First Responders Battle on Ice

U.S.- Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission Newsletter: On June 25-26, New Yorkers were treated to the annual “Battles on Ice” organized by the Russian American Foundation (RAF) as part of the 11th Annual Russian Heritage Month.  In the words of RAF Vice President Rina Kirshner, “these friendship hockey games between New York City’s Bravest and Russia’s EMERCOM firefighters exemplify how the people of Russia and the United States can come together in support of each other and build special bonds which will further develop friendships of peoples, cultures and countries.” Read More

Dancer Returns from Russia

The Cornwall Local: Cornwall High School sophomore Emma Schilling returned home, two weeks ago, from a six-week intensive program in Russia.  She was one of only 15 dancers to be selected to study at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow through the NSLI-Y (The National Security Language Initiative for Youth) Program and the Russian American Foundation.  To be eligible for the trip, Schilling had to first attend the Bolshoi Ballet Academy Summer Intensive.  She spent three weeks in New York City for intensive ballet training. Read More

Third American Bolshoi Graduate Set For Russian Troupe

USA Today: After years of training in cities from Detroit to Washington, D.C., and later in Russia, Maria Theresa Beck has become only the second American woman to graduate from the world’s most famous ballet school, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. Read More

Elko to Moscow: Streiff to train at Russian academy

Elko Daily Free Press: From Elko to New York, New Zealand and the Czech Republic, she’s made a name for herself as a ballerina. Her journey doesn’t stop there: She’s been accepted into the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, Russia for full-time study. Read More

Russian Fashion Design on Display in NY

RIA Novosti: Work by the prominent Russian fashion designer Slava Zaitsev is currently on display at the exhibition “RetroSpective” at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York, according to the Russian American Foundation. “RetroSpective” described on FIT’s website as “spanning 250 years of fashion” features a design from Zaitsev’s 2004 “Invasion” collection, alongside other work by celebrated international designers such as Alexander McQueen and Yoshiki Hishinuma, while also displaying clothes from as far back as the 18th century. Read More

US Ballet Students Learn to Dance Bolshoi-Style

RIA Novosti: To the untrained eye, ballet is a dance of the feet, the toes to be precise. But to veteran Bolshoi Academy instructor Irina Syrova, it is a dance of the spirit that transcends perfection and skill. Bolshoi ballet is “a ‘flight of the soul,’ it’s not just technique,” Syrova said before a recent class, speaking through an interpreter and offering apologies for borrowing an oft-used quote from Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Along with the necessary skills, it is this elusive distinction that Syrova and nearly a dozen other instructors from the world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow are working to impart this summer to a lucky handful of budding ballerinas from across the United States Read More

Legends of Hockey – Battles on Ice

NTV America: In New York hockey legends met up against an assembled team of American and Russian firefighters. This year they also invited service members from Boston to the match, we go to Yulia Rydler on the ice. Read More

Aspiring Jacksonville Ballet Dancer has Summer Plans with Bolshoi Ballet Academy

jacksonville.com: Following the example of his older sister, Emily, James Floyd began studying dance when he was 4 years old.“It drew me in,” he said. “I liked the mental and physical emotion of it.” But it wasn’t until the summer of 2009 that Floyd, who had just finished the eighth grade at LaVilla School of the Arts, saw his future. Read More

US Beats Russia in ‘Battles on Ice’ Hockey Match

RIA Novosti: New York City firefighters skated past a team of emergency responders from Moscow Wednesday night to win the third annual “Battles on Ice,” a fiercely competitive hockey game that organizers say is about far more than the final score. “This is a fun game, an exciting game, but it will also definitely contribute to a positive dialogue between the countries,” said Russian Minister of Civil Defense Vladimir Puchkov, speaking through an interpreter in an interview with RIA Novosti. Read More

Northville Teen Dances with Bolshoi Ballet

CBS Detroit: It’s a dream come true for a local teen who will get the opportunity to travel to Russia to learn dance from one of the most famous ballet companies in the world. Anna Pearson of Northville won a scholarship from the U.S. State Department and The Russian-American Federation to study at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. She is one of only 15 students across the country to win one of the prestigious scholarships. Read More

Former Devils Viacheslav Fetisov, Alexei Kasatonov in Brooklyn Hockey Event

NJ.com: Former Devils defensemen Viacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov will be among those players participating in the third annual Battles On Ice beginning Tuesday in Brooklyn. Read More

Home-schooled ballet dancer to study at Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow

Your Houston News: Madelaine Graber has loved ballet since she was a child and has always danced in one way or another since she could walk. Now, the home-schooled teen is heading for Moscow, Russia, July 13-August 24, to study with the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, after receiving a scholarship funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and coordinated by the Russian American Foundation. Read More

New Milford Student Headed to Russia to Study at Bolshoi Ballet Academy

Litchfield County Times: Emma, who is 16, is one of 15 young dancers in the U.S. who were selected to participate in the Russian American Foundation’s (RAF) Bolshoi Ballet Academy summer training program, which was established in 2008. Read More

The Museum of Russian Art To Exhibit Photographs from Jewish Life in the Russian Empire

American Jewish World: The vast majority of you reading this article today, like me, had grandparents or great-grandparents who came to America during the Great Migration from Eastern Europe between 1880 and 1920. The vast majority of them came from what was designated “the Pale of Settlement,” a swath of the western part of Catherine the Great’s Russian Empire, established in the late 18th century. Read More