Mariinsky Ballet
The Mariinsky Ballet, is an internationally renowned classical ballet company based at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 19th Century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet is one of the most famous ballet companies in history and continues to be one of the world's leading ballet companies to this day. Internationally, the Mariinsky Ballet is most commonly known by its former Soviet name the Kirov Ballet, a title which is still used by the company when touring. The Mariisnky Ballet is the parent company of the Vaganova Ballet Academy, a leading international ballet school.
History
Carlotta Brianza and Paul Gerdt of the Imperial Ballet as Princess Aurora and Prince Desire in the 1890 premiere of the Sleeping Beauty.
The Mariinsky Ballet was founded in the 1740s, following the formation of the first Russian dance school in 1738.
The Imperial Theatre School as it was originally known, was established on 4th May 1738, at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. It would become the predecessor of today's Vaganova Ballet Academy. The school's founder director was the French ballet master and teacher Jean-Baptiste Landé and the purpose of creating the school was to train young dancers to form the first Russian ballet company. The first group of students included twelve boys and twelve girls, who later went on to form what would become the predecessor of today's Mariinsky Ballet.
Very little information exists from the formative years of the ballet company, however it is known that both the school and the ballet company were linked by name, becoming the Imperial Ballet School and Imperial Russian Ballet, names that continued to be used until the abolishment of Imperial rule. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Imperial Russian Ballet soon rose to prominence and would employ some of the most influential and famous names in ballet history including Charles Didelot, Marie Taglioni, Christian Johansson, Enrico Cecchetti, Jules Perrot, Fanny Cerrito and Carlotta Grisi.
During the 19th century, Marius Petipa took Russia by storm and became the chief choreographer for the Imperial Ballet School. Petipa was influential in creating full-length ballets such as The Sleeping Beauty.
Following the Russian revolution, the Soviet government decided that the ballet school and company were unwanted symbols of the tsarist regime and went on to close them both. The ballet company was the first to be re-established, becoming known as the Soviet Ballet, with the school re-opening later as the Leningrad State Choreographic School, both remaining in their previous locations.
Following the assassination of the Bolshevik revolutionary Sergey Kirov in 1934, the then Soviet Ballet, was renamed the Kirov Ballet a name which is most commonly used to identify the company to this day. After the end of communist rule, both the ballet company and opera company at the Mariinsky Theatre were linked to the theatre by name, becoming the Mariinsky Ballet and Mariinsky Opera and both companies are run by the theatre its-self. Throughout its history, the company has been based at the Mariinsky Theare, which was originally known as the Bolshoi Kameny Theatre, before it was demolished to be replaced by the existing theatre. This is not to be confused with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, which is the home of the Bolshoi Ballet
Despite later name changes and pressures of the Russian revolution, the present day Mariinsky Ballet, is still linked to the school, which is now known as the Vaganova Ballet Academy.
Today
The Mariinsky Ballet is today recognised as one of the world's greatest ballet companies, hiring over 200 dancers, including a reserve troupe and character artists. The Director of the Mariinsky Ballet is Makharbek Vaziev.
Being modelled on other leading opera/ballet theatres such as the Royal Opera House, London and La Scala, Milan, both the Mariinsky Ballet and Mariinsky Opera came under the management of the Mariinsky Theatre itself, with Valery Gergiev as Artistic Director. He is also the Director of the opera company. Both companies operate as separate units.
Repertoire
- Apollo
- Aria Suspended
- Ballet Imperial
- Bedbug, The
- Carnaval
- Cinderella
- Come In!
- Chopiniana
- Don Quixote
- Du Cote de chez Swan
- Etudes
- Firebird, The
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- Forsythe at the Mariinsky
- Fountain of Bakhchisarai, The
- Four Temperaments, The
- Giselle
- Glass Heart
- Golden Age, The
- Jewels
- La Bayadère
- La Sylphide
- La Valse
- Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
- Le Corsaire
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- Le Reveil de Flore
- Le Sacre du Printemps
- Le Spectre de la Rose
- Legend of Love, The
- Leningrad Symphony
- Les Noces
- Magic Nut, The
- Meek One, The
- Metaphysics
- Middle Duet
- Nutcracker, The
- Ondine
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- Overcoat after Gogol
- Paquita
- Petrouchka
- Polovtsian Dances
- Prodigal Son
- Raymonda
- Reverence
- Ring, The
- Romeo and Juliet
- Schéhérazade
- Serenade
- Sleeping Beauty, The
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- Swan, The
- Swan Lake
- Symphony in C
- Three Ballets of John Neumeier
- Tchaikovsky Pas de deux
- Theme and Variations
- Wie der Alte Leiermann
- Young Lady and the Hooligan, The
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Dancers
Principals
- Andrian Fadeyev
- Yevgeny Ivanchenko
- Igor Kolb
