Marta Ozolina as Esmeralda

Marta Ozolina as Esmeralda in La Esmeralda, winner of pre-professional group at IBBC 2013

PRE-PROFESSIONAL GROUP at IBBC 2013

• 1st place winner – Marta Ozolina (Latvia)
• 2nd place winner – Marita Weinrank (Estonia)
• 3rd place winner – Veronika Ovchinnikova (Belarus)

Marta Ozolina studies at Rīgas Horeogrāfijas Vidusskola (Riga Choreography School).

La Esmeralda is a ballet in 3 acts, 5 scenes, inspired by Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot; with music by Cesare Pugni.

It was first presented by the Ballet of her Majesty’s Theatre, London on March 9, 1844 with the Ballerina Carlotta Grisi as Esmeralda, Jules Perrot as Gringoire, Arthur Saint-Leon as Phoebus, Adelaide Frassi as Fleur de Lys, and Antoine Louis Coulon as Quasimodo.

Today the ballet is presented in its full-length form only in certain parts of the world; Russia; parts of Eastern Europe; and New Jersey, United States. New Jersey Ballet introduced the full-length version for the first time in the United States in 2004.Outside of Russia, Eastern Europe and New Jersey only excerpts are given – the La Esmeralda Pas de Deux and the Pas de Six, but mostly the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux is given, which in all actuality is not originally from the ballet (it is often miscredited as having been added by Petipa to his 1886 revival of La Esmeralda). (Wikipedia)

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