Natalya Nikolaeva - this was the name of the current Helavisa singer before the start creative career- was born in September 1976 in a family of Moscow scientists. Natalia's father was an organic chemist at the University of Dundee, and her mother worked as a biochemist at Moscow State University.
Dad instilled a love for music in Natalya. As a child, the girl listened to everything available classical music, and also got acquainted with the recordings of modern performers - The Beatles, ABBA, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, Aquarium. Nikolaeva was preparing for a career as a pianist, but in high school she decided to enter Moscow State University. Initially, the girl wanted to follow the path proven by her parents - to the Faculty of Biology, but at the last moment she chose philology.
The girl studied at Moscow State University from 1993 to 1999. In the process of learning, Nikolaeva became interested in Tolkien studies, mysticism and the occult. Nikolaeva participated in actions and games of the reenactment movement. The girl became a prominent figure in an informal get-together largely due to the knowledge gained at the university and the ability to create authentic costumes. From childhood, Natalia's interests included embroidery and beadwork.
From here came her creative pseudonym "Helavisa". This is the name of the witch from Le Morte d'Arthur. The outward resemblance to the portrait of the character from the illustrations for the book was noticed by Natalya's friend. And Nikolaeva liked the very image of a sorceress who dreams of being a villain, but doing good deeds.
After receiving her diploma, Natalya Nikolaeva remained in graduate school. Until 2004, the girl was an assistant at the Department of Irish and Celtic Philology, studied the Irish language and conducted seminars on it.
In 2003, Nikolaeva defended her PhD thesis. At one time she did an internship in Ireland and taught at Trinity College Dublin.
Music
Helavisa's creative biography began while studying at Moscow State University. The girl got carried away historical reconstruction and first showed herself in music as a role-playing minstrel. Then Natalia wore the pseudonym "Heledis". The performer sang tracks of her own composition and performed musical compositions based on poetry, and.
In 1998, Natalia first appeared under a new stage name - Helavisa. This happened at a time when the singer began cooperation with the Till Ulenspiegel group. The team performed songs of the bard direction with a bias towards folk.
In mid-October of the following year, on the basis of the disintegrated Til Ulenspiegel, a a new group called "The Mill". In 2003, the first album "Road of Sleep" appeared, which included the songs "Highlander", "Lord Gregory", "To the North" and others performed by Helavisa. Two years later, the release of the second disc, “Pass”, followed, among the tracks of which “Korolynna”, “Voron”, “Spring” were popular.
From 2003 to 2008 Helavisa worked as a senior lecturer at the Department of Celtic and Germanic Philology of the University. Then, until 2014, the singer devoted herself entirely to music. But the artist did not abandon her scientific activity either, doing it on her own.
Natalia mastered playing several instruments: piano, Celtic harp, acoustic guitar, castanets and percussion. But the artist's favorite instrument is the Celtic harp, which the girl met by chance. Irish game folk instrument immediately fascinated by Natalia. Helavisa began to take lessons on an acoustic instrument, then mastered the electric harp. Now the artist herself conducts master classes at ethnomusic festivals.
More and more songs performed by Helavisa could be attributed to folk and folk-rock. But Ireland remained the special love of the singer and original culture country, which Nikolaeva studied thoroughly.
After persistent persuasion from friends, Helavisa released several solo discs. But otherwise, the work of the performer is closely connected with the "Mill". There are other projects in the biography of the singer, which are called "Helavisa, Lazerson and friends" and the duet "36.6".
Helavisa has repeatedly acted as a guest soloist with the group "Aria" and the folk-rock group "After 11". With a vocalist, the singer performed the hit “There High” on anniversary concert"Aria", organized on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the start creative activity team. Together with the musicians "After 11" Helavisa recorded musical composition"Next to be." The song premiered in 2011.
In 2012, the artist released a number of videos for the songs "Roads", "Far", "Wolfhound" from the previously released album "Wild Herbs" and the new disc "Angelophrenia".
Today Helavisa lives in Europe. But every month the singer visits Russia, where she gives solo concerts, and also participates in the performances of the Melnitsa and Clann Lir groups.
Personal life
Love for Ireland was decisive in the fate of the singer. Since 2004, Helawisa's personal life has been associated with a citizen of this country, James Cornelius O'Shey. In August 2004, the couple signed. 4 years later, the young had a daughter, Nina Katrina O'Shea. And after 3 years, the second baby appeared, who was named Una Tamar O'Shea. The singer's children grow up bilingual - the girls are equally fluent in English and Russian. The artist often posts photos of her daughters on her own page in " Instagram". Nina and Una often visit Russia with their mother.
The singer's husband James Cornelius O'Shea is related to art. The husband was a cultural attaché at the Irish Embassy in the capital.
Natalya Andreevna O'Shea - this name has been given to the performer since 2004 - for some time she lived with her husband in Geneva. But then the family, which grew to 4 people, began to travel around Ireland, Switzerland, Finland and Austria, where the head of the family received business trips.
From the last musical preferences Natalya Nikolaeva, the singer herself highlights creativity, before which the singer always bowed, as well as a young rapper -. In addition to music and Celtic culture, Helavisa has many other hobbies. But the main ones are yoga, horse riding, mountain climbing and skiing.
Helavisa now
In October 2017, Helavisa presented the song "Silver of Mirrors", which was included in the number of musical numbers ice musical"Dracula. The Story of Eternal Love” by composer Alexei Galinsky, author of music for the number of demonstration performances of the Russian figure skating team at the 2014 Olympics. In autumn, the singer's concerts took place in St. Petersburg and Moscow. New program musicians of the "Mill", which was called "Alhimeira. Reunion", consists of tracks from the last two albums of the group - "Alchemist" and "Chimera".
On December 29, the premiere of the single "Believe" took place, performed by Helavisa and guitarist Sergei Vishnyakov. The hit became the first song of the new disc, which will be released in 2018. The release of the video for the song "Believe" is also expected soon, the work on which was carried out in the building of the Church of St. Anna, rebuilt in gothic style. Story line the video will contain detective elements.
Discography
- 1996 - "Moon Day" (solo)
- 2003 - "Road of sleep"
- 2005 - "Pass"
- 2006 - Call of Blood
- 2009 - "Wild Herbs"
- 2009 - Leopard in the City (solo)
- 2012 - "Angelophrenia"
- 2013 - "New Shoes" (solo)
- 2015 - "Alchemy"
- 2016 - "Chimera"
Helavisa discography
Early work
As part of the "Mill" group
As part of the Clann Lir group
Solo project "Helavisa"
"Believe" (single, 2017)
"Luciferase" (2018)
Natalia O'Shea was born on September 3, 1976 in Moscow. In 1985-1992 she attended lessons in the nursery music school No. 14 in Moscow, where she studied vocals and piano. The first time Natalya entered there at the age of six, in the violin class, but illness prevented her from attending lessons for two whole years.
After graduating from school, in 1993 Natalya entered the Lomonosov Moscow State University at the Faculty of Linguistics. Initially, she was going to join the Faculty of Biology and presented herself as an academic scientist. However, relations with the class teacher, who taught biology, did not work out, and everything turned out differently. Natalia had an interest in languages and music for a long time and developed in parallel.
For some time, the girl was preparing to become a professional pianist, but at the last moment she changed her mind and came to the Faculty of Philology, initially in French. Then, studying the general foundations of comparative linguistics in Shirokov's courses, Natalya became interested in Celtic and Germanic languages, since, compared with other branches of Indo-European language families they were poorly studied and there were not so many specialists in this field. For example, Natalya was attracted to the Germanic tonic verse, much more than the Romanesque syllabic one, she liked the sound writing of Celtic and Germanic poetry, the sound of languages, their place in the Indo-European heritage.
Actively composed and performed songs, and this achieved recognition. The very first self-written text is "Sleep Road", created in 1993. In 1996, her first collections of her own songs and poems by Russian poets set to music were released - Lunar Day, Road of Sleep and the English-language Running to Paradise, in which poems from the Tolkien cycle were set to music, as well as William Yeats and other English poets.
The repertoire of live performances alternated both songs based on poems of his own composition and songs based on the poetry of Nikolai Gumilyov, Marina Tsvetaeva, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Burns. The appearance of the main author's pseudonym is caused by a portrait resemblance to the image of the witch Helavisa from Aubrey Beardsley's illustration for the novel Le Morte d'Arthur. Already giving the first concerts, Helavisa once drew attention to the harp, he fell in love with the girl. After that, Natalia began to learn how to play the harp.
In the summer of 1998, Natalya was invited by Ruslan Komlyakov to join his group "Til Ulenspiegel" as a vocalist, and on June 23, 1998, she performed on the professional stage for the first time under the name "Helavisa" already with her own repertoire. In 1999, on October 15, after the collapse of Til Ulenspiegel, she founded the Melnitsa group, which included most of the participants in the collapsed project. It was Natalia who initiated the continuation musical activity after a break with the former leader of the team.
After graduating from the magistracy, Nikolaeva continued her studies at the graduate school of Moscow State University. From 1999 to 2004, she worked as an assistant in the Department of Germanic and Celtic Philology of the Faculty of Philology, and taught an optional seminar on the Irish language. During her internship in Ireland, she taught at Trinity College Dublin. In 2003 she defended her Ph.D. thesis in philology with a specialization in Germanic languages.
In June 2014, Helavisa left her scientific work, but periodically continues to publish articles and devotes herself entirely to music, independent scientific activity, and family. Natalia also took up the design of clothes and accessories.
Natalia is a candidate of philological sciences, a linguist, a specialist in the Celtic languages, culture and folklore of the Irish peoples. Natalia is fluent in Russian, English and French, quite well in Irish, Scottish and Welsh, she knows well. At the initial level, he speaks Icelandic, Spanish, and a little German. Helavisa is also fluent in ancient languages - Latin, Old Irish, Old English, Gothic, is somewhat worse in Old Icelandic, Ancient Greek and Sanskrit.
Among Helavisa's hobbies and hobbies, one can note horse riding, mountaineering, skiing, yoga, she swam her standard kilometer in the pool in a day. Mountaineering is Natalia's family sport - in mountain hiking her father, mother, grandfather, grandmother went.
Helavisa discography
Early work
Running to Paradise (tape/digital album, 1996)
Sleep Road (tape/digital album, 1996)
"Moon Day" (tape/digital album, 1996)
"Solo Recordings" (tape/digital album, 1999)
As part of the "Mill" group
Main article: Melnitsa discography
Album Road of Sleep (CD Land Records, 2003)
Mini-album "Master of the Mill" (CD-audio edition, 2004)
Album "Pass" (CD Land Records, 2005)
Album "Call of Blood" (Navigator Records, 2006)
"The Best" compilation (Navigator Records & CD Land Records, 2007)
Album "Wild Herbs" (Navigator Records, 2009)
Single "Christmas Songs" (Navigator Records, 2011)
Album "Angelophrenia" (Navigator Records, 2012)
The Sign of the Four Box Set (Navigator Records, 2012)
Mini-album "My joy" (Navigator Records, 2013)
Live album "Angelophrenia live" (Navigator Records, 2014)
Album "Alchemy" (Navigator Records, 2015)
Album "Chimera" (Navigator Records, 2016)
Album "Luciferase" (Navigator Records, 2018)
As part of the Clann Lir group
Clann Lir (Development Fund traditional culture, 2005; reissue of Crossroads Records, 2008). In two tracks of the album, the vocal duet, along with Natalia O'Shea, was recorded by her husband, James O'Shea.
Solo project "Helavisa"
"Leopard in the City" (Navigator Records, 2009)
"New Shoes" (Navigator Records, 2013)
"Believe" (single, 2017)
"Luciferase" (2018)
This summer, the charming soloist of the cult group Melnitsa Helavis - in the world Natalia O "Shea - became a mother. The singer gave birth to a daughter, who was named in rhyme - Nina Katrina. The artist spent the last six months in Geneva, where she lives with her husband James, who works at the local Irish embassy, and the other day she flew to Moscow to begin preparations for big concert in the arena of the sports complex "Olympic". On the eve of this grand event, the Cleo correspondent met with Natalia O "Shea to ask her about the joys of motherhood, creativity and the opportunity to combine both.
Natalia O'Shea, in a few weeks, on February 21, the Melnitsa group will perform at the Olimpiyskiy. What have you prepared for your fans on the eve of this event?
Blitz-poll "Cleo"
What ringtone is on your mobile phone?
No, he just calls.
Do you have a talisman?
No.
Did you have a nickname as a child?
Nikolasha. Because my maiden name is Nikolaeva.
What is your mental age?
Approximately the same as the real one - 32.
Where did you spend your last vacation?
In Geneva.
Firstly, we have almost completed the album, it is at the final stage. This is the main thing, and I hope that we will be able to bring the songs to the Olimpiysky stage without spilling all the fire with which we recorded the album in the summer. And in Olimpiysky the program will be focused on music and musicians, we are not planning any mind-blowing special effects. We hope that the music will speak for itself, we want to make a show built primarily on new songs.
For any artist, the huge stage of the Olimpiysky is a stage, a peak. Probably, everyone is afraid, worried: “What if we don’t gather the hall?”
No, I cannot say that there is fear and excitement. Mostly there is adrenaline and anticipation, thinking about what needs to be done. It is necessary to play, "anneal", with voice and sound to reach the farthest rows. But this adrenaline, of course, is positive.
Will you take a break after this concert?
We are now negotiating the date and place of the presentation in St. Petersburg, on March 1 we play in Kyiv, then Yekaterinburg. Then there will be a short break, and in April we will resume tours of cities and towns.
Natalya O "Shea, there are rumors on the Internet that you allegedly broke up with the second soloist of the Mill, Alevtina, not very well, but that she will perform with you at the Olimpiysky. Is this true?
No, we parted well, it's just that Alevtina and I completed our joint work. She was a member of the Call of Blood project, which is why she was with us on the stage of the B1 club on last concert as part of the "Call of Blood" tour. She does not participate in this program, and there will be completely different musicians on stage.
You now live in Switzerland, and before that you lived in both Ireland and Finland. How is it possible: to tour Russia and live in Europe?
Well, it's not that far. Now, if I lived in New Zealand, it would be very difficult. And Switzerland is enough close Europe, and from Moscow to Geneva only three and a half hours fly. So it's okay, it's okay, we try to organize the work so that I have time for concert tours in Russia and for my family.
What animal do you associate with?
Snow Leopard.
Are you an owl or a lark?
I just love to sleep.
Are you friends with the Internet?
Quite.
What turns you on?
Travel, beautiful animals, speed, music, good food.
What is your favorite aphorism?
"If you have a fountain, shut it up, let the fountain rest." This is Kozma Prutkov
Did your daughter fly to Russia with you?
Of course she came with me. I feed her, I don't leave her! We have helpers here, thank God: and my grandmother can look after her, and we hired a nanny, but mostly she spends time with me. How else?
On the contrary, I am surprised by the “show business moms” who begin to go on long tours when the child is not even three months old. I can't imagine how I could leave her now for a week!
Natalya O "Shea, some newly-made mothers change priorities in life, someone even pushes work and creativity into the background after the birth of a child. Was this in your case?
I don’t know, my priorities haven’t really changed, just something new has been added to my worldview. I try to organize the schedule so that it is convenient not only for me, but also for my daughter. But I really want to get back on stage.
Has your routine changed a lot?
I can’t say that he has changed a lot: since childhood, I had a very busy schedule, so this whole baby feeding regimen is not difficult for me.
And do you manage to sleep?
I love to sleep, but fortunately my child loves to sleep too, so I don't have to get up at night.
Is your husband James okay with you being torn between the stage and your family?
Yes, during my pregnancy I skied, rode a horse, flew New Zealand, where she went hiking, wandered through the mountains.
Was it not scary?
It's okay, because I did what I was sure of. Of course, if I didn’t know how to ride a horse, I would not have climbed into the saddle for the first time during pregnancy. But since I drive quite well, this was not a problem. It's the same with hiking: if I wasn't used to it, of course, I wouldn't take risks. It is the same with heights, with hiking in the mountains: it is clear that you should not do this for the first time when you are in a delicate position. But since my whole body is accustomed to this, I felt comfortable and good. We already went to the glacier with the child several times, and everything was excellent.
Hits "Mills"
Among the most famous songs of the Melnitsa group are Night Mare, Sleep Road, Grass, Snake Bride, Rapunzel.
Natalya O "Shey, so you have sports training no problem?
Well, yes, nothing like that. I do yoga, and I swim all the warm season. Now in Moscow I managed to go cross-country skiing. When I return home, I will go to the Alps to ride mountain bikes. It's not that I specifically load myself with sports, I swing - I just like it when the body is in an active state, when the blood runs through the veins.
It's good for the stage too, isn't it?
Certainly! The concert draws all the juice out of you. good show, performance takes a lot from you, and you need to be in good shape to, for example, go on a five-day tour. When you sing on stage for five days in a row, you need to be in shape!
NatalyaO'Shay, the soloist of the main Russian folk group Melnitsa, is known by fans as Helavis. Author of music and texts, linguist, candidate of philological sciences, mother of two daughters - what is she like in reality? In an interview with Anna Danilova - about the flexibility of the surrounding world, internal strings and the role of fences in proper upbringing children.
Chthonic beauty
You've been immersed in Irish culture from the very beginning. It has a fracture, great complexity, inner drama...
And the role of fate. Even among the Scandinavians, this is especially pronounced.
How do you live with this feeling? On the one hand, positive, parenting, fireworks, carnival. And on the other hand, internal brokenness.
I think it's a good balance. I see and feel a lot of chthoni, I even see some beauty in her and enjoy communicating with her, simply because I can. The world turns out from this bright and contrasting.
I am a choleric, I can get angry, stomp my feet, then write a heartbreaking song, then walk on my head, and I will do all this with the same dedication. For me, in principle, the state of “something is depressed” is not typical, if you don’t physically roll me out at all, then I don’t lose heart.
Another thing is that there are all sorts of seasonal depressions, for which you need to take pills, pick them up from psychiatrists and neurologists, work with different types therapy. When you see that everything bright colors they left the world, and hton is no longer so beautiful, and beauty is not so beautiful, everything is gray - this is depression. And personally, it took me a lot of time and effort to understand that when this happens - it's not me that's bad, everyone around is bad and the world in general is vile.
This is a medical condition with a specific name, do not pull yourself out of it by the ears, like Munchausen. You have to go to surrender to specialists, pass tests for generalized anxiety disorders and other psychoses of urban residents, and then put yourself in order.
You grew up in Russia, and your husband lives in Ireland, his family still lives there. Is Ireland similar to Russia, or is it a completely different world?
James and I have different families, mine is urban, a family of scientists and military, and he has village teachers and farmers. In Ireland, I lack spontaneity. If salmon - then only with bechamel sauce, boiled broccoli and carrots. If during the break between two meals the child wants to eat yogurt, you need to collect a whole consultation. It irritates me, there is not enough going beyond, there is not enough physicality, tactility, holidays of disobedience. Mastering a new skill is something out of the ordinary, you need to discuss it with everyone. And if the neighbors on the road said something, then generally endure the saints.
It's funny to listen to, but it's probably hard in reality.
Certainly. I understand that I need to go to my husband’s relatives, I love them very much, but for me this is not a vacation, but the fulfillment of a certain social function. I know that I need to go, present the children.
Are children spontaneous and tactile at the same time?
Our children are perfect cats, it's very funny to watch how they gradually disturb their grandmother and grandfather, and other relatives. They climb on the handles, climb, kiss. And on my mother-in-law, a well-deserved teacher, strict and formal, even the shell is cracking.
How it all works
Why does this shell appear on people at all?
Sometimes this is the way of the country, but in general it happens because all people are different. Have you seen a guitar amp? He has a knife switch and ten divisions ...
I haven't seen it, but I think readers will understand.
I think that different people have different numbers of these divisions. I say to myself that I have an emotional preamp, a preamplifier. Suppose, if I fell in love, then I don’t have butterflies flying inside, but such bats, with leathery wings.
Different people have a different number of pictures on the switch, and everyone has different channels. There are people with whom it is easy and comfortable to talk, even if you do not know much. There are those who are not about talking at all, but about doing, there are many of them among musicians. He fumbles in the corner of the studio, keeps quiet, and then - rrrraz and plays “The Flight of Your Soul”. And there is a third type, which organizes people around itself and even space itself.
In general, I am for a lot of diversity and I want other people to also be aware that everyone is different. And it would be strange to expect from different people the same emotions and ways to express them, the same shell or its absence. The most important thing is to know how you find a way out and application for everything that is inside.
Are there things in our world that you want but cannot understand? For me, such a stumbling block is the untimely departure of a person.
The departure of a person is always a global violation. But honestly , much more I have always been interested in the structure of the world in principle. Does the universe keep expanding, what is the event horizon? In some other life, I would be a quantum physicist, because that's the most interesting thing.
Not a biochemist?
You can also be a biochemist, but my mother is a biochemist, for me it's less romantic. If only because I know what angiotensin-converting enzyme is and how it works, I can understand the result of a biochemical analysis of my blood.
How about understanding what a black hole is?
I can, but theoretically, but I would like to have more time to figure it out. I'm interested in life, I'm interested in how the world works. It is interesting to constantly learn something, at least how to manage the new sound engineer's console at our rehearsal base, although I am not a sound engineer.
If we started talking about such global issues, how do you understand life and how do you understand death?
The appearance of a person is for me one of the absolutely unconditional miracles, because the birth of a separate being, a separate personality is incredibly cool and wonderful! One of the fundamental things in the system of the universe is that a person is able not to replicate himself. The most different people, each of which leaves some trace in eternity. And about death, I would like to think that this is a transition to the next level of being, it's just that we still know little about this level.
They say that today people have become very cynical, but what do you understand by cynicism? Is there such a feeling at all?
It seems to me that cynicism, callousness is a denial of some emotions that people think are too pretentious, and therefore funny. Denial of the ability to sincerely love, sincerely sympathize, empathize. Denying one's own kindness: "No, I don't want people to think that I'm kind, they will think that I'm a slob and a rag."
I myself often talk like this on serious topics, I am constantly internally nudged. My thoughts are multi-vector, that is, I can talk about something completely serious, but suddenly Jack Nicholson from The Witches of Eastwick happens in my head. Why is his character so attractive there? Yes, because he is not cynical, he sincerely sympathizes with these three aunts and wishes well, he just has such a nature, everything around him is twisted in a certain way.
Holidays of disobedience
Tell us about your children, how do you raise them?
Positive motivation is everything. My eldest daughter, Nina, on “weak ?!” can never be taken. If she is told “you won’t succeed,” she really won’t succeed. So we taught the multiplication table, it doesn’t work - and I find some cool ways, life hacks.
