The concert of the Moscow-based traditional Armenian dance troupe “Nzhdeh,” entitled “My Name is Struggle,” dedicated to the Armenian Army Day, which was supposed to take place in the “Izmailovo” concert hall, was canceled. Ethnographic dance specialist and public figure Gagik Ginosyan posted about it on Facebook, noting that after freezing the audience and the members of the “Nzhdeh” group for several hours in the Moscow winter, it was announced that it was impossible to hold the concert there.
“Aravot” spoke with Aram Poghosyan, artistic director and one of the founders of the “Nzhdeh” dance troupe.
“The concert was supposed to take place on January 29 and was devoted to the Day of the Armenian Army. In the morning, as usual, we went to rehearsals. At 3:00 p.m., the cynologists came to inspect the area. I invited them for security reasons; before, the district militiaman interested in the concert said they would send a group to check the site. As I already mentioned, the cynօlogists who visited during the rehearsal said everything was normal. Still, after that, the management of the hall called and said that there was a call to the phone number 0-2, and they were told that a bomb was planted in the area.
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I thought they would probably check for an hour and our concert would take place. But it all took longer, and it turned out that the delay was deliberate: one hour, two hours. Around 9 o’clock, one of the police officers informed me that they had checked everything, and there was nothing. I approached the management of the concert hall again; I offered to hold the concert with at least a shortened program because people had been waiting for hours,” said Aram Poghosyan. He also emphasized that one of the participants of the dance troupe heard how two policemen were talking to each other after saying that they should recheck the area, seeing that the audience was not dispersing.
According to the presentation of the dance troupe’s artistic director, in the end, the representative of the concert hall management said that the law enforcement officers should talk to all those present and ask questions, which will take hours. “After that, I decided there was no point in waiting anymore; the people had already waited for four hours. I announced that the concert would not take place; we would come in the morning and talk to the management of the concert hall,” our interlocutor noted.
He said with surprise that when the specialists checked the area with dogs and announced there was a bomb, the concert could not take place, there were many people in the area, and the local cafe was also working at full speed. “It turned out that a concert could not take place because of the bomb, but, for example, the cafe could work.”
Aram Poghosyan mentioned that in next morning, they went to the hall again with lawyer Ruben Kirakosyan, and after lengthy negotiations, they got 75 percent of the hall rent back.
Then, for the concert of the “Nzhdeh” dance group, they rented another hall, which was twice more diminutive as the “Izmailovo” concert hall. “When we bought a new hall, we secretly contacted people and informed them about the new venue of the concert. We wanted to avoid having the same problem again. In any case, the hall was full, about 500 people were present, and on January 31, our concert took place with the entire program; the host was Arsen Ghazaryan, Sevak Amroyan sang,” said the artistic director of “Nzhdeh” dance troupe.
During our conversation, Aram Poghosyan emphasized that, according to his information, there is an Azeri national in the management of the “Izmailovo” concert hall, which played a role in the concert’s failure.
The founder of the dance group asked to note that during the whole process, they were accompanied by lawyer Ruben Kirakosyan, Deputy President of the Union of Armenians of Russia Levon Mukanyan, counselor to the RA Ambassador to Russia Eduard Jambazyan. We learned from him that the “Nzhdeh” dance troupe was founded by three people five years ago. Aram Poghosyan said that Armenian dance is taught to both children and adults.
Dancers are selected yearly; the leading group also performs with honor at various national and community events and participates in festivals. And if the financial issues are resolved, the dance troupe will also be happy to have concerts in Armenia.
In the Nzhdeh Armenian National Dance School, headed by Aram Poghosyan, around 15 Russians from different regions learn Armenian dance in other groups. The dance group cooperates with the Armenian Church, the RA Embassy in Russia, and Armenian communities and conducts master classes.
Gohar HAKOBYAN
Photos provided by Aram Poghosyan
