Even an accident that left her with a terrible spinal injury could not dampen popular Russian ballerina Elena Barkaytis passion for the dance form. For the last 25 years,ever since the accident happened,Barkaytis has been teaching underprivileged children the art of mastering modern ballet since she could no longer dance herself. The group has now become six-time world champions in show dancing among children and juniors. At the age of 53,Barkaytis the director and choreographer of the ballet troupe,Exiton,from Ulyanovsk serves as an inspiration to many. Founded two decades ago,the modern ballet troupe left the audience at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in the Capital thrilled on Tuesday evening. In India where ballet is not as popular as in the West,teenagers and kids as young as eight years of age,left the audience speechless with their acrobatic movements and gravity-defying postures. Each of the performances unearthed the story with a dramatic background score,unlike the monotonous slow ballet performances that we have been seeing so far. The pieces showcased simple things that we fail to pay attention to in our everday lives such as the long braid that is not seen on many girls nowadays,to animal gestures and even mosquitoes. The highlight was when the young artistes performed Why don't people fly?,which had dancers dressed in white to signify the sky. Barkaytis said,There is a very strong message hidden in this performance. It inspires people to let go of worrying about small problems in life and look into the sky and continue to dream. Many of the acts are inspired from Barkaytis personal experiences. The performance was organised by the Russian Embassy in collaboration with Dostoyanie to mark 65 years of the Indo-Russian ties.