Through an app on your phone?
Yes, all this pampering, with a phone, you just need to make the process interesting and consolidate the result with praise. For example, when the eldest, Nina, began to read about Harry Potter, she had a huge leap in reading as such. I say: “Look, you were afraid, but it turned out even better than we expected” - and her as Tony Stark in “ iron man”throws up, forces appear for everything.
The youngest, Una, is more diligent and mentally strong, but she is extremely stubborn. If she came up with something to do in a certain way, and you try to explain to her what needs to be done differently, nothing will work out. You need to do something else, and only then return, because, of course, she is a thoroughbred sheep.
Una was born by caesarean section. It is often said that "Caesarites" are uncompetitive, not stubborn, phlegmatic. How about really?
In fact, a mother after a caesarean has excellent chances of catching postpartum depression. I just grabbed it - after the first beautiful pregnancy and childbirth without anesthesia, with songs, there was an operation. And you hang the blame on yourself: “I’m a bad mother, I didn’t cope, I got a deuce.” We have to work with this. As for children, I know my Caesarian, and many children born in this way, they have a better will to live, development and success than many.
Are your children similar to you internally?
The youngest copy in general, she is cunning, with a dark sense of humor, she also has an inner Jack Nicholson. Well, what if your favorite toys are the bats Does she sing pirate songs? But the eldest is a “girl-girl”, she is very gentle, sometime she can even cry from it. But I don't see much of a contrast either. Both Nina and Una regularly need holidays of disobedience.
What do you do in them?
We can watch two How to Train Your Dragon cartoons in a row, because I usually don't allow more than one a day, and not every day. We can have a pajama day, eat on the floor, just play the fool. I think it's very cool at some point to break the usual routine and surrender to the flow. For example, we celebrated my last birthday like this - we sat in pajamas with fruits on the balcony and played the fool in every possible way.
Are there any things in their behavior that you are intolerant of?
To hurt each other is a taboo for us, it’s right on the neck and apologize to each other. I also do not really encourage when they lie, and I pronounce it. It’s very easy to hit on the butt and put them in a corner, but I think it’s right to explain, because if you put them in a corner, they will leave from there, you know.
How are your days together?
I pick them up, give out food, stuff them into uniforms and escort them to the international viennese school Amadeus, they teach in English, there is also a musical bias. They will play the piano, and Nina is already playing the violin.
Then I go for a run, I play an instrument, I answer e-mails. I really don’t like to clean up, but I don’t get tired of cooking, I lock myself in the kitchen, I cook without exact recipes, this is my trance. As a child, I really loved to watch my great-grandmother conjure in the kitchen in exactly the same manner. At five I pick up the children from school. They go to all sorts of extensions, they have a choir, now Nina will have a cooking class. We quietly go home, we can go to the park, to the playground or something like that, we do some kind of homework, we play the violin, but a little. In the evening, my husband comes home from work and reads English with the eldest and plays the violin while I read with the youngest, and then tells them a bedtime story.
Do you check them?
Certainly. It is important for me that the education system is transparent for parents.
Flexible world
How do you teach your children yourself?
For three weeks in Montenegro, we never touched the iPad at all, because we took with us notebooks with all sorts of logic puzzles. Such ingenious notebooks, A4 format, for different ages, for 5-6 years, for 7-8, 9-10 years, all this is called "mousematics". They were a huge hit with us. Find the way in the maze, draw in mirror image, count in the game.
What are you playing?
In everything that I see around - constantly. We also have a lot role playing, recently more about pirates and mermaids. We make something, cut out snowflakes, make flowers. We go for a walk in the park, I show them all kinds of plants, how the Canadian clover differs from the European one.
And what?
The Canadian leaves are serrated, while the European ones are round. We love museums, and mostly we go sightseeing. In Vienna, they specially went to Brueghel, for example, but they didn’t even wrap up in the Italian wing. They are small, an hour and a half is the limit for them. But the children will definitely remember that Cranach's aunts have such golden curls as my Nina, they will remember the anthology of the European winter landscape, which began with Brueghel, these hunters in the snow.
You should always plan for such trips. In the Tretyakov Gallery, I will definitely show them Vasnetsov, definitely Kuindzhi, I will show how everything shines with him, we will talk about how he achieved this effect. And, so that it was completely good, - the Vrubel Hall, so that the Swan Princess stuck in their head forever.
What about action?
In Moscow we go to the Sats theater, we love puppet show and classical productions. Recently, we went with our children to a children's camp in Finland, which was organized by my friend, Natalya Lapkina, a person with a fairy tale in her eyes. Friends musicians came to us, there were jam sessions. Warm white nights and kids dancing on the roof of the woodshed! A fairy tale, although my husband said that I was an irresponsible mother.
