The large scale Days of Belarusian Culture is held in France from the middle of March till September. Not just in Paris, but also about 30 other cities of this country are connected to the project: theatrical, choreographic, musical art, fine arts, cinematographic art and literature of Belarus are represented in various different celebrations here. More than 200 figures of domestic culture have shown and are going to show their skills to the people of France. The National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre performed Swan Lake in the largest cities of France, while the premiere of Pan Tadeusz by the Kupala Theatre is expected in Paris. Belarusfilm National Film Studio opened a pavilion of Belarusian cinema at the 67th Cannes International Film Festival. Publishing houses Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, Vysshee Obrazovanie, and Belkniga society with support of the Ministry of Information of Belarus participated for the first time in the Parisian book exhibition. France also has a city of Brest and the Days of Belarusian Brest were held there: with the screening of the film Brest Fortress and performances of Belarusian artistes.The UNESCO Headquarters was home to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA) exhibition of archival materials about the history of the membership of Belarus in this organisation. In the same place, with assistance of the National Historical Museum of Belarus, they opened the exhibition devoted to the 200th anniversary of Iosif Goshkevich — this ‘Belarusian line’ is in the list of memorable dates of UNESCO for 2014.
The trip to Paris became an original gift for young artistes of well-known group Dudariki from Minsk. They were there with full the complement including Dmitry Rovensky, who is the head of the group. “When rumours reached us that we may be invited to Paris, we at first thought it was a joke!” Dmitry Dmitrievich said. “After the New Year, the Ambassador of Belarus to France, Pavel Latushko, visited our gymnasium #14, and it became clear that it was necessary to prepare for a performance!”
According to Rovensky, over 700 spectators were at the concert hall, and the Minsk gymnasium students displayed Belarusian national musical art in their thirty minute performance. They sang, danced, and played accordions, pipes, reed-pipes and ocarinas, as well as playing household things: railways, a cash register, a saw... At first, the Minister of Culture, Boris Svetlov, briefly told about the achievements of Belarus in the field of culture and then presented this original collective to the audience.
How did Paris receive Dudariki? “It was a great success. We performed our program perfectly, there was much applause and a long ovation,” Dmitry Rovensky is happy with his students. “By the way, we carried our national musical instruments to France from the museum of the gymnasium, the exhibits for which we have been collecting for many decades. The exhibition of 50 instruments with more than 30 names was organised in the foyer before the beginning of the concert, and people showed great interest in it.” The Dudariki concert was organised by the Permanent Representation of Belarus under UNESCO with support of the Minsk City Executive Committee. The artistes received new scenic costumes.
After their performance, they were invited to perform there again in May. The head of the group said that the artistes stayed in a hotel located in the very centre of the city. Parisian impressions will stay in the memory of the Minsk gymnasium students for a long time.
By Ivan [b]Zhdanovich[/b]
