Belissimo, "Nalmes"!

Endless waves of applauses "exploded" under the roof of the famous theater hall Massimo Bellini in Sicilian city of Catania, where the State Academic Folk Dance Ensemble "Nalmes" under the leadership of artistic director Mohamed Kulov gave a total of 8 performances.

The director of Nalmes, Azamat Baste and the chief choreographer of the ensemble Aslan Hadzhaev shared their impressions.

'The success of the trip to that lasted from June 6 to 18th was more than we could possibly expect', finds Azamat Baste.

'Given the significance and professionalism of Nalmes, the concert hall administration Massimo Bellini produced a colorful brochure called "Caucasian Passion" presenting each dance with photos and historical details. So when Nalmes arrived to Sicilia, it was already "introduced" to the public.
One little detail surprised us - there was not a single poster in the city. Later, the theater administration explained that additional advertising for this recognized "temple" of art is considered demeaning. The tickets for the performances on the stage of Massimo Bellini Hall are sold out long before the premiere.'

The ensemble's artists felt much honored to perform on this stage. At various times this 1500 seat theatre held under its roof the performances of Enrico Caruso and Mario Lantsa. The top Russian State Folk Dance Ensemble of Igor Moiseev and State Academic Dance Ensemble of Georgia had also demonstrated their art here. Now the Massimo Bellini theater hall welcomed the State ensemble of Adygea.

'Each of the planned concerts lasted exactly 2 hours. On half of these concerts we had to give  "bis" performances - shared with the journalists the artistic director of the ensemble Muhamed Kulov. ‘The hall was always full to the last seat, but the audience was always very different.
We were most worried about our first performance, when under golden arches of the theater gathered the Sicilian aristocracy. We felt literally like in Hollywood royalty films - ladies in luxurious evening gowns and gentlemen in tuxedos walking on red carpet toward their chairs. We could not help feeling timid before the audience of the kind. However, when in the middle of our performance we heard "Belissimo! and Bravo! " we realized that we were doing great'.

After the second concert of "Nalmes" we were approached by the representatives of an Italian promotion company with a proposal to arrange our tour next year in the famous opera houses of the largest cities of Italy: Rome, Melan and Turin.

For Aslan Hadzhaev this Italian tour brought double excitement:

-- First of all, it is my first foreign tour as of a ballet master. Secondly, the concert program included two new productions, which were premiered on this very tour. The first one was a 12 - minute dance "The return of Fire" with remastered technique of sabre fencing and a dance "Tlepachas" (translated as "dancing on tiptoes"), performed by both boys and girls. Both dances were accompanied by complex lighting work. Another challenge was the stage platform itself, for it was tilted by a 25 degree, making it a real challenge to build straight dance lines, which our dancers, however, managed to cope with. All in all, a total of 14 tour dances were performed.

"Italian" tour program will be evaluated at home, in the republican capital Maylop on June 26th in Nalmas personal concert hall.

The original article published on Adigam.com.