Teachers of Siberian Branch of Moscow State Academy of Choreography in Kemerovo Take the Stage of New Training Theatre

Aleksey Savin and Margarita Prokopchenko, teachers of the Siberian Branch of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography (MSAC), were the first among the teachers and dancers to appraise the stage of the new training theatre located in the MSAC building in the Kemerovo Educational Cluster. The construction of the Cluster has been commissioned by the Social and Cultural Projects Fund “National Cultural Heritage” and is carried out by Stroytransgaz Group.

The teachers highly praised the stage floor quality – the stage is laid with specialised ballet linoleum which features a special cushion layer providing protection against injuries and serious bruising.

‘This is a unique floor which is only used on the stages of the world’s leading theatres,’ Aleksey Savin noted. ‘The stage itself is very spacious and allows for performing the most difficult ballet moves: grand pas de chat, grand pas jete, pas jete entrelace‘.

All the equipment is top-class and manufactured by the leading global and Russian producers. It has already proven effective at the leading concert venues of the world. Besides quality, great attention was also paid to safety, when selecting the equipment. Stage dressing, audience seat upholstery, and wall finishing are made of non-combustible materials. All wires are laid in special metal conduits. Even if, for example, a short circuit occurs, sparking will simply be physically impossible, as well as inflammation of the surrounding objects.  

A large number of lighting equipment provides not only for high-quality lighting of the stages and the house excluding the presence of shadows and unilluminated corners, but also for creation of the “fabric” of each performance. The operator will work out a programme providing for a minute-by-minute action pattern. For instance, light can be used to show the performer “walking” along the footpath towards the house on the backdrop, to simultaneously or sequentially spot the principal performers, etc. The more projectors, the more opportunities the dancers have. The so-called “moving lights” manufactured by Clay Paky have already been installed in the houses; these lights are long-life, light-weight and small in size. Each light-emitting diode in such devices can be controlled separately, which allows for creating an infinite range of colour variations.

The sound equipment was selected in an equally responsible manner: a whole set of loudspeakers and microphones manufactured by Turbosound and Shure companies will provide for high-quality sound over the entire area of the house and on the stage. Specialists say that the equipment produced by this company purifies every sound and elevates it to legendary status.

It is interesting that different equipment is used in the concert halls for the students of the Central Music School and the Academy of Choreography. As regards the Central Music School, both the house and the stage are lined with sound-absorbing panels, so that the sound reflected from the walls does not distract the young musicians or interfere with the instrument sound, which would distort the latter. At the same time, uniform sound over the entire stage and house area is much more important for the students of the Academy of Choreography; otherwise, due to the difference between the velocity of sound produced by different sources, the audience will get the impression that the dancer lags behind the music or gets ahead of it.

The control of sound, illumination, and stage machinery is completely automated; operators use touch panels which resemble tablet computers with a complex game. The next step planned is installation of a screen on the stage of the concert hall at the branch of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography. The screen is 7.20 m wide. A horizontal bar has already been prepared for installation; the bar can bear an equipment weight of up to 500 kg. A projector for the screen has already been installed. The state-of-the-art equipment allows the stage of the Educational Cluster in Kemerovo to become a continuation of any other venue of our country and the world; concerts and demonstration lessons will be broadcast here.  

The concert halls and rehearsal rooms are equipped with cameras for video recording, so that the performers can take a detached view of themselves and analyse the mistakes made. Large-format (65 inches) flat TV screens (LG) and video cameras (Datavideo) will be installed over the mirror walls in the rehearsal rooms.

The educational part of the cluster is located in Leninsky district of Kemerovo and includes five buildings: a choreographic academy for students and a boarding school for 150 persons, music school for 150 students with a concert hall and a boarding school for 75 students; comprehensive school with a water pool for 300 pupils. The building complex has the total area of 33,807 m². The facilities are built in parallel with all the necessary infrastructure. The overall facility occupies an area of 7 hectares. It is intended for students of the Siberian branches of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography and Central Music School of Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory.