Anastasia Stashkevich and Vyacheslav Lopatin in Waltz

Anastasia Stashkevich and Vyacheslav Lopatin (both with Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow) in Waltz, music by Moritz Moszkovsky, choreography by Vasili Vainonen. Russian Ballet Festival Lahti 2013.

Anastasia Stashkevich is currenly at the position of Leading Soloist at Bolshoi Theatre. She 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.

Vyacheslav Lopatin 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.

Vasili Ivanovich Vainonen, also spelled Vasily (Russian: Васи́лий Ива́нович Вайно́нен) (1901-1964), was a renowned Soviet choreographer, mainly for the Kirov Ballet, now known as the Mariinsky Ballet, with which he worked from 1930 to 1938. Perhaps his most celebrated production was his 1934 version of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, a production which was successfully revived in 1954, is available on DVD in a 1994 revival, and remains in the repertory of the company to this day.

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