BOSCOBALL on the Red Square

view all photos «Which of us would have thought that one day we will be skating on the Red Square!» — this phrase was mostly heard on the 3rd of December at BOSCOBALL. Everybody exclaimed it — famous sportsmen, well-known businessmen, theatre and show-business stars. Indeed, even in the most courageous dreams, no one could imagine that he would become a participant of amazing BOSCOBALL, that was held on the main square in the country, right by the walls of GUM, on the skating rink of the size of 2,700 m2.

Moscow probably has not seen yet such joyous and light high society event. The guests of the Ball, organized by BOSCO di Ciliegi, were having fun like children. Moreover, the atmosphere was favoring: glitter of ice, big Christmas tree, so familiar music, heard from loudspeakers, ice- cream and meat patties on the trays — and the kaleidoscope of images from childhood immediately appeared in the imagination, beginning from the pictures of the film «Pokrovskie vorota», finishing with the memories about the journeys to the skating rink with school friends.

So, the ball began. At the entrance to the skating rink everybody was tied white-red scarves, but many guests arrived in famous BOSCO Sport uniform anyway. Skates rental point worked uninterruptedly, the skating rink was overfull. It was possible to notice on ice the host of BOSCOBALL Mikhail Kusnirovich, General Director of GUM Timur Guguberidze, Chulpan Hamatova with her daughters, Alexander Gafin, Alexander Lazarev Jr., Stepan and Nadezhda Mihalkovi, Alena Doletskaya, Olga Sviblova, Natalya Sindeeva, Marina Zudina, Ekaterina Semenova, Svetlana Jurova and many, many others. At the same time the other guests — Galina Volchek, Anton Tabakov, Mikhail Barshchevsky, Arkady Novikov, Igor Ugolnikov, Dmitri Pevtsov and Olga Drozdova, Denis Evstigneev, Gennady Hazanov, Igor Yankovsky, Oksana Fandera, Olga Aroseva, Boris Teterev, Evelina Hromchenko, Leonid Parfenov, Arina Sharapova, Vladimir Pozhidaev, Andrei Gnatuk, Pavel Bure, Tigran Keosoyan and Alena Khmelnitskaya, Sergei Shakurov, Olga Slutsker, Andris Liepa — watched the skaters, regaled themselves with warm pies, pancakes and tasty boiled buckwheat from «Teremok», warmed themselves with hot tea and mulled wine.

But soon the guests ceded the ice to the presenters of the evening — Valery Sutkin and Ekatherina Moiseeva, who announced the beginning of the BOSCOBall official programme and performed a New Year's song «Piat minut». And then there was the performance of Ice Ballet of Ilya Averbuh and participants of the program «Stars on ice», who demonstrated their best numbers. Spectators on the stands and by the banking boards with sinking heart followed the romantic dance «Junona and Avos» of Anna Bolshova and Aleksey Tikhonov; the wonderful reincarnation of Ingeborga Dapkunaite and Alexander Julin in Lubov Orlova and Leonid Utesov; the eccentric Buba Kastorski — Igor Butman and Maria Petrova; comic duet of Elena Berezhnaya and Alexander Nosik, nostalgic number «Katok» of Marat Basharov and Tatiana Navka and funny «cooks» Valery Sutkin and Irina Lobacheva. At the end of the programme Alexei Yagudin went on ice with his magnificent solo number.

Impressed with magical show, many spectators also wanted to learn the wisdoms of figure skating. And the true sports legends helped them in it — Tatiana Tarasova, Ilya Averbouh and Irina Slutskaya. After public lessons that had great success, the guests continued their dances on ice, and only fireworks could divert them from this fascinating exercises. But after the fireworks nobody hurried to go away, and the skating rink continued its work until the late-late evening.

Skating rink on the Red Square