Governor of Astrakhan Region Awards Talented Students of ASU

Soloists and ensembles of Astrakhan State University have become winners and awardees of the regional stage of the Student Spring Festival. The official awards ceremony took place on May 11 at the Regional Governor’s residence.

In his congratulating speech, Mr. Alexander Zhilkin, Governor of Astrakhan Region, emphasized a high level of our people’s performance and their talents in various fields: “Such creative projects help you move forward and glorify not just our Region, but the whole country as well”.

People of ASU were represented in practically all the nominations. Among them, there were dancers, singers, reciters, beatboxers, film directors, and journalists – students of ASU won the hearts of the strict jurors in each nomination. Some teams and soloists received several awards at once. In particular, our Fusion Dance ensemble won prizes in sports and ball dance, in modern dance, and in the art of circus performances.

Anastasia Vasilyeva, a student of our Department of Pedagogics & Social Work, told us about the history of the Bodiam number: “Our performance is stylized to reproduce the 18th century. In fact, it’s just an extract of a large circus show, which we are going to demonstrate to the public soon. We tried this original circus genre last year. We gave a circus number at the In Movement Festival. The jury assessed us highly and compared us with one of the best-known circuses – Du Soleil”.

Yulia Afonina, a student of our Department of Philology & Journalism, won sympathies of the audience and the jury with a ballade that we wrote herself. “I’ve been writing poems for a long time”, she told us, “I won a prize last year in the nomination “Journalism”. This time, I wished I told my own poetic history of an armorer, to whom Amour came and asked him to make an arbalest. Nowadays people’s hearts are closed, so a more powerful weapon that bows and arrows are necessary”.

Members of the FSC Family ensemble shared their impressions, too: “Is not our first Student Spring; we took part in it last year and reached its final stage. Our ensemble has changed a little this year; even first-year students joined it. Our performance skills are better now; we chose quite a brave and original dancing genre. Maybe all that helped us win”.