Maslenitsa festitivites!

Last Saturday we hosted our good friends and high profile guests – the Mayor of Cambridge Mayor Gerri Bird and Natasha Hart, MBE (Order of the British Empire) and founder of the NASSA Basketball Academy. They joined us to celebrate Maslenitsa!

The art classes of our teachers of Lyudmila Sikhosana and Vida Ike held a themed drawing contest. The teachers told the children about the traditions of how this celebration is held. The result was an excellent exhibition which set the brightness and colours on the day. The public then voted for their favourite paintings, and the winners turned out to be Andrey Dempster, Nadia Sikhosana, Julia Konyakhina, David Sikhosana and Misha Orlov.

For the audience and our guests of honour Mayor Gerri Bird and Natasha Hart, a group of dance classes taught by teacher Julia Simon-Neal gave a performance. The winter dance was truly outstanding! Anya Kolesnikova, Masha Carter, Nastya Batalova, Anya Tomkinson, Nadia and Anya Sikhosana, as well as the younger group Mila Weller and Sylvia Parsons, have been working under the direction of Julia for a year and every dance is a really professional show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ulyana Kelina’s mother, Vera Evstafieva, a professional graphic designer and artist, thought out and conducted a themed workshop – you can see the original, bright sun masks with elements of traditional folk motifs Vera created at the photo above. The children coloured and decorated the masks themselves.

 

      

 

 

 

Sofia and Vera Ushakov’s mother Elena baked 200 (!!) pancakes for the school, which – don’t be surprised – were eaten very quickly, within 15 minutes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the day Gerri Bird and Natasha Hart visited and watched several lessons at our school. Children surrounded the Mayor and thoroughly enjoyed a conversation with her – for them her important position did not matter, and it was striking how quickly Gerri and the children got on so well and how wonderfully they communicated together!