Imperial Ballet

The Mariinsky Ballet (russian: Балет Мариинского театра) is the resident classical ballet company of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet is one of the world's leading ballet companies. Internationally, the Mariinsky Ballet continues to be known by its former Soviet name the Kirov Ballet. The Mariinsky Ballet is the parent company of the Vaganova Ballet Academy, a leading international ballet school.

History

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 4 May 1738, at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. It would become the predecessor of today's Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. 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.

As the Imperial Russian Ballet, the company premiered numerous ballets by choreographer Marius Petipa. A number of his ballets now form the basis of the traditional classical ballet repertoire, performed by ballet companies around the world, and often retaining much of Petipa's choreography. These ballets include the original productions of ''The Nutcracker'', '' The Sleeping Beauty'', ''Don Quixote'', ''La Bayadère'', and '' Raymonda''; and popular revivals of older ballets, including ''Coppélia'', ''Giselle'', and '' Le Corsaire''. Petipa's revival of the ballet ''Swan Lake'' is perhaps his most famous work for the company. Originally choreographed by Julius Reisinger for the Bolshoi Theatre in 1877, ''Swan Lake'' was initially a critical and commercial failure. Petipa sought to revive the ballet with the blessing of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, but the composer died before the new ballet was created. Petipa consequently worked with his brother Modest Tchaikovsky, who significantly revised the story and rewrote the libretto to the version now commonly performed. The production was choreographed by Petipa and his collaborator Lev Ivanov. Premiering at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1895, the Petipa/Ivanov/Tchaikovsky production of Swan Lake was a success.

Following the Russian Revolution, the Soviet government decided that the ballet school and company were unwanted symbols of the tsarist regime and closed them both. The ballet company was the first to be re-established, becoming in 1920 known as the State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, with the school re-opening later in 1924 as the Leningrad State Choreographic School, both in their previous locations.

After the assassination of prominent Soviet figure Sergey Kirov in 1934, the Soviet Ballet was renamed the Kirov Ballet in 1935, a name which is still sometimes incorrectly used. After the end of Communist rule, the ballet company and opera company were renamed for the theatre, becoming in 1992 the Mariinsky Ballet and Mariinsky Opera. Both companies are now run by the theatre itself.

Today

The Director of the Mariinsky Ballet is Yuri Fateyev.

Repertoire

*''Adagio Hammerklavier''
*''Anna Karenina''-Alexei Ratmansky version
* ''Apollo''
* ''Ballet Imperial (Ballet No 2)''
*''Bambi''
*''La Bayadère''
*''Bolero Factory''
*''The Bronze Horseman''
*''Camera obscura''
* ''Carmen Suite''
* ''Carnaval''
*''The Cat on the Tree''
*'' Chopiniana''
*''Choreographic Game 3x3''
*''Cinderella''-Alexei Ratmansky version
*''Concerto DSCH''
*'' Le Corsaire''
*''Le Divertissement du roi''
* ''Don Quixote''
*''Elegy. Ophelia''
*''The Firebird''
*'' Fountain of Bakhchisarai''
*''The Four Seasons''
*''Giselle''
*''Infra''
*''In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated'
* ''In the Night''
*''In the Jungle''
*''Inside the Lines;;''
* ''Jewels''
*''The Legend of Love''-choreography Yury Grigorovich
*''Leningrad Symphony''
*''The Little Humpbacked Horse''-Alexei Ratmansky version
*'' Marguerite and Armand''
* ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''
*''Les noces''
*''The Nutcracker''-Marius Petipa version
*''The Nutcracker''-Mihail Chemiakin version
*'' Paquita''-Yuri Smekalov version
* ''Paquita Grand Pas''
*''Pavlovsk''
*''Le Parc''
* ''Petrouchka''
*''Petrouchka''-Vladimir Varnava and Konstantin Fyodorov version
*'' ''Polovtsian Dances (ballet)''
* ''The Prodigal Son''
*'' Raymonda''
*''Le Réveil de Flore''
* ''Romeo and Juliet''-Leonid Lavrovsky version
*''Russian Overture''
*''Le Sacre Du Primtemps''
*''Sacre''
* ''Scheherazade''
*''Scotch Symphony''
*''Second I''
* ''Serenade''
*''Shurale''
*''Solo''
*'' ''Sleeping Beauty''- Konstantin Sergeev version
*''Sleeping Beauty''-Sergei Vikharev version
* ''Spartacus''-Leonid Yakobson version
*'' Le Spectre de la rose''
* ''The Stone Flower''
* ''The Swan''
*''Swan Lake''
*''La Sylphide''
* ''Sylvia''
* ''Symphony in C''
*''Symphony in Three Movements''
* ''Tarantella''
*''Tchaikovsky Pas de deux''
*'' The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude''
*''Variations for two couples''
*''Violin Concerto No. 2''
*''Without''
*''Yaroslavna. The Eclipse''
*''The Young Lady and the Hooligan''
*''5 Tangos''

