Archive of the State Central Conservatory "Russia". Children's rhythmic gymnastics festival "Alina" Annual charity rhythmic gymnastics festival Alina

An exclusive interview for the sports society "Spartak" with the winner of the 2004 Olympics (Athens), bronze medalist of the 2000 Olympics (Sydney), two-time absolute world champion, five-time absolute European champion, six-time absolute champion of Russia, Honored Master of Sports of Russia, head of a charitable foundation - Alina Kabaeva.

Alina, how do you evaluate the Alina 2016 festival? Are you satisfied with the result?

My team and I put so much soul, so much effort and attention into each festival that there is simply no result that one can be dissatisfied with. The 2016 festival had a very special format. Last year, instead of traditional presenters, we tried to use a feature film, which has a specific plot and links the entire festival into one whole. The theme of the Great Patriotic War in this format, it seems to me, was covered very successfully at our festival. This year this technique was repeated at a more, I would say, complex level. In fact, we made a good youth film, which, on the one hand, revealed the theme of our sports festival, presented all the festival numbers, but on the other hand, this film can exist completely independently. Just like a good short feature film for young people. I think this is great! We didn't plan this, but this is how it turned out.

What time period is the festival being prepared for?

On average, 4-5 months from idea to implementation.

Who takes part in working on the festival program?

First of all, children. These are teams of gymnasts from various cities of Russia, as well as coaches, choreographers, costume designers, artists - singers, actors, dance and choral groups, and of course, the director.

Who has the opportunity to take part in the festival? Which sports schools, from which cities?

Any sports school, any team of gymnasts who want to attend the festival can prepare and send us a letter with a request to participate in the festival, send a video of their performances. We look and choose who to invite. Previously, we had a good tradition of holding a qualifying tournament two months before the festival in the city of Nizhnekamsk (Republic of Tatarstan), at which the best acts were selected. I would like to note that it was quite difficult to do this, since all the compositions were fantastically beautiful and spectacular. A lot of teams, a lot of gymnasts always came. I didn’t conduct a special count, but it seems to me that we were visited by representatives of almost all rhythmic gymnastics sports schools in our country. I think that we will resume this wonderful tradition. Maybe even next year.

Are there age restrictions for festival participants?

Yes, we try not to include children under five years old at the festival. The final runs can be long, even older children get tired - let alone the little ones. A singer’s performance, if he is tired, can be replaced with a soundtrack, but gymnasts’ performances have no such replacements; their performances both at rehearsals and on stage are always live. Of course, children get tired, but you know what’s surprising? They will never admit it! They like everything, they are interested in everything on the big beautiful stage, and they are ready to perform every day from morning to evening. Even we adults, looking at such enthusiasm, are inspired. This attitude towards your work is very touching.

Does each participant undergo training in their own city or is it carried out jointly?

It varies, but the final rehearsals always take place in Moscow.

What skills do gymnasts manage to acquire in preparation for the festival?

Of course, these are the skills of performing on a big stage in front of a huge audience. Working with masters of rhythmic gymnastics - and we almost always have gymnasts from the Russian national team, European and world champions, with popular singers, the best choirs and dance groups in our country - all this greatly disciplines the children and motivates them to focus on the quality of their work. When children are not just next to honored stage masters, but work together, it makes a strong impression. By the way, children perfectly feel the height of a given bar and try their best. It is a great pleasure to watch such work.

How is the theme of each festival determined?

The idea and theme of the holiday is always mine. How the theme emerges is difficult to say. This is always the response of the soul to some events, experiences, to what worries you. For example, in the year of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, we could not ignore this topic. We thought, discussed, decided how, through rhythmic gymnastics, we can express our gratitude to our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers for the preservation of our Motherland, for the joy and happiness of living, working and loving in our native land.

This year, our sports holiday was dedicated to our wonderful women - mothers, grandmothers, friends and just strangers, whose caring hands provide us with daily comfort, which we often do not notice. This, let's say, was the main theme of the festival, with which other themes were connected. For example, the topic of time is what you spend your time on, how you use it. The topic is gadgets, which for teenagers often replace real communication and even real life. The topic of friends is who you are friends with, what friendship gives you... and ultimately, the topic of your choices in life. This is how our festival turned out to be, very comprehensive in terms of the issues raised.

What is determined first: the musical accompaniment or the dramaturgy of the composition?

Probably, after all, the dramaturgy of the composition. Musical accompaniment is a more flexible, more variable component of the festival, which comes from the theme, the idea of ​​our sports festival.

