St Petersburg is rightfully considered to be a birth place of Russian ballet theatre. The graduates from the famous Vaganova Ballet Academy perform in different ballet companies all around the world. Most dancers of the Mikhailovsky Ballet Company graduated from the celebrated ballet school; however, in the Company there are also alumni of other Russian ballet schools.
The most famous ballets by Marius Petipa – The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadére, and Swan Lake – were created in St Petersburg, just a block away from the Mikhailovsky Theatre.
Classical ballets form the core repertory of the theatre. One can enjoy not only the works by Petipa, but also the ballets by the famous Russian choreographers such as Alexander Gorsky, Asaf Messerer, and Vakhtang Chabukiani. Mikhailovsky was the first Russian ballet theatre that brought La Sylphide by August Bournonville back to the Russian stage. The Mikhailovsky also boasts a unique ballet for children, Cipollino, staged by Genrikh Mayorov.
Today the masterpieces of Russian ballet along with the contemporary works of the renowned Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato can be seen here. Nacho Duato, who has been Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet since January 2011, not only transferred his earlier works to St Petersburg but created two brand new one-act ballets for the Company: Nunc Dimittis and Prelude.
The inspiration for his first work for the theatre was a composition entitled Nunc Dimittis by Arvo Part. Nacho Duato found his muse in the Company, Principal Dancer Ekaterina Borchenko: Nunc Dimittis was created with her in mind and for her. Nacho Duato’s new production Prelude demonstrated that the distance between classical and modern dance is not as great as we often think.