Soviet Ballroom Dances - Soviet Category

Soviet Category

The Soviet category comprised

- Polka - Rylio - Varu-Varu - Sudarushka - Russian Lyrical (Russian: Полька, Рилио (Рилё), Вару-Вару, Сударушка, Русский лирический)

With the exception of Polka, these dances were choreographed basing on some folk dances of Soviet republics.

- Rylio is of Lithuanian origin, created by Skaistė Idzelevičienė, the leader of the Lithuanian ballroom formation team Žuvėdra.

- Varu-Varu (translated as "I can, I can") is of Latvian origin.

- Sudarushka (loosely translated as "sweetheart") and Russian Lyrical are Russian.

The former three are "fast" or "rhythmic" dances, the latter two are "slow" or "lyrical" ones.

All of them had distinctive basic techniques. The meter was 2/4 or 4/4 for all of them. The hold was either open or loose, without body contact. Polka had the tightest hold. Polka, Sudarushka and Russian Lyrical were progressive dances, i.e., moving along the line of dance. Rylio and Varu-Varu were of "stationary" type.

Soviet ballroom dances were a relatively new creation. This dance category was introduced with the stated agenda to counterbalance the influence of Western culture (i.e., Ballroom dancing, rock music, the Beatles, etc.). During the relatively short existence of Soviet Ballroom, only the first three had a chance of becoming true Ballroom/Social dances, judging by the flexibility and spontaneity of choreography, willingness of dancers to dance them during practice hours, etc. Rylio had all chances to repeat the evolution of Swing dances: it was danced quite differently in Baltic republics (smoothly), in Belarus (jumpy), and in Moscow. On the contrary, a heat of Sudarushka during a ballroom competition often looked like a performance of a formation team, all competitors dancing almost the same routine.

At the peak of popularity some huge ball rooms of Moscow Palaces of Culture crowded parties of several hundred of ballroom couples in 4-5 concentric circles of Sudarushka.

Today the category is obsolete, but the dances themselves survived, moved back to the category of folk dances. At some dance events, such as "Neva Cup" (Невский кубок) in St. Petersburg, balls of Esta-Mephi club, Moscow, or "Russian Formation Cup-2007" held in Tyumen these dances comprise the competition category of "Homeland Dances" (Отечественные танцы).