Winter Ball as reincarnation
St Petersburg University has held a traditional student Winter Ball. The event was visited by over 500 people.
The SPbU Assembly Hall with the white columns was full of students who changed their loose hoodies and jeans for the dresses and suits of the Pushkin’s epoch. The ball dresses and tailcoats were accompanied by waltz, polka, polonaise, mazurka, and tempête.
This year, theatre performance based on the Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin created an atmosphere of the balls at St Petersburg in the 19th century. The event was visited by SPbU’s Theatre-Studio, Vocal Studio, Dance Studio, and Musica Universalis.
“The guests seemed to be at the balls at St Petersburg in 1820-40s where we tried to have a philosophic view on the inner world of Eugene Onegin. We tried to find a golden mean between the historical reconstruction and modern dancing evening. I hope our event was both an entertainment and discovery of something new”, — said Pavel Melentiev, chief director of the Winter Ball, founder and director of the Dance Studio at SPbU.
The classical ball is both dancing and socializing. The students had small talks and visited musical and literary saloons.
Pavel Melentiev and Sergei Migitsko read Eugene Onegin. “What I have seen is worth the highest recognition, - said Sergei Migitsko. — How the students of St Petersburg University dance is a miracle, it is Russian intelligentsia that St Petersburg University is bringing up”