But we had a holiday of disobedience for children and adults, stretched out for a week, and at the same time with very intensive training. I brought home a bunch of great watercolors, really great. We sat overlooking the fantastic nature, ate Caesar salad with crayfish tails, and Natasha talked about the history of the country.
We went to the workshop to make kantele, folk musical instrument. And then I told them how Väinämöinen, the protagonist"Kalevala", made for the first time a kantele from a fish bone, and wooden tools appeared later.
I tell them that the harp is the only musical instrument made from a weapon, it's a bow. The genesis of the harp is the sound of a strumming bowstring, children listen to this and understand that this is music, but at the same time death. Such a duality, it seems to me, should in children's world be constantly present. Anything can turn into anything, this world is unsteady, this world is flexible, these are all the shadows on the wall of Plato's cave. I see that the children memorized, imbued, repeat these tales and come up with their own. For example, my children, when a sock disappears in the washing machine, they say that the old troll woman stole it for her baby.
Is this, as they say now, storytelling?
Exactly. This is how I told them my favorite Andersen adventure about wild swans, with all the bloody details, with all this nettle in the cemetery, we sang the song "Sleeves of nettle-grass." And the next day I gave them the task to come up with an apocrypha, what happened to the prince who has one wing. Here you can immediately see that one of the children has a soul and a head, because Nina said that he found a country where the same werewolves live, one-armed and one-winged, where he found his own. My godson Gleb came up with the idea that the prince retained the ability to fly, and this allowed him to become the main royal scout. And the girl Katya, a pragmatist to the marrow of her bones, said that from the nettles collected by Eliza, the doctors received a medicine that allowed the prince to grow a hand instead of a wing.
spin double figs
You yourself have a very trusting relationship with your mother, this is not often the case.
We've always been friends, maybe because when I was at school, my dad got a position at the University of Dundee and started living in Scotland. He began to spend less time with us, we stayed with each other alone. It is clear that there was still a grandmother and various other relatives, but due to circumstances, my mother and I became important to each other. When he left, I was 14-15 years old.
And teenage rebellion?
I did not have it. I was old enough to have a lot to talk about. We've been talking about it ever since.
Were you heavily controlled, banned a lot?
No. You have to understand with your head that total control is not an option, that this is violence against a person. Some people apply control not only to children, but to everyone around them, because they do not know another way of interacting with the world. This is no good, I am always for flexibility and the ability to hear not only myself.
I also believe that it is absolutely necessary for children to be taught to stick their tongues, give flicks and twist double figs. Children should climb trees and fences, come back from a walk dirty. If the child came in clean clothes and with a neat haircut, he had a bad walk. The child should rustle leaves, rummage under the bushes, fall, break his knees, scratch, tear his pants, ride on the bungee. In short, to do what I really love to do myself, but I'm afraid when my children do it.
As a child, all the apple trees around Moscow State University were mine, despite the fact that I was sick a lot and, in fact, was a modest honors student. And in my first year at university, I met one physicist and one mathematician, we took textbooks and climbed the clock tower opposite the physics department. Past the clockwork - this is the absolute Hoffmann!
It's scary. Especially if your kids do it.
Of course, it’s scary, but I hope that at 18 they will behave like this. Because you are sitting on the roof, dangling your legs at the level of the 27th floor, looking at the sunset over the physics department - how good!
Helavis Sunday, June 4, 2017 Anna Danilova2 comments on "Helavisa"
Magic mom and daughter! Thank you!
Thanks for the inspiring interview! Simply space. Very good.
- Natalya, tell us, what books are you reading with the girls now? In what language?
Una is now six years old, and all Last year passed under the sign of Peter Rabbit (a character from fairy tales English writer Beatrice Potter. ‒ Note. ed.). We have a CD, English books, we collect a collection of vintage Wedgwood children's tableware. She likes it all terribly, because Una is generally such a Victorian soul in a small body. She meets the mother of a classmate recently at school and says: “Mom Caleb, I have great news for you! Caleb doesn't hit me as hard this year as last year!"
Nina is nine years old. She could not read for a long time, it was not easy. And then, unexpectedly for herself, she realized that she could read in Russian, and the first book after the Russian primer, which she herself took and began to read without letting go of her hands, was The Hobbit! And she reads it with all the complicated speech patterns and long sentences.
There are many good children's books, translated into English language, and in Russian: Astrid Lindgren, Tove Janson, Anderson... How is the choice made? Do you help the girls choose one of the translations?
Naturally, we start from what is in our library, and it is rather big. For example, we have all the books about Moomin in English translation in Vienna, and in Moscow they are in Russian, and we read this way and that way. Both translations are good, this does not cause problems. Of course, books that are written in English, we read in the original.
