In the State museum-reserve Tsaritsyno the solemn opening ceremony of  large-scale exhibition project "The Grand Ball", dedicated to the 400-th anniversary of Romanov dynasty, has taken place.
The exhibition is the collective image of the festive activity that fully and organically combines music, dance and shining society life. The special atmosphere of  balls is recreated by ancient artifacts, costumes and accessories, upscale paintings (especially excellent is the portrait of  Grand Duchess Elizabeth Theodorovna from Tretyakov Gallery collection), catching posters , pictures from fashion magazines and literary texts commenting them . The so-called "little things”, as impressive collection of  Count Sheremetyev invitations to dozens of social events – first of all balls, present great interest, too.
The exhibition opens in the hall dedicated to perception of Russian Balls’ atmosphere by Bolshoi Theater that itself  once was the venue for the coronation balls – in the hall there are numerous sketches of theater artists and authentic costumes of the "stars" of theatrical stage - Anna Karenina ( work by Pierre Cardin) for Maya Plisetskaya , Odile for Ekaterina Maximova , Gremin for Eugene Nesterenko, etc.
The most colourful section is «Avant et apres. Before and After" where the preparations of families from different social strata for a ball are shown:  a diary of a lady from early twentieth century, the finest underwear, old flasks, etc. , very colourful painting by an unknown artist representing the preparations for a ball of merchant family.
The most striking section is the largest one "Oh, that brilliant hour of a ball": dresses, the collection of ballroom shoes, bags, fans, tortoise-shell combs and, of course, the famous ladies' books for putting down rounds of dances that were given to cavaliers. Adjoining one is the section devoted properly to the royal balls.
While some of them in recent years have emerged from shadows of time - as the latest costume ball in the official history of  Russian Empire (in fact, there were 3 of them) of  1903 dedicated to the characters and costumes of the XVII century, others are almost unknown , such as, for example, "Black ball " in Anichkov palace in memory of Austrian heir to the throne.
At the opening day an actual ball was offered to the guests with demonstration of the dances from XVIII - XIX centuries (minuet, polonaise, mazurka, quadrille, cotillion , etc.) performed by the members of the historical society "Ball at Russian estate".

The exhibition will go on until October 13, 2013.