Mariinsky Ballet

The Mariinsky Ballet is a world- famous Russian ballet company from St. Petersburg. In addition to Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet, it is considered the most important ballet company of Russia.

The original Imperial Ballet of the Mariinsky Theatre was renamed in 1935 in the Kirov Ballet. Since 1991, the official name of Saint Petersburg Mariinsky Ballet.

End of the 19th century saw the ballet in St. Petersburg a heyday. Under the leadership of Marius Petipa was, among other things Sleeping Beauty ( 1890) and Swan (1895 ), both premiered the music of Tchaikovsky. From 1899 to 1909, the world-famous ballerina Anna Pavlova belonged to the company.

After the October Revolution of 1917 we took the company down. Many cast members had left the country during the revolutionary turmoil and continued their careers in Europe. The ballet mistress Agrippina Vaganova, however, managed to preserve the traditions and teaching methods. Their work was the foundation for ballet training in the Soviet Union. This created a new ensemble, whose most famous member was later prima ballerina Galina Ulanova Assoluta.

During the Cold War the company had the problem that repeatedly failed to return dancer of tours throughout the West. These included Rudolf Nureyev, Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Nevertheless, the ballet is still today one of the leading in the world in terms of technical perfection, stylistic purism and ballet in the spirit of tradition. In 2013, consisted of the corps de ballet dancers 70 and 57 dancers.