Interview with Ekaterina Makhlina, President of Children’s and Teen Festivals
Hello Ekaterina! Tell our readers how your career started?
Back in my school years, I actively participated in various creative school projects. Having received an economic education at the institute, I started working in a bank, in the marketing and advertising department, whose activities involve a creative component. However, a year later I was offered the position of art director in an event management company. Since 2004, I have become the head of a children’s beauty and talent contest. In 2008, I established my own contest “Little Talents of Russia”.
Tell us about your projects that you lead!
Almost 20 years of work are associated with many projects. At the moment I was holding children’s contests and festivals “Little Talents of Russia”, “The best children’s model of Russia”, I was organizing children’s fashion shows of Russian and foreign brands. In 2019, I was invited to the team that organizes and conducts the “International Children’s Congress”, which in the same year received the status of a UNESCO Club.
The Club’s programs are aimed at identifying and interacting talented children, popularizing children’s creativity, supporting interest in literature, painting, architecture and theater, music and choreography. Among the Club’s projects are various contests, forums, conferences, in which children from 131 settlements of Russia, as well as representatives of more than 40 countries, take part. The Club actively cooperates with the Russian Academy of Arts, the Union of Artists of Russia, the Faculty of Arts of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Ivanovo State Polytechnic University.
What successes have your participants achieved and what has it given them!
Our primary task is to create a friendly atmosphere among the contestants and their parents, which teaches children to work in a team to achieve a common result. Naturally, there is competition, but it must be healthy. Children who participate in our events come from different cities, find friends in the process of preparation and, often, do not even try to compete, because the rich rehearsal and entertainment program is so fascinating.
We all know the Russian proverb “To see people, to show yourself”, so participation in competitions is an opportunity not only to demonstrate your talents, but also to learn something from your peers.
To sum up, contests teach you to be friends, work in a team, evaluate your capabilities, set new goals for yourself and develop.
Winners and prize-winners of competitions and festivals represent our country at international venues in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Brazil, South Africa, etc. This is the next stage that children go to. In international projects, they represent not only themselves, but also our country, and this is a big responsibility that our children always successfully cope with! After participating in such contests, many people understand the importance of learning foreign languages, which are incredibly necessary for communicating with children from other countries.
Participation in Russian competitions and festivals gives children the opportunity to get acquainted with the culture and traditions of the peoples of Russia, because children represent their regions at the competition, international projects are an opportunity to visit various countries and here we are already talking about the possibility of getting acquainted with the culture and traditions of other countries. After our projects, children have friends in different parts of the globe, and modern technologies allow them to keep in touch with them in the future.
What new things can our readers expect and what projects are currently in development?
We continue to carry out our ongoing projects, developing them, saturating them with various master classes from professional singers, actors, directors, choreographers. Such meetings are very useful for the younger generation, which is looking for itself and its own path on the threshold of development. We have started preparing the XXIII National Festival “Little Talents of Russia”, which will take place in June 2023 and will once again bring together talented girls and boys from various regions of Russia in Moscow.
What can you wish to the young and young participants of such projects?
Every year, when I meet our participants, I wish them success, creative development, and the achievement of the goals that everyone defines for himself.
We started the interview with a question about how my career began: an economist with a higher education became the President of the All-Russian Children’s Competition! Nothing is impossible, it all depends on your desires and efforts!
There are no untalented children and people! Look for yourself, develop, go to your goal and you will definitely succeed!