The choreographer of figure skater Sinitsina admitted that the theme of the siege of Leningrad is very personal for his family

Choreographer Maria Kasumova, who choreographed the program for figure skater Ksenia Sinitsyna, told that she chose the theme of besieged Leningrad for the premiere in her hometown because it is a very personal topic for her .

Spartakiad bronze medalist and Russian Grand Prix winner Sinitsyna performed at the “Russian Challenge” tournament reading the diary of blockade girl Tanya Savicheva. With this program, the skater took third place. The program was staged and designed by Maria Kasumova, choreographer Ksenia. Kasumova was born in St. Petersburg, where the tournament took place.

— For me, the subject is personal. When my parents left me with my grandmother for the summer, she woke me up every morning to eat and then sleep. She would say: “Masha, eat some bread” or “Masha, I cooked you some boiled eggs, eat it…otherwise something might happen.” » This constant fear of hunger persisted throughout his life. This is how I learned about the war and the blockade. Grandpa didn’t say anything about the war. He fought and was a prisoner in one of the death camps. To say that their stories had an impact on me is an understatement.

A little later I heard about Tanya Savicheva’s diary and the experiences after reading it remained in my heart for the rest of my life. And there were no questions about what to stage for Ksyusha in my native St. Petersburg – and even for the 80th anniversary of the lifting of the blockade. I doubted that we would be able to handle such a difficult subject well and was very afraid that we would be reprimanded for poor quality work. Therefore, even in St. Petersburg, Ksyusha and I spent our free time in the choreography room and practiced production,” Kasumova told .

Tanya Savicheva is a Soviet schoolgirl who, from the beginning of the siege of Leningrad, began to keep a diary in a notebook. Almost the entire Savicheva family died during the blockade from December 1941 to May 1942. Tanya herself died during an evacuation on July 1, 1944 at the age of 14 from tuberculosis.