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- Danila Korsuntsev
- Ulyana Lopatkina
- Yulia Makhalina
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- Irma Nioradze
- Daria Pavlenko
- Leonid Sarafanov
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- Viktoria Tereshkina
- Diana Vishneva
- Igor Zelensky
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1st & 2nd Soloists
- Tatiana Amosova
- Andrei Batalov
- Ruben Bobovnikov
- Yulia Bolshakova
- Maya Dumchenko
- Irina Golub
- Nadezhda Gonchar
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- Sofia Gumerova
- Alexandra Iosifidi
- Andrei Ivanov
- Yulia Kasenkova
- Maxim Khrebtov
- Anastasia Kolegova
- Yekaterina Kondaurova
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- Anton Korsakov
- Ilya Kuznetsov
- Mikhail Lobukhin
- Olesia Novikova
- Yevgenia Obraztsova
- Yekaterina Osmolkina
- Xenia Ostreikovskaya
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- Anton Pimonov
- Elvira Tarasova
- Alexander Sergeyev
- Tatyana Serova
- Nikita Shcheglov
- Vasily Shcherbakov
- Elena Sheshina
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- Vladimir Shklyarov
- Alina Somova
- Tatiana Tkachenko
- Andrei Yakovlev
- Irina Zhelonkina
- Maxim Zyuzin
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Principal Character Artists
- Islom Baimuradov
- Elena Bazhenova
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- Alexandra Gronskaya
- Lira Khuslamova
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- Vladimir Ponomarev
- Polina Rassadina
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- Pyotr Stasiunas
- Andrei Yakovlev
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Choryphees
- Elena Androsova
- Yelizaveta Cheprasova
- Elena Chmil
- Maria Chugai
- Xenia Dubrovina
- Denis Firsov
- Yekaterina Ivannikova
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- Svetlana Ivanova
- Anna Lavrinenko
- Valeria Martynyuk
- Alexei Nedviga
- Tatyana Nekipelova (Bazhitova)
- Anastasia Petushkova
- Grigory Popov
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- Sergei Popov
- Dmitry Pykhachov
- Sergei Salikov
- Yana Selina
- Yana Serebriakova
- Maria Shirinkina
- Roman Skripkin
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- Diana Smirnova
- Filipp Stepin
- Daria Sukhorukova
- Alexei Timofeyev
- Andrei Yermakov
- Ti Yon Riu
- Daria Vasnetsova
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- Elena Vasyukovich
- Dmitry Zavalishin
- Konstantin Zverev
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Corps de Ballet
- Konstantin Adzhamov
- Maria Adzhamova
- Olga Akmatova (Sazonova)
- Viktoria Alexeyeva
- Ilmira Bagautdinova
- Olga Balinskaya
- Alexei Bazhitov
- Timofei Belov
- Mikhail Berdichevsky
- Salikh Bikchurin
- Anton Boitsov
- Stanislav Burov
- Yekaterina Danilko
- Nadezhda Demakova
- Sergei Dmitriev
- Alla Dmitrieva
- Yevgenia Dolmatova
- Natalia Dzevulskaya
- Yevgenia Emelianova
- Vera Garbuz
- Tatiana Goryunova
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- Daria Grigorieva
- Eduard Gusev
- Irina Idina
- Karen Ioannisian
- Yana Khaldina
- Svetlana Khrebtova
- Yuri Kirik
- Anastasia Kiru
- Alexander Klimov
- Yekaterina Klimkova (Kovaleva)
- Artyom Kokorin
- Maria Kolomiytseva
- Valery Konkov
- Sergei Kononenko
- Anna Korotysheva
- Lyubov Kozharskaya
- Soslan Kulaev
- Alexander Kulikov
- Alexander Kurkov
- Viktoria Kutepova
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- Maria Lebedeva
- Tatiana Linnik
- Yekaterina Loginova
- Fyodor Lopukhov
- Vanda Lubkovskaya
- Maxim Lynda
- Maria Makarenko
- Yelizaveta Maltseva
- Nadezhda Manoshkina
- Anatoly Marchenko
- Yekaterina Mikhailovtseva
- Mikhail Milkov
- Xenia Molkova
- Fyodor Murashov
- Rafael Musin
- Nikolai Naumov
- Alexander Neff
- Igor Nikitin
- Novfel Niyazov
- Dmitry Ozolin
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- Maria Paripskaya
- Daria Pavlova
- Marianna Pavlova
- Yekaterina Petina
- Anastasia Plastun
- Maxim Podshivalenko
- Irina Prokofieva
- Natalia Raldugina
- Alexander Romanchikov
- Kirill Safin
- Yegor Safin
- Dmitry Sharapov
- Natalia Sharapova
- Maria Shevyakova
- Yevgenia Sirotenko
- Ivan Sitnikov
- Oksana Skoryk
- Yulia Slivkina (Smirnova)
- Alisa Sokolova
- Dmitry Solovei
- Andrei Solovev
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- Anna Sysoeva
- Ksenia Tagunova
- Yana Tikhonova
- Nikita Tkachenko
- Alexander Tsvetkov
- Andrei Ushakov
- Anastasia Vasilets (Vasilieva)
- Dmitry Vedeneyev
- Marianna Yakovleva
- Kamil Yangurazov
- Yevgenia Yemelyanova
- Maxim Yeremeyev
- Andrei Yermakov
- Darina Zarubskaya
- Veronika Zenova
- Boris Zhurilov
- Marina Zolotova
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Marius Petipa
For a number of years, Marius Petipa was the ballet master of the Imperial Russian Ballet. One of the most famous names in ballet history, Petipa was the choreographer of some of some of the best known classical ballets including:
Notable Dancers
- Avdotia Istomina
- Paul Gerdt
- Olga Preobrajenska
- Mathilde Kschessinska
- Anna Pavlova
- Theodore Kosloff
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- Tamara Karsavina
- Mikhail Fokine
- Olga Spesivtseva
- Vaslav Nijinsky
- Galina Ulanova
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- Marina Semenova
- Konstantin Sergeyev
- Alla Sizova
- Natalia Dudinskaya
- Yury Grigorovich
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- Altynai Asylmuratova
- Diana Vishneva
- Uliana Lopatkina
- Svetlana Zakharova
- Igor Kolb
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External links