Do you take a personal part in developing and practicing performances for the festival?

Yes, I not only control the entire process of preparing the festival, but I also necessarily take personal part in the final stage, when dress rehearsals are underway. This is very important, because in addition to the fact that the festival is the largest project of my charitable foundation, it is also my author’s project, my author’s program, on which I work most of the time manually.

What is the main goal of the Alina festival?

The main goal is the development of children's and youth sports and the popularization of rhythmic gymnastics. Of course, on stage, children from the audience see the finished result: a beautiful, elegant spectacle, behind which a lot of complex preparatory work is not very noticeable. But the response in the soul is most often born from strong impressions, from how well and captivatingly some matter is shown.

What role does the festival play in your life?

I have already said that the festival is currently the largest project of my charitable foundation, to which I devote a lot of attention and time. Of course, I have many other important professional responsibilities (work on the board of directors of the National Media Group holding and in the Sport-Express publishing house), but no matter how busy I am, I always try to find time to work on projects of a charitable foundation. This, let’s say, is my personal social responsibility, an expression of my gratitude for the joy that sports and rhythmic gymnastics have given me.

Which year do you remember and love more than others?

Writers say that your favorite book is the one you are writing now. In fact, all festivals, even the very first ones - perhaps not so large-scale and spectacular - are still loved. The audience may have preferences, but every festival is dear to me, because a piece of my soul is invested in each one.

What could be the theme for the next festival?

It's a secret. Even I don’t know about this yet.

Starting this year, rhythmic gymnastics adopts new rules. Gymnastics of the future, what is it like in your opinion?

For me, the gymnastics of the future is gymnastics for which 2003 would be the starting point. In my opinion, modern rhythmic gymnastics is becoming easier, and this upsets me. I would never have even thought that after I left rhythmic gymnastics, some difficult elements would be removed! I am sure that just as in athletics one cannot ask athletes to run slower and jump lower, so in rhythmic gymnastics it is impossible to lower the bar once set. This is the essence of high performance sports. And therefore, people with unique data and unique physical capabilities engage in such sports. Why should rhythmic gymnastics be an exception in this sense? Because Russian gymnasts take first places? But the development of any sport is necessary for sport as a whole. What does this have to do with the countries where this species is best developed? However, I do not lose hope, I have not yet familiarized myself with the new rules, and I hope for better prospects for my favorite sport.

Do I understand correctly that rhythmic gymnastics lacks complexity?

In my opinion, yes. Complex elements are not a technical sophistication that you can do without; they are the beauty and audacity of rhythmic gymnastics as a sport. Today's gymnasts have enormous potential; places on the podium are separated by hundredths of a point, because the gymnasts have achieved perfection in their sport. Rhythmic gymnastics must develop further, including technically. If complex elements are removed from the compulsory elements, if rhythmic gymnastics moves towards dance, then ultimately it may cease to be an Olympic sport.

What are the main components of sports success?

Great hard work, talent, faith in yourself, in your team, in your country... You know what an extraordinary feeling is born in the soul when the anthem of your country sounds over a huge arena and the flag rises - it cannot be compared with anything! And I sincerely wish every athlete to experience this feeling!

New Year is approaching. What would you wish to the Spartak sports society in the New Year?

I wish you success! Many and very different! I wish the community talented athletes, interesting tournaments, sports competitions, and events! I wish you real well-deserved popularity and people's love! So that Spartak becomes a flagship in the development of children's and youth sports!

I would like to express special wishes to your rhythmic gymnastics school. These are wonderful, wonderful athletes who perform brilliantly at all my festivals, starting from the very first. They represent the Spartak society with great dignity, and their performances are a highlight of our sports festival. I would like to sincerely thank them for their participation in the Alina festival, wish them further success and, of course, new victories in the New Year!

The charity rhythmic gymnastics festival "Alina-2016" opened in Moscow. It is being held for the eighth time with the support of the Alina Kabaeva Foundation. Hundreds of gymnasts are participating.

She gracefully juggles clubs. Behind the external ease - 5-hour daily training. Milena is 10 years old, 8 of which she has been doing rhythmic gymnastics. And he knows exactly why.

“I want to become an Olympic champion. I have an older sister, she is 15 years old. She did gymnastics, and I repeated after her as a child and my mother sent me to this sport. At the age of 2, I didn’t choose it myself, they sent me, and I started practice and reached this level,” recalls Milena An, a participant in the Alina-2016 rhythmic gymnastics festival.

