Natasha's Dance and Russian Cultural History
Published in 2002, Natasha's Dance is a broad cultural history of Russia from the building of St.Petersburg during the reign of Peter the Great in the early eighteenth century. Taking its title from a scene in Tolstoy's War and Peace, where the young countess Natasha Rostova intuitively dances a peasant dance, it explores the tensions between the European and folk elements of Russian culture, and examines how the myth of the 'Russian soul' and the idea of 'Russianness' itself have been expressed by Russian writers, artists, composers and philosophers.
The film director Joe Wright revealed that Natasha's Dance was the inspiration for his 2012 film "Anna Karenina" starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard. Figes is credited as the historical consultant on the film
Figes has also written essays on various Russian cultural figures, including Leo Tolstoy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev . In 2003 he wrote and presented a TV feature documentary for the BBC, The Tsar's Last Picture Show, about the pioneering colour photographer in Tsarist Russia Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky.
Read more about this topic: Orlando Figes
Famous quotes containing the words dance, russian, cultural and/or history:
“Never since the middle summer’s spring
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
By pavèd fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beachèd margent of the sea
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“An enormously vast field lies between “God exists” and “there is no God.” The truly wise man traverses it with great difficulty. A Russian knows one or the other of these two extremes, but is not interested in the middle ground. He usually knows nothing, or very little.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“At times it seems that the media have become the mainstream culture in children’s lives. Parents have become the alternative. Americans once expected parents to raise their children in accordance with the dominant cultural messages. Today they are expected to raise their children in opposition to it.”
—Ellen Goodman (20th century)
“The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)