Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin in Marco Spada

Olga Smirnova as Angela and Semyon Chudin as Marco Spada in pdd from ballet Marco Spada, music Daniel Auber, choreography by Pierre Lacotte. Shot at Gala Dance Open 2016 on 25.4.2016 in Alexandrinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, Russia. 

Check out all pieces from Gala Dance Open 2016

Check out all pieces from Gala Dance Open 2016

Olga Smirnova (Rus. Ольга Смирнова) is Prima Ballerina with Bolshoi Theatre Ballet. She was born in St. Petersburg. In 2011 she graduated from Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, St. Petersburg, Lyudmila Kovaleva’s (Rus. Людмила Ковалева) class and joined the Ballet Company of the Bolshoi Theater. Marina Kondratieva (Марина Кондратьева) became her teacher-repetiteur.

Semyon Chudin (Rus. Семен Чудин) is a Principal Dancer with Bolshoi Theatre Ballet. He was born in Barnaul. Graduated from Novosibirsk Choreographic College in 2003 (teacher Alexander Shelemov, Александр Шелемов). He joined the Universal Ballet Company under the direction of Oleg Vinogradov (Seoul, Republic of Korea) in 2003 and remained there until the year 2007 (teacher Evgeny Neff, Евгений Нефф). In 2007-08, he was the principal with the Zurich Ballet (Switzerland), where he rehearsed under François Petit and Jean-François Boisnon. In 2008-11, he was the principal with the K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre (teacher Arkady Nikolaev). In 2007-2011, he was a guest soloist with Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 2008 he danced as a guest soloist at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. In the season 2011/12 joined the Bolshoi ballet (teacher Alexander Vetrov, Rus. Александр Ветров).

The Bolshoi Ballet revived Pierre Lacotte’s production of Marco Spada. The original Marco Spada, or the Bandit’s Daughter was a three-act ballet-pantomime created at the Paris Opera in 1857 with choreography from Joseph Mazilier and music adapted from Daniel Auber’s comic opera of the same name. Soon forgotten, the ballet was revived in 1981 with a brand new choreography by Pierre Lacotte for the Rome Opera, with Rudolf Nureyev as the 18th-century Italian bandit pretending to be an aristocrat, and Ghislaine Thesmar as his daughter Angela. At the Bolshoi, Marco Spada was premiered on the historic stage on November 8, 2013.

Daniel Auber 1782 – 1871 was a French composer.

Pierre Lacotte ( born in France , 1932 ), dancer, ballet master and choreographer French. He is a specialist in the reconstruction of lost ballets of the Romantic period.

Photos by Jack Devant Ballet Photography with kind permission of the Dance Open, special thanks to Ekaterina Galanova and Adelia Mukhamedzhanova.