Maria Kiselyova: “Kazan has a strong synchronised swimming school”

“It would be a new The Little Mermaid, different from our first experience”

Maria Kiselyova and her team presented The Little Mermaid and Mystery of Magical Star to spectators 10 years ago. In 2020, a new version of the aquatic tale that Russians loved will come back. Spectators will see the premiere of the play The Little Mermaid. Parallel Worlds in the Aquatics Palace in Kazan from 2 to 8 January. According to the creators, the new play will be dramatically different from the first show.

“This year we’ve been 10 years. We staged the first aquatic play precisely 10 years ago. And it was named The Little Mermaid. It is the play we brought to Kazan and showed to spectators when the Aquatics Palace opened. And I said to my team at that moment when by our first 10^th jubilee we would certainly make a new play by Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. But it would be a new The Little Mermaid, different from our first experience,” Kiselyova said.

Whole families often go our players because the emotions one has in the family, among the closest people turn out to be the brightest and are remembered for longer

The athlete clarified that she didn’t intend to ‘rewrite’ Anderson’s The Little Mermaid — the play will remain the same tale we’ve been known since childhood.

“Whole families often go our players because the emotions one has in the family, among the closest people turn out to be the brightest and are remembered for longer,” the interlocutor of our newspaper goes on.

Tatarstan capital has strong synchronised swimming school

It is noteworthy that the play The Little Mermaid. Parallel Worlds in Moscow and Kazan start almost simultaneously — two companies of artists, two sets of decorations, two technical groups will be used for the show. It is the first experience of staging aquatic plays for Maria Kiselyova in such a format, but there is nothing impossible here, the Olympic champion is convinced. Besides already successful athletes and artists, Kiselyova invites novices to her plays too.

“We have castings in every area separately: in synchronised swimming, diving, choreography, drama actors. In every city we try to engage more artists and athletes from this region, this is why girls from Kazan and Chelny are traditionally in the team of synchronised swimmers. The synchronised swimming school is strong here,” Kiselyova says.

When we elaborate every play, we try to create a full character to reach everyone’s heart. One plot, roles, voices, emotions, costumes, decorations, lighting — the smallest details are taken into account

The show can also be considered a source of manpower — many of those went through the casting become permanent members of Kiselyova’s team in the future.

“When we elaborate every play, we try to create a full character to reach everyone’s heart. One plot, roles, voices, emotions, costumes, decorations, lighting — the smallest details are taken into account,” Kiselyova says. She prefers to call the play we get in the end not a product but brainchild.

“It is important that children join the sport”

Popularisation of synchronised swimming, especially among children, is the key goal for which aquatic plays were created, Kiselyova says. Many children inspired by the play join this sport later.

“It is important that children join the sport, become healthier, more active, have a sports injection, a character, willpower they will live further with, and this will help them in any activity. I will note that it works. And it began working in the first play we created 10 years ago. We see spectators go out and children say: “Mom, I want! Enrol me on the class. I want to swim like this princess,” Kiselyova says.

It is important that children join the sport, become healthier, more active, have a sports injection, a character, willpower they will live further with, and this will help them in any activity. I will note that it works

There has been colossal growth in synchronised swimming

In Moscow, Maria Kiselyova has her own Synchronised Swimming Centre. The athlete doesn’t plan to open such centres in other regions at the moment. She prefers the school to be centralised — when the school and the coaching staff are in one place it is more convenient to control the training process. According to Maria Kiselyova, synchronised swimming develops in leaps and bounds, though it is quite a young sport.

“If today we go back to 2000 and watch our performance when we won our first Olympic gold for Russia and now — it is two different performances. Though for us it was the summit of mastery,” Kiselyova says. “There has been colossal growth in rhythm, speed, height, movements, difficulty in these 20 years. I like that synchronised swimming develops not only getting faster and more difficult but also more creative. One should certainly think about one’s character, perform it, communicate it to the spectator. This is why Russian synchronised swimming is different. Our national team has been the leader of synchronised swimming for 22 years. Our national team has never repeated and borrowed somebody’s elements.”

With the development of infrastructure, the opening of new swimming pools, including in Kazan, the interest in synchronised swimming went up, the champion concluded.