Anastasia Stashkevich and Vyacheslav Lopatin in The Nutcracker

Anastasia Stashkevich (rus Анастасия Сташкевич) and Vyacheslav Lopatin (rus Вячеслав Лопатин), both with Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow in The Nutcracker pas de deux, music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, choreography Marius Petipa. Russian Ballet Festival Lahti 2013.

Anastasia Stashkevich (rus Анастасия Сташкевич) graduated in 2003 from the Moscow State Choreographic Academy (class of Tatyana Galtseva) and joined the Ballet Company of the Bolshoi Theater. Now her teacher-repetiteur is Svetlana Adyrkhaeva. She has currently Leading Soloist position.

Vyacheslav Lopatin (rus Вячеслав Лопатин) was born in Voronezh. He graduated from the Voronezh state college of choreography. After graduation he took a study course at the Moscow state Academy of choreography. Having finished the course he joined the Bolshoi Ballet in 2003. At the present time his master-repetiteur is Boris Akimov. He has position of Leading Soloist in Bolshoi Ballet at the present time.

The Nutcracker (Russian: Щелкунчик, Балет-феерия / Shchelkunchik, Balet-feyeriya; French: Casse-Noisette, ballet-féerie) is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on Sunday, 18 December 1892, on a double-bill with Tchaikovsky’s opera, Iolanta.

The Nutcracker ballet has enjoyed enormous popularity since the late 1960s and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season, especially in the U.S. Major American ballet companies generate around 40 percent of their annual ticket revenues from performances of The Nutcracker. /Wikipedia/

Photos by Jack Devant © with kind permission of the Russian Ballet Festival 2013, special thanks to Natalia Nefedova.