Bolshoi Ballet

Bolshoi Ballet
General Information
Name	Bolshoi Ballet
Local Name	Большой театр балета
Year Founded	1776
Principal venue	Bolshoi Theatre
Website	http://www.bolshoi.ru/en
Senior Staff
Director	Anatoly Iksanov
Ballet Director	Sergei Filin
Artistic Staff
Deputy Director	Ruslan Pronin
Ballet Master in Chief	Yuri Grigorovich
Musical Director	Vassily Sinaisky
Other
Parent Company	Bolshoi Theatre
Orchestra	Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre
Official School	Moscow State Academy of Choreography
Formation	Principal Lead Soloist First Soloist Soloist Corps de Ballet

The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies, however it only achieved worldwide acclaim by the early 20th century, when Moscow became the capital of Soviet Russia. Along with the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, the Bolshoi is recognised as one of the foremost ballet companies in Russia.

History

The earliest origins of the Bolshoi Ballet, can be found in the creation of a dance school for a Moscow orphanage in 1773. ^[1] In 1776, dancers from the school were employed by Prince Pyotr Urusov and the English theatrical entrepreneur Michael Maddox, to form part of their new theatre company. ^[2] Originally performing in privately owned venues, they later acquired the Petrovsky Theatre, which, as a result of fires and erratic redevelopment, would later be rebuilt as today's Bolshoi Theatre.

The early history of the Bolshoi Ballet is very sketchy and, despite staging many famous ballets, it struggled to compete with the reputation of the Imperial Russian Ballet, today's Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg. It was not until the appointment of Alexander Gorsky as Ballet Master in 1900 that the company began to develop its own unique identity, with acclaimed productions of new or restaged ballets including, Don Quixote (1900), Coppélia (1901), Swan Lake (1901), La fille mal gardée (1903), Giselle (1911), Le Corsaire (1912) and La Bayadère (1917). ^[3]

Notable People

Former Dancers

Natalia Bessmertnova Yekaterina Geltzer Alexander Godunov Olga Lepeshinskaya Maris Liepa

Ekaterina Maximova Irek Mukhamedov Maya Plisetskaya Ludmila Semenyaka

Marina Semyonova Vasily Tikhomirov Galina Ulanova Vladimir Vasiliev

Directors Alexander Gorsky Vasily Tikhomirov Yuri Grigorovich

Choreographers Rostislav Zakharov Leonid Lavrovsky Fyodor Lopukhov

Composers Dimitri Shostakovich Aram Khachaturian

Today

Today the Bolshoi Ballet remains one of the worlds foremost ballet companies, as well as being the largest, with approximately 220 dancers. The company operates a hierarchical system, similar to those used by other leading European ballet companies, with senior dancers ranked as Principals, and descending in order of importance through Lead Soloist, First Soloist, Soloist and finally Corps de Ballet. Due to its size, the company operates two troupes of corps de ballet.

Style

The performance style of the Bolshoi Ballet, is typically identified as being colourful and bold, combining technique and athleticism with expressiveness and dramatic intensity. This style is commonly attributed to Gorsky The Bolshoi has an historical rivalry with St. Petersburg heritage ballet company, the Mariinsky. Both have developed very different performing styles: the Bolshoi has a more colourful and bold approasitych, whereas the Mariinsky is associated with pure and refined classicism.

Dancers

Principal dancers

Maria Alexandrova Maria Allash Anna Antonicheva Dmitry Belogolovtsev Semen Chudin

Dmitry Gudanov David Hallberg Mikhail Lobukhin Svetlana Lunkina Vladimir Neporozhny

Natalia Osipova Marianna Ryzhkina Ruslan Skvortsov Galina Stepanenko Nikolai Tsiskaridze

Andrei Uvarov Ivan Vasiliev Alexander Volchkov Svetlana Zakharova

Lead Soloists

Yelena Andrienko Yan Godovsky Anastasia Goryacheva

Nina Kaptsova Yekaterina Krysanova

Vyacheslav Lopatin Andrei Merkuriev

Yekaterina Shipulina Anastasia Yatsenko

First Soloists

Anna Antropova Andrei Bolotin Morikhiro Ivata Kristina Kretova

Vladislav Lantratov Anna Leonova Ilze Liepa Yuliana Malkhasyants

Denis Medvedev Anna Nikulina Artem Ovcharenko Alexander Petukhov

Ruslan Pronin Anastasia Stashkevich Gennadi Yanin Irina Zibrova

Soloists

Chinara Alizade Vitaly Biktimirov Pavel Dmitrichenko Georgy Geraskin Yulia Grebenshchikova Maria Isplatovskaya

Yegor Khromushin Olga Kishnyova Nelli Kobakhidze Alexei Loparevich Andrei Melanyin

Anastasia Meskova Anna Rebetskaya Denis Savin Irina Semirechenskaya Andrei Sitnikov Olga Smirnova

Olga Suvorova Anna Tikhomirova Alexander Vorobiyov Alexander Voytyuk Victoria Yakusheva (Osipova) Andrei Yevdokimov

Corps de Ballet

The Bolshoi Ballet operates two troupes of corps de ballet, with approximately 120 dancers in total.

References

1. ^ Info Please
2. ^ IMG Artists
3. ^ Ballet Bag, August 12, 2010