Daria Elmakova and Anton Ploom

Creme de la creme of IBBC 2013, Daria Elmakova (Дарья Ельмакова) and Anton Ploom (both from Mikhailovsky Theatre St Petersburg, Russia) in Swan Lake pas de deux, winners in Professional Class.

Daria Elmakova was born in 1988, she graduated from the St Petersburg Vaganova Ballet Academy in 2008 and the same year joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet Company.

Anton Ploom was born in Leningrad in 1983. Graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet (class of A. Garbuz). Joined the Mikhailovsky Theatre in 2001.

Swan Lake (Russian: Лебединое озеро, Lebedinoye ozero) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was composed in 1875–1876. The scenario, tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger. The ballet was premiered by the Bolshoi Ballet on 4 March [O.S. 20 February] 1877[2][3] at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Most ballet companies base their stagings both choreographically and musically on the 1895 revival of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, first staged for the Imperial Ballet on 15 January 1895, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.

Photos by Jack Devant with kind permission of the IBBC, special thanks to Marina Seiko and Regina Kaupuza.