Riverdance visits St.Petersburgh

December 3, 2009

Patricia Henry, Dancer, Corrib Company

We arrived in to St. Petersburgh on the Saturday evening and we got a nice surprise to see the ground covered in snow! On the down side though, it was freezing. We were all shattered from our days travelling so we didn’t get up too much that first evening. The next day we got up early and headed in to the city on the Metro to do some sightseeing. St.Petersburgh is an amazing city with lots to see and do, the architecture is simple a must see too. The first day we walked around the city for about two hours taking pictures of The Winter Palace, The Fortress (which houses the famous Cathedral of the Apostles Saint Peter and Paul along with many Museums and galleries) and many more buildings also. It was completely different to the architecture we seen in Moscow, St. Petersburg is a lot more European than Moscow.

Another day we spent checking out the Hermitage Museum, which is located in the Winter Palace. The museum is one of the largest museums in the world, it has 1,945 windows, 1,786 doors and three million works of Art, if you spent 1 minute on each piece of art it would take you nearly five years to leave the museum. A few of the more famous artists that have works on display are Vincent Van Gough, Monet, Matisse, and Rembrandt along with many more which are sure to make you gasp!

Our last night in St.Petersburgh we were lucky enough not to have a show, so instead we all went along to see a Ballet. This was the first time for most of us to see a ballet and I have to say that we really enjoyed it, the only thing about it was that it lasted nearly three hours, so that was rather tough but other than that we had a very enjoyable evening.

The audiences both in Moscow and St.Petersburgh really enjoyed the show and gave us a very warm welcome, we found it a little strange the first couple of nights because they weren’t that loud, but we soon realised that they are more use to going to the Opera or to the Ballet where the audience is more reserved in showing their appreciation for the show.

The next day it was time to leave Russia, and because the next city we performed in was Paris it meant that it was going to take a few days to get the trucks there so we had a few days off. Most of us got the opportunity to fly home for the weekend while others got to stay in Paris and have a few days off. Luckily for a few of the Irish who stayed, they got to go to the Ireland V France game which was played in Paris, and we all no the result of that game! They all said that they really enjoyed the game and that there was a great atmosphere there.

After our few days off we perform in Paris for a week, so check back next week to see what we get up to in Paris…

Patricia