The Bolshoi Ballet
The internationally renowned Bolshoi Ballet is among the oldest and worldwide acclaimed ballet classical companies. The first ballets to be produced were by French and Italian ballet masters such as Filippo Beccari, the Morelli brothers and Jean Lamiral. Before long, however, young Russian choreographers such as Adam Glushkovsky took over, concentrating on ballets with Russian themes. From 1820-1830 the company developed in the French tradition under the influence of Felicite-Virginie Hullin-Sor and Fanny Elssler who familiarised the Moscow public with works of Jules Perrot and other masterpieces of romantic ballet.

By mid-19th century, Bolshoi Ballet developed its own, so-called Moscow Style, with the emphasis on acting. Marius Petipa's Don Quixote that received its premiere in Moscow on 26 December 1869 became a signature production of the Moscow Company, a work that, infringing all Imperial Theatres traditions, was transferred from Moscow to Petersburg, not the other way around.

Today the chef-d’oeuvres of classical ballet, such as Giselle, La Sylphide, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère, Don Quixote, Raymonda, Le Corsaire, Coppélia, as well as 20th century’s masterpieces by Yuri Grigorovich, Mikhail Fokine, George Balanchine, Pierre Lacotte, John Neumeier, Alberto Alonso occupy a leading place in the Bolshoi Ballet repertoire.

The Bolshoi has also produced a number of specially commissioned ballets, including works by Yuri Possokhov, Vyacheslav Samodurov, Edward Clug among others.

Nowadays Bolshoi dancers, Svetlana Zakharova, Ekaterina Krysanova, Anna Nikulina, Anastasia Stashkevich, Evgenia Obraztsova, Alyona Kovalyova, Eleonora Sevenard, Elizaveta Kokoreva, Yulia Stepanova, Eva Sergeyenkova, Vladislav Lantratov, Artem Ovcharenko, Semyon Chudin, Vyacheslav Lopatin, Denis Rodkin, Denis Savin, Artemy Belyakov, Igor Tsvirko, Egor Gerashchenko, Dmitri Smilevsky and others ensure that the Bolshoi's standards are held as high as ever.

Makhar Vaziev, former ballet director of the Mariinsky Theatre and the Teatro alla Scala, was appointed Ballet Director of the Bolshoi in 2016.

Programme

Pas de deux from The Talisman
Music: Riccardo Drigo
Choreographer: Marius Petipa
Lead Dancers: Arina Denisova (Lead Soloist), Egor Gerachshenko (Principal)

Tango
Music: Victor Osadchev
Choreographer: Alessandro Caggegi
Lead Dancers: Kristina Kretova (Lead Soloist), Igor Tsvirko (Principal)

Pas de deux of Diana and Acteon from La Esmeralda
Music: Cesare Pugni
Choreographer: Agrippina Vaganova
Lead Dancers: Eleonora Sevenard (Principal), Ratmir Dzhumaliev

Pas de deux from Swan Lake
Music: Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Choreographer: Yuri Grigorovich
Lead Dancers: Alyona Kovalyova (Principal), Artemy Belyakov (Principal)

Fading
Music: Enrique Granados
Choreographer: Dimo Milev
Lead Dancers:
Kristina Kretova (Lead Soloist)
Nikita Kapustin
Maria Vinogradova (Lead Soloist)
Igor Tsvirko (Principal)
Ana Turazashvili (Soloist)
Alexei Gaynutdinov
Anna Balukova

- Intermission -

Adagio from Romeo and Juliet
Music: Sergey Prokofiev
Choreographer: Leonid Lavrovsky
Lead Dancers: Eleonora Sevenard (Principal), Artem Ovcharenko (Principal)

Pas de deux from The Flames of Paris
Music: Boris Asafyev
Choreographer: Vasily Vainonnen
Lead Dancers: Ekaterina Varlamova (Soloist), Dmitry Smilevsky (Principal)

Grand Pas Classique
Music: Daniel Auber
Choreographer: Victor Gzovskiy
Lead Dancers: Maria Koshkaryova (Soloist), Dmitry Vyskubenko (Lead Soloist)

Monologue of Phrygia and Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from Spartacus (Act III)
Music: Aram Khachaturian
Choreographer: Yuri Grigorovich
Lead Dancers: Maria Vinogradova (Lead Soloist), Igor Tsvirko (Principal)

The Dying Swan
Music: Camille Saint-Saëns
Choreographer: Mikhail Fokine
Lead Dancer: Yulia Stepanova (Principal)

Grand Pas de deux from Don Quixote
Music: Ludwig Minkus
Choreographer: Alexander Gorsky
Lead Dancers:
Elizaveta Kokoreva (Principal)
Alexei Putintsev (First Soloist)
Margarita Shrayner (Lead Soloist)
Elizaveta Krutelyova (Soloist)
and the Bolshoi Ballet dancers