What about The Hobbit?
Well, yes, The Hobbit was Nina's decision, and I respect it. She wanted to read in Russian about the hobbit, the translation is excellent, so let her read it.
Now both girls go to a bilingual school where they study in English and German. Is the Russian language not forgotten during such studies?
The language is not forgotten, because I only speak Russian with them. Of course, we read more in English, assignments are given in it at school, and in the library they take books in English. Although Una sometimes brings Russian books from the library. It started with her bringing a book about giant pandas in Bulgarian! I say, Una, cat, this is not quite the right language ... Of course, we read it anyway. And recently she brought a collection of Russian folk tales, she really likes about the firebird.
Reading is an alphabet, a writing system, it is the construction of speech structures on paper. And all this needs to be taught separately, because different parts of the brain are responsible for these skills.
I talked with teachers at their bilingual school, and they all said as one: first we master one system, and then, when everything works, “gets on track”, we take on another. Otherwise, children begin to get confused, they can make a word, where some of the letters will be in one language, and some in another. No need to hurry.
And it is quite possible to learn to speak in parallel in two or even three languages.
What language did the girls begin to speak?
They began to speak in completely different ways. The eldest, Nina, did not speak at all for a long time, she had her own bird language. For example, "apple" was "kalya", "eat" was "yum-yum", "sit down" was "ah-ah". It was beautiful "ka-ah". Somewhere in two and a half years, she called dad to look at Christmas tree: “Dad is everything yum-yum? There ka-ah!” At the same time, she spoke “yes” in Russian, and “no” in English. English was also present, but in reality she spoke in phrases at almost three years old. Both in English and Russian. We just moved to Vienna, Una was born, and Nina spoke in sentences: “My sister! She loves me, loves me." True, the sound "R" was not given to her, and she said "sestRa" with an English accent. But then it evened out, and now she speaks without any accent.
Una spoke much earlier, but due to the fact that for the first year and a half dad was not around more often, she spoke in Russian. By the age of two, she already spoke very well, but in Russian, and although we strongly urged her to speak English, she refused. For example, we look at the picture with her, I ask: “Una, who is this?” - "This is an elephant". - "And how in English?" - "I do not know". - "Elephant! Say Elephant! - "I can't say Elephant, I'm very small."
And she also had problems with the sound “R”, but it sounded more like “th”, like Russian children. And with the sounds “Sh” and “Sh” it was also not easy. We trained all these RRfish, RRcrack, SHShishka. She trained and even began to abuse it, like: “Mom, are you protecting me with fluffy?”
She began to speak English well by the age of four. She needed to talk both at home with her grandparents and at school. And she consciously translated English from a liability to an asset. And she spoke both languages complex sentences. In English, she uses everything continuous, and she likes it.
And did the girls read the English analogues of some of our nursery rhymes, lullabies in the very, very early age? And who read it, you or dad?
Oh sure! This is what is called "nursery songs". Most of them were read by James and mother-in-law. I was responsible for “a gray top will come” and “a horned goat is coming”, and they were responsible for all sorts of “Mary had a little lamb”.
If we are talking about language, films also play their role in perception. How careful are you about what girls watch from film adaptations?
Just recently, I explained to Nina that there are films based on books, and there are “based on”. That "Harry Potter" are movies based on books, and "How to Train Your Dragon" are books based on the movie. After we watched Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, they asked to buy the book, but we didn't like it.
Let's talk about Harry Potter. Like Nina, who is she rooting for there?
Nina is great! She wants to put on a play at her school about Cursed child and play there ... Dolphin! He says, mom, will you dye my hair blue? She really likes the play, she read the first book about Harry Potter, and then she wanted to read the play, she really liked the genre itself. This is logical for a kinesthetic person, she likes the theater and likes this format - to imagine how it happens on stage. She is generally less interested in the plot, she is more interested in reading a guide about the most terrible Dragons.
- In Moscow, you often go to the theater. What do girls like?
The ballet The Nutcracker enjoys constant success in our country, although we have not yet read the story about Krakatuk, Myshilda and the sausage. I want to wait a little - it's still scary. Nina was very imbued swan lake". And we are very fond of staging classic fairy tales in the Natalia Sats Theater: Thumbelina, Andersen's fairy tales, Snow White.
- Eternal stories! What was your favorite book at the age of seven?
English folk tales. And the poems are also in English, translated by Chukovsky. “A man with crooked legs lived in the world” - this is what he did not so much translate as he himself invented ...
- He had a difficult relationship with English ...
Yes. And it worked out well!
Interviewed by Olga Lishina
Photo by Natalia Lapkina