Russian Immigrants find refuge through the arts.

In 1987 Brighton Ballet Theater of the School of Performing Arts, now called Brighton Ballet Theater: School of Russian American Ballet, was established by Irina Roizin based on 3 principles;

“1. To provide an affordable and professional dance education and performance opportunities to all students, regardless of talent, ability or ethnic background;

“2. to serve as a community cultural oasis;

“3. to create a common ground through dance so children, of many ethnic and immigrant communities can interact and study other cultures through classical ballet and folk dances”.

The Brighton Ballet Theater is a non-profit organization and is supported by the American Jewish community which also supports cultural and educational programs, day-care centers, and kindergartens for Russian children. In 1987 the first class was taught to 5 young girls and now has over 250 students in their programs.

The first to settle at Brighton Beach were European war survivors who came in the late forties and early fifties. While there were other groups to go through the area, the latest group of Russian immigrants happened in the nineties, after the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., which is actually the reason the founder of the Theater was in New York. The theater has and is still currently serving as an escape for Russian immigrants from the chaos of their surroundings. As said by Dancer Magazine, "... the BBT is trying to restore & revive the heritage and best tradition of the Russian Dance Culture." Through Ballet, the immigrants are able to keep a connection to their traditions, when all others are broken.

Having done ballet for the majority of my life I can truly testify that it is a relief from the stress of that day. I can only imagine how great it must be for the immigrants to be able to have time where amid their adaptations to living in America, they can go back and connect to their traditional Russian culture. Another great feature of the program is that the instructors of the BBT are all professionally trained, thus giving these refugees a real chance of going on with their skills and having the potential of going pro. The theater not only provides an escape, but also provides a sense of hope that they really do have a chance of making a new life that is successful.

The theater’s ultimate goal is to not only provide these children in difficult situations with opportunity, but also to help them understand numerous different cultural backgrounds.

*The image is from Salgado's book on Immigrants, and was taken in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NY in 1994.

Works Cited

Salgado, Sebastião. "Russian Immigrants." Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York: Aperture, 2000. 56-57. Print.

http://nymag.com/guides/everything/brighton-beach/

http://www.brightonballet.com/sch_mission.htm

http://www.brightonballet.com/sch_history.htm