Bolshoi Ballet: RAYMONDA

Raymonda is betrothed to Jean de Brienne, a gallant knight who pledged to go on a crusade led by the King of Hungary. When her beloved leaves, Abderakhman, a foreign knight, makes a bid for the hand of Raymonda and threatens her fate when she rejects him.

Raymonda is a must-see of the Bolshoi, a work of living dance history showcasing the ballerina as the ultimate virtuoso. Being one of legendary choreographer Marius Petipa’s final works, he fully armed this ballet with beautiful court scenes, romantic corps de ballet dances, Hungarian czardas and a title role suited for the most outstanding ballerina.

Prima ballerina Olga Smirnova

She was born in St. Petersburg. In 2011 she graduated from Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, St. Petersburg (Lyudmila Kovaleva’s class) and joined the Ballet Company of the Bolshoi Theater.

At first her teacher-repetiteur was Marina Kondratieva. Now she is coached by Maria Allash.

While studying she was repeatedly awarded various scholarships. She constantly participated in the Vaganova Academy tours to Japan, Great Britain, Italy, Lithuania, Hungary, Greece and Portugal. In 2004 she took part in the joint concert of the Vaganova Academy and the UK Royal Ballet School in London. She has an extensive repertoire. So she danced Masha in Nutcracker by P. Tchaikovsky (choreography by V. Vainonen); the Queen of Water in the scene The Ocean bottom from The Little Humpbacked Horse to music by C. Pugni, R. Drigo, B. Asafiev (choreography by A. Gorsky, Y. Burlaka’s version); the 7th waltz from Chopiniana (choreography by Mikhail Fokine), Grand Pas classique to music by D. F. E. Auber (choreography by V. Gzovsky); Jules Massenet’s Thais (choreography by R. Petit) and others. Mazur to music by F. Chopin was staged especially for her (choreography by V. Romanovsky)

Length: 3h 05m

For information and tickets: www.cineplex.com/Events

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