A choreographer from this country created hundreds of dances in a few years for his troupe Choreographic Miniatures. This country’s pantomime-heavy “dram-ballets” (“drahm-bal-ays”) include one that contains a pas de deux between Jeanne and Philippe, The Flames of Paris. A member of this country’s Messerer (“meh-seh-RAIR”) family of dancers taught the star of Alberto Alonso’s Carmen Suite. A woman from this country wrote Basic Principles of Classical Ballet, which details the slow-and-steady approach to her namesake method of teaching. A tea-house dancer sends a ship captain the title poppy in a ballet from this country with an oft-excerpted “Sailors’ Dance.” A composer from this country wrote “adagios” for his ballets Gayane (“gah-yah-NAY”) and Spartacus. For 10 points, name this country whose biggest theaters included the Kirov and the Bolshoi. ■END■
ANSWER: Soviet Union [or USSR or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; or CCCP or SSSR or Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik; accept Russia or Rossiya; accept Russian Federation or Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; accept Soviet Armenia, Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, Hayastan, or Haykakan] (The clues include the choreographer Leonid Yakobson, the dancer Maya Plisetskaya, Agrippina Vaganova, The Red Poppy, and Aram Khachaturian.)
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