22, is a ballet in three acts and six scenes by Dmitri Shostakovich to a libretto by Alexander Ivanovsky.
[3] The work was performed eighteen times[4] and was initially censored due to its inclusion of modern European dance styles.
It follows a Soviet football (soccer) team in a Western city where they come into contact with many politically incorrect antagonistic characters such as the Diva, the Fascist, the Agent Provocateur, the Negro and others.
The team falls victim to match rigging, police harassment, and unjust imprisonment by the evil bourgeoisie.
The team is freed from jail when the local workers overthrow their capitalist overlords.
[7] In 1983, he created The Golden Age for Irek Mukhamedov, who defined the role of Boris, the young workers' leader, for successive generations of Bolshoi dancers.