The Mukam Palace of the Ashgabat State Cultural Center has hosted a concert by the Igor Moiseyev State Academic Ensemble of Folk Dance, which provided a grand finale to Culture Days of the Russian Federation.

Timed to coincide with the summit meeting between Presidents Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov and Vladimir Putin in Ashgabat on October 2, the concert highlighted the importance of the humanitarian component of Turkmen-Russian dialogue.

The documents signed during the talks outline prospects for the humanitarian partnership and offer many possibilities for cooperation in the scientific-educational and cultural spheres.

Among them are the 2018-2020 Program for Cooperation between the Ministries of Culture of Turkmenistan and the Russian Federation; the Agreement for Continued Cooperation with the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences and N. N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology.

The Culture Days events also testify to the fact that the two peoples, who are linked with historical commonality and spiritual values, share a desire to cement their friendship and fill the many-aspect dialogue with qualitatively new content.

Yesterday, the Igor Moiseyev State Academic Ensemble of Folk Dance gave a concert to a packed audience at the Mukam Palace.

Interestingly, the ensemble opened its 81st concert season with the tour to Turkmenistan. Art director Elena Shcherbakova said that the ensemble had visited the Turkmen capital for the first time 78 years ago, and the successful partnership between our countries gives promises that the relations will become closer and the Moiseyev Folk Dance Ensemble will come to sunny and hospitable Ashgabat again many times.

As part of the Days, the people of Turkmenistan had a chance to become acquainted with the exhibition entitled “Nature of the Russian North”, combining the best photographs, which had been featured at the international photography exhibition “Through the eyes of the Northerners”.

The Ashgabat Movie Theater hosted the showing of modern-day films by Russian film-makers. The capital’s residents and guests were shown the film directed by Vera Storozheva “My Boyfriend is an Angel” (2012) – a fascinating tale, and the film by Rezo Gigineishvili “Without borders” (2015).

Held during the Days, meetings between colleagues contributed to expanding the Turkmen-Russian cultural contacts. In this connection, master classes given at the Turkmen State Culture Institute by artists of the Igor Moiseyev Ensemble to students of Ashgabat’s dance school and dance groups offer a telling example.

The guests told about the particular qualities of the folk and stage dance choreography created by I. Moiseyev, as well as his special dance style, which includes classical, folk and stage dances. As noted, the dancers gladly learn local dances in every country they go on a tour to. Turkmen dancers, who demonstrated how elegance and grace of ancient ritual dances take on new shading, also offered this opportunity to the guests. In the evening in the Mukam Palace, the renowned Ensemble performed a Turkmen dance (as a gift to our compatriots), which brought thunderous applause from the audience.

Culture of every nation is an open book of history. Its every page reflects the whole stratum of spiritual heritage accumulated over the centuries and thousands of years. Our guests had a chance to learn about it at first hand by visiting museums, cultural centers and Ashgabat’s many places of interest.

Summing up Culture Days of the Russian Federation in Turkmenistan, the participants in the cultural event emphasized its role and importance in strengthening peace and friendship, promoting mutual enrichment of the cultures and understanding between the fraternal peoples, and encouraging closer humanitarian dialogue.