The soaring monument and poster spoke of human achievement. This was not your usual war-monument (ok cold-war). This monument celebrated human achievement. A memorial to that first human space flight. Once inside the museum this was more than monument, this was a story of human creativity and dreaming.

From the wood working shop of a math teacher came the dreams that would launch a generation of sputniks. The vision of possibility stirred by every obstacle. A dream that had hope for the future. Gardens, toilets, tools all envisioned and created. This journey to outer space was more than a race — it was a leap of technology that drove computer science, genetics, bio-mechanics and even international cooperation.

The introduction of weightless growing and rosemary into orbit.

The toilet upgraded!

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The tools organized.

During a walk through the museum I was reminded again and again about the human spirit and the dances of Kostroma as this National Dance Show moved across, around, over and through the space of a stage creating beauty with grace, determination, organization and dreams. No cameras allowed!! So the words will do. Every undancing bone in my body moved to admiration with spectacle and precision, with colour and joy. An inner space mission!