Ulyana Lopatkina in Five Tangos

Ulyana Lopatkina and Raimonds Martinovs (Raimond Martinov) in Five Tangos, music by Astor Piazzolla, choreography by Hans van Manen. Tango Gala 2014.

 

Ulyana Lopatkina (written also Uliana Lopatkina) is prima ballerina with Mariinsky Ballet, St. Peterburg, Russia. Ulyana was born on 23th of October 1973 in Kerch (Ukraine). From the early age Ulyana took dancing classes and was admitted to the Academy of Russian Ballet named after Vaganova (St.Petersburg) where she studied the art of dancing from Galina Novitskaya in primary school and Natalia Dudinskaya in higher school. Still being a student of the Academy, Uliana took won at Vaganova-prix Competition (St.Petersburg, 1991). After graduation from the Academy in 1991 Ulyana joined Mariinsky theatre company (St.Petersburg). In 1994 Ulyana successfully made her debut as Odette/Odille in the “Swan Lake” ballet in St.Petersburg. In 1995 Ulyana was called the principal dancer of Mariinsky theatre where her teachers were Olga Moiseeva and Ninel Kurgapkina. Presently Ulyana’s coach is Irina Chistyakova.

Raimond Martinov is Principal with Latvian National Ballet (Latvijas Nacionālais Balets). He is graduated from the Riga Choreography High School in 2000, class of Juris Kaprālis. Raimonds Martinovs is a member of the LNO Ballet since 2000. He has received an additional training at the Anaheim Ballet Summer Courses (USA) and International Bartolin Ballet Seminar in Denmark. In 2007, Raimonds Martinovs was awarded the Latvian Theatre Award as the Best Dancer of the Year in 2007 and the Latvijas Gāze Annual Opera Award as the Best ballet soloist (2011).

Photo by Jack Devant ballet photography © with kind permission of the Ulyana Lopatkina, special thanks to Ilya Goor.