Dancers

The basis of the Mariinsky Ballet consists of the following artists:

Principals

* Ekaterina Kondaurova
* Olesya Novikova
* Nadezhda Batoeva
* Oksana Skorik
* Alina Somova
* Viktoria Tereshkina
* Diana Vishneva
* Timur Askerov
* Yevgeny Ivanchenko
* Kimin Kim
* Igor Kolb
* Xander Parish
* Vladimir Shklyarov
* Andrey Ermakov

First Soloists

* Maria Ilyushkina
* Anastasia Kolegova
* Yekaterina Osmolkina
* Renata Shakirova
* Kristina Shapran
* Maria Shirinkina
* Elena Evseeva
* Maria Khoreva
* Alexander Sergeev
* Philipp Stepin
* Konstantin Zverev

Second Soloists

* Maria Bulanova
* Nadezhda Gonchar
* Alexandra Iosifidi
* Anastasia Lukina
* Valeria Martynyuk
* Anastasia Nuikina
* Yana Selina
* Tatiana Tkachenko
* Roman Belyakov
* Evgeni Konovalov
* Nikita Korneyev
* Ivan Oskorbin
* Yuri Smekalov
* Alexei Timofeyev
* David Zaleyev
* Maxim Zyuzin

Character Soloists

*Elena Bazhenova
*Olga Belik
*Alina Krasovskaya
*Alisa Rusina
* Islom Baimuradov
* Soslan Kulaev
* Dmitry Pykhachov
* Vasily Shcherbakov
* Andrei Yakovlev

Coryphees

* Vlada Borodulina
* Yuliana Chereshkevich
* Tamara Gimadieva
* Shamala Guseinova
* Daria Ionova
* Alexandra Khityeva
* Viktoria Krasnokutskaya
* Camilla Mazzi
* Anastasia Nikitina
* Xenia Ostreikovskaya
* Ekaterina Petrova
* Zlata Yalinich
* Yaroslav Baibordin
* Ramanbek Beishenaliev
* Roman Malyshev
* Alexei Nedviga
* Grigory Popov
* Yaroslav Pushkov
* Alexander Romanchikov
* Andrei Solovyov

Notable dancers

*Altynai Asylmuratova
*Mikhail Baryshnikov
*Vakhtang Chabukiani
*Petra Conti
*Natalia Dudinskaya
*Pavel Gerdt
*Tamara Karsavina
*Maria Khoreva
* Irina Kolpakova
* Theodore Kosloff
* Mathilde Kschessinska
* Ninel Kurgapkina
*Pierina Legnani
*Larissa Lezhnina
*Ulyana Lopatkina
*Askold Makarov
*Natalia Makarova
*Varvara P. Mey
* Galina Mezentseva
* Vaslav Nijinsky
*Rudolf Nureyev
*Alla Osipenko
*Anna Pavlova
*Olga Preobrajenska
*Farukh Ruzimatov
*Leonid Sarafanov
*Marina Semyonova
*Konstantin Sergeyev
* Alla Sizova
* Yuri Soloviev
* Olga Spessivtzeva
*Galina Ulanova
*Diana Vishneva
* Svetlana Zakharova
* Igor Zelensky

See also

* List of productions of Swan Lake derived from its 1895 revival

References

External links

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**

Mariinsky Ballet International Tour Schedule

Additional Information/Pictures about the Mariinsky-Kirov Ballet

More information and interviews from the Kirov Ballet
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Kennedy Center: Information about Mariinsky Ballet
accessed 4 October 2008

{{Authority control

1740 establishments in the Russian Empire
History of ballet
National Dance Award winners