Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin in the Taming of the Shrew, Benois de la Danse 2015

Olga Smirnova (Rus. Ольга Смирнова) and Semyon Chudin (Rus. Семен Чудин) in the Taming of the Shrew by Jean-Christophe Maillot based on the play by William Shakespeare to music by Dmitri Shostakovich. Benois de la Danse 2015 laureates Gala concert. Shot on 26th of May 2015 in The Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow.

 

Olga Smirnova (Rus. Ольга Смирнова) is currently a leading soloist with the Bolshoi Ballet. She was born in St. Petersburg. In 2011 she graduated from Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, St. Petersburg (Lyudmila Kovaleva’s class) and joined the Ballet Company of the Bolshoi Theater. Marina Kondratieva became her teacher-repetiteur. While studying she was repeatedly awarded various scholarships. She constantly participated in the Vaganova Academy tours to Japan, Great Britain, Italy, Lithuania, Hungary, Greece and Portugal. In 2004 she took part in the joint concert of the Vaganova Academy and the UK Royal Ballet School in London. She is also know from TV series Bolshoi Ballet (2012).

Semyon Chudin (Rus. Семен Чудин) is currently the Principal with Bolshoi Ballet. He was born in Barnaul. Graduated from Novosibirsk Choreographic College in 2003 (teacher Alexander Shelemov). 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). 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 Semyon joined the Bolshoi ballet (teacher Alexander Vetrov).

Jean-Christophe Maillot (born 1960) is a French dancer and choreographer born in Tours. He studied at the dance conservatory in Tours before enrolling at the École supérieure de danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower, where Rosella Hightower was his primary teacher. Maillot was invited by John Neumeier to join the Hamburg Ballet in 1978, where he became a soloist and stayed until 1983, when an accident ended his career as a dancer. In 1983, he became the choreographer and director of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre in Tours. Since 1993, and on the appointment of Her Royal Highness Caroline, Princess of Hanover, he has been the artistic director of Les Ballets de Monte Carlo.

The Taming of the Shrew premiered 2014 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, marking the first time, since his appointment in 1993, that Jean-Christophe Maillot has choreographed a ballet for a company other than the Ballets de Monte-Carlo, of which he is Director-Choreographer. It is rare for the Bolshoi to invite a foreign choreographer to create a work for its dancers, however J-CH Maillot and Sergei Filin – Ballet Director of the Bolshoi – share a close friendship, having worked together on a number of artistic projects over the past three years.

Photos by Jack Devant Ballet Photography with kind permission of the Benois de la Danse and Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, special thanks to Nina Kudriavtseva-Loory, Regina Nikiforova and Denis Savchenko.