Igor Moiseyev Ballet
The Igor Moiseyev State Academic Ensemble of Popular Dance, known in Russia as the GAANT, and alternatively known as the Moiseyev Dance Company or simply the Igor Moiseyev Ballet, is a dance troupe focusing on character dance, based in Moscow, Russia. The troupe combines traditional folk dance and classical ballet techniques to create their style of character dance. It was established in 1937 by Igor Moiseyev and is one of the most influential and acclaimed dance troupes of both Soviet and modern Russia. History
In 1936, Igor Moiseyev was made dance director of the new Theater of Folk Art in Moscow, and helped organized a folk dance festival. The next year, on 10 February, the Moiseyev Ballet came into existence, with just 35 dancers. According to Moiseyev, the dance troupe had early difficulties: the politician Poskrebyshev promised to dissolve the ensemble, however, the ensemble had Stalin's patronage. Therefore, neither Poskrebyshev nor any other politician dared to dissolve it. Allegedly, Stalin enjoyed the Moiseyev Ballet so much that they were constantly invited to the banquets and parties he threw, and, when Igor Moiseyev asked for a larger building to house the studio, Stalin allowed them to occupy the , a building that was previously meant to be Vsevolod Meyerhold's new theater. The first foreign performance of the Moiseyev Ballet occurred in 1945, in Finland. It began to tour around the world in 1955, and has toured in 60 countries, including the USA, France, Israel, the UK, Japan, and China. In 1958, impresario Sol Hurok invited the Moiseyev Ballet to perform at the old Metropolitan Opera House, marking the first time a major Soviet dance group had ever performed in the United States. They also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. The dance troupe was met warmly nearly everywhere, but this was not always the case. In September 1986, tear gas was thrown at a Moiseyev Ballet performance at the Metropolitan Opera House, forcing the evacuation of 4,000 people and injuring 30. An anonymous caller purporting to be the chairman of the Jewish Defense League, Chaim Ben Yosef, claimed responsibility, saying it was a protest on the behalf of Soviet Jews. However, the actual chairman at the time, Irv Rubin, denied the JDL's responsibility. Ben Yosef also denied making such a call and denied the JDL's responsibility. In 1987, Ben Yosef and two others were arrested in relation to a series of bombings in New York, including the tear gas attack at the Moiseyev performance. Reception
The Moiseyev Ballet continues to tour and perform to the current day. It has been praised by cultural figures such as Maya Plisetskaya, Tatyana Tarasova, and Marlene Dietrich. In the West, the Moiseyev Ballet has been described as speaking "the nationalist idiom of folk movement". It has also been called "a symbol of Soviet bureaucracy", a "mirror of the Soviet epoch",  and "the main cultural tyrant of the [Soviet] regime". However, it has also been credited with helping encourage international cultural exchange, especially between the USA and the Soviet Union. References 

Ballet companies in Russia
1937 establishments in the Soviet Union
Folk dance companies
Cultural organizations based in the Soviet Union