Olga Smirnova and Denis Rodkin in Lady of the Camellias

Olga Smirnova and Denis Rodkin in the duet from Lady of the Camellias (La Dame aux Camélias), music by Frédéric Chopin, choreography by John Neumeier. Piano: Oleg Weinstein. Ballet Star Gala, Mikhailovsky Theatre. Shot on 10.2.2018.

Olga Smirnova (Rus. Ольга Смирнова) was born 1991. She is a Prima Ballerina with the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet company. Born in St Petersburg, Smirnova comes from a family with no connections with ballet. Her mother encouraged her to take up the art at the Vaganova Academy where she studied under Lyudmila Kovaleva. She participated in the academy’s tours across Europe and Japan, performing in the 2004 presentation arranged jointly with the Royal Ballet School. In 2011, immediately after her graduation, she was recruited by the Bolshoi and spent just one day in the corps de ballet before taking on solos. Having joined the company as a soloist, she was promoted to first soloist in her first season and to leading soloist at the end of her second season in 2013. Smirnova made her debut with American Ballet Theatre in 2014.

Denis Rodkin (Rus. Денис Родькин) as a Principal Dancer with the Bolshoi Theatre. Born in Moscow. In 2009, after graduation from Moscow State Academic Dance Theatre Gzhel he joined the Bolshoi Ballet Company where he started to rehearse with Nikolai Tsiskaridze. Now his master-repetiteur is Yuri Vladimirov. In 2013, graduated from Bolshoi Ballet Academy (The Faculty of Education).

Photo by Jack Devant ballet photography © with kind permission of the Mikhailovsky Theatre.