Giselle, music by Adolphe Adam, choreography by Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa, ballet master Nikita Dolgushin. Shot on 18.7.2016 in the Mikhailovsky Theatre, St Peterburg.

 

 

Cast

• Ella Persson as Giselle
• Mario Labrador as the Count
• Ekaterina Borchenko (Rus. Екатерина Борченко) as Myrtha, the Queen of Wilis
• Vladimir Tsal (Rus. Владимир Цал) as Hilarion, the gamekeeper
• Anna Novosyolova (Rus. Анна Новосёлова) as Giselle’s Mother
• Veronika Ignatyeva (Rus. Вероника Игнатьева) and Andrey Yakhnyuk (Rus. Андрей Яхнюк) in peasants PDD
• Alla Matveyeva (Rus. Алла Матвеева) as Bathilde
• Valeria Zapasnikova (Rus. Валерия Запасникова) and Tatiana Miltseva (Rus. Татьяна Мильцева) as Wilis

Ella Persson is a Swedish ballerina, dancing currently in St Petersburg, Russia. She was born in Stockholm, studied ballet in John Cranko Schule (Stuttgart), then in Vaganova Academy. She graduated from Vaganova in 2015 and joined the Mikhailovsky Theatre Ballet same year. Already in 2016 she appeared as Giselle on stage, while officially in corps de ballet.

Mario Vitale Labrador is currently the second soloist with Mikhailovsky Ballet. He was born in 1990 in California, the USA. Mario started ballet in 2001 under the direction of Ronn Guidi. In 2006, he finished his ballet training and entered Mr Guidi’s Pre-professional ballet company. At the end of 2009, Mario joined Diablo Ballet. In 2010, he auditioned for the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. From 2010-2011, he trained in the class of Ilya Kuznetsov, and in 2011-2012, trained in the class of Mikhail Sharkov. While at the Academy, Mario performed as the lead male soloist in various concerts at the Bolshoi Theatre. On graduating from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in 2012 Mario joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet.

Ekaterina Borchenko (Rus. Екатерина Борченко) is prima ballerina with Mikhailovsky Ballet. She was born in Leningrad in 1982. Graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. In 2000-2003, was principal dancer of the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre. In 2003-2007, was principal dancer of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belorussia, Minsk. Borchenko is also honored Artist of Russia. She joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet in 2008.

Photo by Jack Devant ballet photography © with kind permission of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, special thanks to Mikhail Messerer and Darina Timofeeva.