The Taming of the Shrew, Dance Open 2015

The Taming of the Shrew by the Bolshoi Ballet dancers, Dance Open 2015 , ballet in two acts by Jean-Christophe Maillot based on the play by William Shakespeare to music by Dmitri Shostakovich in frames of the XIV international ballet festival DANCE OPEN April 24th, 2015, Alexandrinsky theatre.

Cast

The Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow

• Ekaterina Krysanova as Katerina and Vladislav Lantratov as Petruchio
• Anastasia Stashkevich as Bianca
• Semyon Chudin as Lucentio
• Alexander Smolyaninov as Hortensio
• Vyacheslav Lopatin as Gremio
• Anna Balukova as the Widow
• Alexander Volchkov as Baptista
• Anna Tikhomirova as The Housekeeper
• Georgy Gusev as Grumio

Act 1

Act 2

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 Dance Open and Alexandrinsky Theatre, special thanks to Ekaterina Galanova and Adelia Mukhamedzhanova.