by Amy Brandt | Mar 16, 2022 | The Latest
The Dutch National Ballet announced today that Olga Smirnova, a star dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet, will be joining the Amsterdam-based company as a principal, effective immediately. Victor Caixeta, a Brazilian-born soloist with the Mariinsky Ballet, will also be...
by Julia Guiheen | Mar 3, 2021 | Viral Videos
While not nearly as common as the pas de deux, the pas de trois is a frequent feature in classical ballets that poses its own unique challenges. The seamless braiding of three dancers, in which all can equally shine, is no easy feat. In this clip from 2002, the...
by Oksana Khadarina | Dec 27, 2020 | Career, Dancer Spotlight, Instagram
What does it take for an American to graduate from the Vaganova Ballet Academy at the top of the class—and join the Mariinsky Ballet at the age of 17? And how would it feel to then be sidelined by injury, and miss an entire season of professional dancing, just...
by Julia Guiheen | Nov 11, 2020 | TBT
Polina Semionova, principal guest artist with the Staatsballett Berlin, is serene and luminous. Mariinsky Ballet principal Vladimir Shklyarov is stylish and refined. Together, unsurprisingly, they make a sublime partnership, as seen here in their wistful and...
by Marina Harss | May 12, 2020 | Career, Instagram, Profiles
In November, American Ballet Theatre principal Christine Shevchenko traveled to St. Petersburg to work with one of the coaches at the Mariinsky Ballet, Margarita Kullik. It was her fourth time working with Kullik, who in the 1980s and ’90s was a leading dancer...
by Amy Brandt | Apr 20, 2020 | Career, Instagram, Profiles
On the Mariinsky Ballet’s tour to the U.S. last fall, audiences clamored to see long established stars like Ekaterina Kondaurova, Kimin Kim, Viktoria Tereshkina and Vladimir Shklyarov. But it was also an opportunity to catch an exciting group of young protégés...
by Julia Guiheen | Feb 19, 2020 | Viral Videos
Earlier this month, 15-year-old American dancer Ava Arbuckle was one of eight scholarship winners at the Prix de Lausanne. For her classical selection, Arbukle, clad in an ultra-feminine, rosette-covered tutu, performed Flora’s variation from The Awakening of...
by Dana Nichols For Dance Magazine | Dec 11, 2019 | Career
On Instagram this week, Misty Copeland reposted a picture of two Russian ballerinas covered head to toe in black, exposing the Bolshoi’s practice of using black face in the classical ballet La Bayadère. The post has already received over 60,000 likes and...