, and an orchestra of traditional Russian folk instruments. It was very impressive. They all seemed very well rehearsed and were completely in sync.

This is the choir in one of their many intricate traditional Russian costumes.

The teal dresses were my favorite...I wonder why ;)

The dance troupe. They did a lot of clogging-type dance along 

with the traditional Russian style of dancing.

One of my favorite performances was what I interpreted as the "friendship song". The two women kept singing about their "padruga". Even though I couldn't understand all of it, I could understand the gist of what was going on and it was a great performance.

подруга (Padrugas)!

Another favorite of the night was the drummer. He was a man of many talents, but the best was his spoons performance. He did a solo where he was completely covered with wooden spoons. The orchestra played behind him as he played the rhythm of the clickety-clack of the spoons all over his body. He was very talented.

ложки (Spoons)

I also finally got to see someone playing the Balalaika. The Balalaika is a Russian folk string instrument with a triangular body and three stings. They come in different sizes which dictates the pitch. I have seen this instrument in photos before but never in action. It was definitely one of the highlights of the performance.

This is the bass balalaika.

I thank our friends for this incredible gift. Not only did we get to tick the Winter Theatre off of our list, but we got to experience an amazing performance of traditional Russian culture. And we had such a great time at the theatre that we kept it on the list to do again. :)