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Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday

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Tom Sutcliffe

Simon Morrison

Ismene Brown

Nigel Cliff

Edith Devaney

Katy Hickman

Start the Week: The Bolshoi and Culture Wars

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12/12/2016

The Bolshoi and Culture Wars

BBC Radio 4 - Start the Week, The Bolshoi and Culture Wars

Tom Sutcliffe with Simon Morrison, Ismene Brown, Edith Devaney and Nigel Cliff.

Cultural discussion show. Tom Sutcliffe discusses the history of the Bolshoi Ballet and the collision between art and politics with Simon Morrison, Ismene Brown and Nigel Cliff.

Tom Sutcliffe talks to the academic Simon Morrison about the remarkable story of the Bolshoi ballet: a 250 year history that encompasses being the pride of Tsarist Russia to state control by Stalin to the scandal of acid attacks in the 21st century. Ismene Brown explores the different styles which set apart the Russian corps de ballet from its British counterpart. Art and politics are also at the forefront of Nigel Cliff's story of the Texan pianist Van Cliburn, who for a short time bridged the divide between the two superpowers during the Cold War, and the curator Edith Devaney explains how the CIA used Abstract Expressionism to promote the US.
Producer: Katy Hickman

Photo: The Bolshoi Ballet perform for Prince Charles & the Duchess of Cornwall on a royal tour of Bahrain on 11th November, 2016 
Credit: Chris Jackson/ Getty Images.

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