How to do party rock anthem dance

Rock-n-roll lights Russian stars - Ogonyok No.

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For 30 years, acrobatic rock and roll has existed in Russia as a sport. Anniversary is an occasion to remember the history of achievements and victories

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The first rock and roll parties in the 80s gathered the youth of the best universities in the country

A photo: from the personal archive of Alexei Golev

Students honor Alexei Golev, the pioneer of acrobatic rock and roll in Russia

A photo: from the personal archive of Alexei Golev

Today Alexey Golev is the Honorary President of the All-Russian Federation of Acrobatic Rock and Roll

A photo: Kommersant / Dmitry Korotaev / buy photo

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The first rock and roll parties in the 1980s were attended by young people from the best universities in the country

A photo: from the personal archive of Alexei Golev

Students honor Alexey Golev, the pioneer of acrobatic rock and roll in Russia

A photo: from the personal archive of Alexei Golev

Today Alexey Golev is the Honorary President of the All-Russian Federation of Acrobatic Rock and Roll

A photo: Kommersant / Dmitry Korotaev / buy photo

Olga Rozmakhova

Acrobatic rock'n'roll has its roots in the distant past, to the very origins of human existence - to Africa. For many thousands of years, on the shores of the Black Continent, the local population performed ritual dances, the basis of which was not a melody, but a pure rhythm - bewitching, energizing, raising morale. The African influence is difficult to overestimate - ancient ritual songs gradually merged into church singing, echoes of the chants of the black workers of the American South in the modern world can be found in hip-hop, rap, and techno.

According to one version, the combination of the words rock and roll first appeared at the beginning of the 17th century and at first had nothing to do with music. With these words, sailors denoted the types of movements of a sea vessel during pitching: rock - rocking back and forth, roll - sliding to the sides. Loaded ships, sinking between the waves, carried African slaves in their holds, who, in turn, carried their customs and culture to the New World.

Rhythm, which has been woven into the African genome for centuries, could not disappear without a trace even on new shores. It became the basis of many dances that actively developed in the United States at the end of the 19th and the middle of the 20th century, including the texess tommy, charleston, balboa, lindy hop, boogie-woogie and, of course, rock and roll.

The dance style of rock and roll is inextricably linked with the musical direction of the same name. In 1951, Alan Fried, an American disc jockey for the small Cleveland radio station WJW, decided to create a special music radio program that would include Negro jazz. Taking the pseudonym Moondog - Moon Dog, he came up with the name for his program Moon Dog Rock and Roll Party - "Rock 'n' Roll Party Moon Dog". The term "rock and roll", according to legend, was introduced by Freedom to describe the newfangled music that sounded on his radio show - the expression "we'll rock, we'll roll" was extremely popular at that time and was used in many songs rhythm and blues style.

In 1954, already in New York, Alan expanded his rock and roll promotion activities to a national scale, using the resources of private companies and radio stations. The public and even government agencies have literally declared war on rock and roll as a phenomenon that destroys American culture. Senators, priests, public figures and teachers spoke on radio, television and in the press, denouncing rock and roll and urging young people to be reasonable. Some spoke of the "black contagion", others argued that all this was the work of the communists, who decided to use rock and roll as an ideological weapon in order to undermine American power from within. However, despite the best efforts of the public, forbidden rock and roll only gained popularity.

The birthday of rock and roll is considered to be April 12, 1954: it was on this day that the cult song Rock Around the Clock was first played on American radio stations. Bill Haley, the author of this rock and roll hit, thus became one of the first creators of rock and roll as a musical direction, which, in fact, was a mixture of accelerated country-western, rhythm and blues and swing. Exactly two years later, on April 12, 1956, the song Rock Around the Clock became the title soundtrack in the film of the same name, which instantly went around the world: on a black and white film, young people and girls, standing in a couple, danced either jive or Boogie Woogie. In fact, it was rock and roll!

The authors of the film could not even imagine that very soon rock and roll would become not just music or dance, but a kind of cult and religion. The cult hero of the rock and roll era was Elvis Presley, who shouted into the microphone: "I want to spend a little time in this world and feel the sharp taste of life, dancing rock!"

In the 50s, rock and roll made a rapid leap across the ocean, and by the beginning of the 60s, all of Europe was already infected with it. Finally, in the 70s, the German choreographer Wolfgang Steuer picked up and developed the fashion trend: at 19In 74, with his participation, the European Rock and Roll Association (ERRA) was formed, which initially included Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland, and later Austria, Holland, Denmark and Sweden. Canada soon joined in and the European Association became the World Rock and Roll Association (WRRA). In 1984, he united the World Federation of Rock and Roll and the World Federation of Jazz Dance (FMDJ) - this is how the World Rock and Roll Confederation (WRRC) appeared - an international sports federation that coordinates the development of the sport of acrobatic rock and roll, and also dance rock and roll, boogie woogie, lindy hop, bagg and double bagg. Currently, 35 countries are active members of the WRRC, including Russia.

Rock and roll in the USSR was in short supply - it was very difficult to get it. In the 50s, fashionable music was recorded instead of records on "bones" - unsuspicious x-rays that were secretly passed from hand to hand. Rock and roll became more or less legal only after the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957, which attracted guests from all over the world. The visitors danced dances unprecedented in the USSR, and our youth rapidly adopted new dance skills.

In the 1960s the Beatles became known in the USSR. The Beatles became the voice of a generation - they conquered the youth with their simplicity, sincerity, cheerful rhythm, beauty of the melody and serene voices. However, after student unrest swept around the world in 1968, rock and roll was banned in the USSR.

