One of the greatest ballet recordings of all time is Marco Spada with David Hallberg, Evgenia Obraztsova, Semyon Chudin, Olga Smirnova, and Igor Tsvirko from 2013. Everything about it is flawless and I can't really watch any Marco Spada without comparing it to that performance. No one can or will come close.
This is perhaps my favorite video to exist on youtube! I watch it way too often lol. These students were so lucky to share a stage with the dancers from Bolshoi.
It is so difficult to even choose favorite dancers in this performance. I would say Xenia Zhiganshina and Yulia Stepanova stood out for me though. Alyona Kovalyova danced my favorite variation, and I think she did a marvelous job here. I thought it was breath-taking. She's so tall though that in the end when she does the tour jete, it low key looked like she tripped lol. I know it's part of the choreography but my heart still skipped a beat. This performance is my Avengers Endgame haha.
Ooh, also. In the mazurka, look at how tiny the 2023 graduates are. Time flies. I still find it unacceptable that I'm now older than some prima ballerinas. Anyway, take a break for an hour and make sure to watch this the whole way through! I can also compile a playlist of the variations if anyone's interested.
Oscar Frame 2017 graduate
(variation from the ballet Le Conservatorie, music by H.S.Paulli)
Eleonora Sevenard 2017 graduate
(variation from the ballet Trilby, music by Y.Gerber)
Alyona Kovalyova 2016 graduate
(variation from the ballet Le Roi Candaule, music by C.Pugni)
Xenia Zhiganshina 2014 graduate
(variation from the ballet Gretna Green, music by E.Guiraud)
Olga Smirnova 2011 graduate
(variation from the ballet Paquita, music by L.Minkus)
Mikhail Lobukhin 2002 graduate
(variation from the ballet Don Quixote, music by L.Minkus)
Yulia Stepanova 2009 graduate
(variation from the ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse, music by C.Pugni)
Evgenia Obraztsova 2002 graduate
(variation from the ballet Le Pavillon d’Armide, music by N.Tcherepnin)
Denis Rodkin
(variation from the ballet La Source, music by R.Drigo)
Svetlana Zakharova 1996 graduate
(variation from the ballet La Sylphide, music by R.Drigo)
I don’t know if she’s allowed to break an NDA, but I’m waiting for the day that Olga Smirnova spills the tea about the BS propaganda at the Bolshoi, and how people like Nadezha Gracheva are subtle supporters by simple things like writing letters to soldiers.
I wouldn't hold my breath. Smirnova has nothing to gain by doing this, it only fuels fire against her - which is already quite large. Gracheva will have to answer to God.
Ballet dancers Jacopo Tissi and Olga Smirnova in a production of the ballet Giselle at the Nationale Opera & Ballet of the Netherlands, 2024. Truly dark and romantic aesthetics in these photos, which fit the eerie story of the ballet.