Polina Semionova and Ivan Zaytsev in La Bayadere shades

Polina Semionova (Rus Полина Семионова) as Nikiya and Ivan Zaytsev (Rus. Иван Зайцев) as Solor in La Bayadere pdd, music by Ludwig Minkus, choreography by Marius Petipa, revised by Vladimir Ponomaryov and Vakhtang Chabukiani. Shot on 13.02.1015 in the Mikhailovsky Theatre, St Petersburg, Russia.

 

Polina Semionova is Principal with the American Ballet Theatre. She was born in Moscow in 1984, is a classical ballet dancer and Principal with the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). Polina studied at the Bolshoi Ballet School in Moscow, Russia. She graduated in 2002, joined the Ballet Staatsoper Berlin as a principal upon the invitation of Vladimir Malakhov, becoming the youngest principal in the company’s history at the age of 18. She toured Japan as Malakhov’s partner, the reason he had invited her to be a principal in the company.

Ivan Zaytsev (rus. Иван Зайцев)  is principal with Mikhailovsky Ballet. In 1997, he entered the Krasnodar Ballet School and while studying he underwent a traineeship at the Yury Grigorovich Ballet Theatre. In 2002, he graduated from the Krasnodar Ballet School and entered the St Petersburg State University for Culture and Arts (professor Boris Bregvadze). On graduating from the University in 2007, he joined the St Petersburg Leonid Jacobson Ballet Theatre. After participation in the XI Moscow International Ballet Competition in 2009, he was invited to join the Boris Eifman Ballet Theatre. In 2010, he received a diploma of the Arabesque International Ballet Competition. In September 2011, he joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet Company.

Photo by Jack Devant ballet photography © with kind permission of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, special thanks to Nacho Duato and Valeria Derkach.