Since the second half of the 1970s, Western music, including rock and roll, entered the USSR on completely legal grounds. The only recording studio in the country, Melodiya, began releasing a series of Melodies and Rhythms of Foreign Pop, which, along with hits from the socialist countries, came across hits from Western rock stars, from Elvis Presley to Tom Jones.

The Olympic Games held in Moscow in 1980 served as a new impetus to the development of rock and roll in the USSR: foreigners from all over the world came to the Moscow Olympics. Young people danced in the Olympic village, went out with exciting rhythms to the city. It is no coincidence that for a long time the cafe "At the Fountain" in the Olympic Village was considered a cult place for all lovers of rock and roll and break dance.

— In the early 80s, I organized the first modern dance class, the so-called party dance, — says Alexey Golev, the founding father of acrobatic rock and roll in Russia, honorary president of RosFARR. — I have been dancing since childhood, students my father, a teacher at RUDN University, brought the "rhythms" of rock and roll, twist, neck into our family very early . .. The demand for my services at that time was amazing, the record for Moscow youth was three months in advance. Almost all the creative youth of the Institute of the USA and Canada studied with me, the daughter of Fazil Iskander, the daughter-in-law of Vasily Aksenov, a KGB colonel with his wife, a people's artist from the Operetta Theater ... It was not just a circle of friends, but a circle of interests.

But one day an event happened that radically changed my life...

Rock and roll became more or less legal only after the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1957, which attracted guests from all over the world.

— The famous ballroom dancer Pyotr Chebotarev called me and said: “Come, it’s like this…” recalls Aleksey Golev. where I saw something unimaginable: people dance rock and roll in a special way, and even twist crazy tricks - the girls spin so that the air whistles, they do somersaults. "And the music?" I ask. "All I can tell you," Chebotarev explained, "is that it's a throw into the strong beat, and a step into the weak beat." I had enough: the basis of the rhythm was clear. I devoted all my free time for the next 3 or 4 months to film, I studied it so much that it almost didn’t melt.

Golev was lucky: the demonstration performances of the two best couples in Europe at that time - German and Italian - were recorded on tape, so he "took lessons" first-hand in absentia. It took 1.5 years for the future father-founder of acrobatic rock and roll in Russia, and then a student of GITIS choreographer courses, to "invent a wheel", for which he did not even know the name (acrobatic rock and roll Alexey Borisovich for himself called "sports"). And in 1985, a rumor spread that Hungary would host a European acrobatic rock and roll tournament as part of the Youth Student Festival. Golev, three months before the departure, found a circus partner, for whom somersaults were a common thing, made a program with her and, by personal invitation, got to the tournament.

— It was the first tournament that was held in the socialist countries, and we were greeted as the first official delegates from the Soviet Union, — Alexey Golev explains. I remember that after the greeting, the then president of the World Acrobatic Rock and Roll Confederation, Wolfgang Steuer, left alone with me, asked about my dancing skills. And it turned out like in the book "The Twelve Chairs": "Kisa, tell me as an artist to an artist, do you know how to draw?" That is, Steuer asked me: "Alexey, tell me like a dancer to a dancer, do you know how to dance rock and roll?" I showed a few movements - and that from the soul was relieved. Surprisingly, at those competitions, not yet able to perform the elements of flight acrobatics, we took quite a decent place in the middle of the list.

But there was nothing: no special clothes made of supplex, no shoes, no methodical recommendations. Only a great desire to dance the best. Alexey Borisovich returned home with the idea to create acrobatic rock and roll as a sport in his homeland. In 1986, he opened the country's first acrobatic rock and roll section at the DSO Lokomotiv, which was later renamed the Moscow Rock and Roll Club. It was from this year that the history of Russian acrobatic rock and roll began.

By the end of the 80s, the Soviet rock and roll community acquired its own methodology, championships and tournaments began to be held. And in 1989, the first children's rock and roll club "Tutti-Frutti" appeared in the Moscow secondary school N 36.

— Starting from the Olympics-80, festivals of youth and students, rock and roll was primarily a student dance, — explains Ivan Sbitnev, the founder of the club, Honored Coach of Russia. — At that time I worked as a history teacher and decided to expand this framework, making rock'n'roll accessible to children, because rock'n'roll generally has no hard age limits, if we are not talking about the sport of the highest achievements. A person can come to us at the age of 6, or maybe at 17, maybe at 33 years old, end his career, or maybe at 43 years old, dance at a frantic pace.

Today, former students of Ivan Yuryevich have become his colleagues, acrobatic rock and roll has its own dynasties — the third generation of athletes is coming to comprehend the heights of this bright sport. In the same hall, both beginners and the most titled professionals, such as five-time world champions Ivan Yudin and Olga Sbitneva, train. Right next to them, couples from Senegal, Peru and Moldova are trying to perform elements of flight acrobatics - two weeks before the World Cup they flew in to take lessons from Russian stars.

— I believe that Russia today is the main driver of the development of acrobatic rock and roll in the world, — says Ivan Sbitnev. — Africans, Americans, Europeans have already worked hard, now it's our turn. It is no coincidence that every year 2-3 new schools of acrobatic rock and roll are opened in the country, and we have champions in all possible categories - both in pair disciplines and in team disciplines. We seriously intend to conquer Olympus, to join the Olympic family.

Acrobatic rock and roll has gone through a long evolution to become what we know it now

1910-1920s

the first decade of the twentieth century among African Americans in the southern United States. Came to Broadway in the 1920s. Danced both solo and in pairs.