Milena came from Nakhodka, other athletes from Kazan. “Here we are given the opportunity to become more courageous, to overcome our fears. It is a great honor for us to attend such an event,” admits Rayana Kharisova, a participant in the Alina-2016 rhythmic gymnastics festival.

More than 500 gymnasts from dozens of Russian cities - Perm, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Sevastopol, Krasnoyarsk - take part in the festival, organized by Alina Kabaeva. There are no grades here, which means there are no losers. Only the winners, whose prize is a performance on the big stage of the Rossiya concert hall in front of thousands of spectators.

“It’s great that we have such a platform, that we invite children, we have such an opportunity - from different regions. And the children can show themselves. And bring the children for free, and make them beautiful swimsuits and costumes, and feed them, and accommodate them - The foundation takes care of everything,” says happy Alina Kabaeva, Olympic champion, organizer of the rhythmic gymnastics festival, and head of the charity foundation.

They are not sorceresses - they are just learning. Incredible plasticity, crazy stretching. Singer Valeria, accustomed to fans lining up to take pictures with her, this time she herself asks to be photographed - along with young gymnasts.

"Gymnastics is more than a sport. This is already a borderline state. This is already an art. Because the genre is so synthetic. I look at the girls - I think maybe they will get some additional inspiration, some specific experience of communicating with such a huge audience,” says Valeria, the singer.

Popular artists perform for free at the festival. No tickets were sold for this concert. Entry is by invitation only. In the hall are children from orphanages, children with disabilities, and patients from oncology clinics. The charity festival of rhythmic gymnastics in Moscow is being held for the 8th time. Every year there are bright performances for the audience, unexpected directorial ideas, and new opportunities for young athletes.

"To feel like artists, it seems to me. To see who can do what. In what cities, how they perform. It seems to me that this is a very important experience. And not so much a sporting one, although it is also very important for them as athletes. But, in some way, in a sense, and in life too,” said Natalya Agakhanova, President of the Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Each of them already has years of work and training behind their still childish, fragile shoulders. But perhaps this particular performance will become a professional springboard for someone. Among the spectators is the famous coach, president of the All-Russian Federation of Rhythmic Gymnastics Irina Viner-Usmanova. And she definitely won’t miss future Olympic champions.

On June 2, the State Central Concert Hall "Russia" hosted VIII Charity Festival of Rhythmic Gymnastics "ALINA-2016", dedicated to Children's Day. More than 5 thousand people took part in the festival, including more than 500 gymnasts from all over our country, as well as from foreign countries, including Cuba, Japan, and Bulgaria. The best music and dance groups of Russia, pop, theater and film stars are involved in preparing the festival program.





Alina Kabaeva with participants of the rhythmic gymnastics festival

Almost 500 boys and girls from all over Russia, as well as from foreign countries, including Cuba, Japan, and Bulgaria, took part in the grand festival of music and sports. The event is becoming more vibrant and larger-scale every year - now in the program you can see not only the little stars of rhythmic gymnastics, but also acrobats, trapeze artists and dance groups.

"Alina-2016" pleased with surprises, including performances by popular groups and performers. That evening, Grigory Leps, Dima Bilan, Valeria and Anna Shulgina performed for the guests, and Yana Rudkovskaya and Evgeni Plushenko, Philip Kirkorov and other celebrities were seen among the audience. An unforgettable show, popular tunes, talented numbers, elegant costumes and genuine emotions of the little participants will not leave anyone indifferent.





Alina Kabaeva with festival guests


Irakli Pirtskhalava with participants of the Alina festival

Spectators, including patients of oncology centers, children from orphanages and children with disabilities, will retain impressions of this magical holiday for a long time. And for someone, perhaps, the festival will help them find themselves in sports, believe in themselves and make their dreams come true, as Alina Kabaeva, the organizer and inspirer of the event, did. All of them were able to enjoy the performances of young athletes from different cities of Russia, who demonstrated their skills in rhythmic gymnastics.




Traditionally, athletes from different cities of Russia took part in the festival, one of whom was Yana Kudryavtseva, the youngest gymnast to become an absolute world champion at the age of 15

Not only did she come to support Kabaeva her mother, but also Irina Viner, President of the All-Russian Federation of Rhythmic Gymnastics and coach, under whose leadership Alina achieved her brilliant results, writing her name in history.


Alina Kabaeva's mother, Irina Viner, Alina Kabaeva, Roza Syabitova