For more than a decade, Olga Smirnova was one of the Bolshoi Ballet’s most recognizable faces. The invasion of Ukraine in 2022 changed everything: Smirnova was the only Russian-born principal from the Bolshoi or Mariinsky to leave her country in protest, writing that she was “against war with all the fibers of my soul.”
On the eve of receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award, Mikhail Baryshnikov shares his thoughts on artistry, the war in Ukraine and lessons learned during the pandemic.
Here are the latest promotions, appointments and departures, as well as notable awards and accomplishments, from March 2022. Also of note: new or newly available funding opportunities for dance artists.
Several weeks ago, Youth America Grand Prix announced that the lineup for tonight’s Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow gala at Lincoln Center’s Koch Theater would include Bolshoi Ballet principal Olga Smirnova and first soloist Jacopo Tissi. But an article in Page Six published last night states that Smirnova and Tissi were denied […]
A long time ago, I was a teenager, just hired as a member of the corps with New York City Ballet. I found myself standing in B-plus at the very back corner of the State Theater stage, clutching the hand of fellow teenage corps member Shawn Stevens. Though the expansive stage was filled with dozens […]
Participating in new work is a rare luxury at the Bolshoi, yet this past April, just two days after starring in the live HD broadcast of Marco Spada, Olga Smirnova found herself experimenting for the first time in the Bolshoi’s Studio 1. Oblivious to the chatter around her, she looked intently at choreographer Jean-Christophe Maillot […]