Mikhailovsky Theatre premiere Swan Lake in London next month & BREAKING BALLET NEWS

The Mikhailovsky Theatre tour to the UK from July 13-25 @ The London Coliseum with a premiere of Swan Lake, a ballet in four acts with music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, choreography: Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, Alexander Gorsky, Asaf Messerer, revised by Mikhail Messerer, set and Costume Design: Simon Virsaladze, and Principal Designer of the Revival: Vyacheslav Okunev.

This much was known.

BREAKING BALLET NEWS

  

Isabella - performance of the Vaganova Ballet Academy in the theatre of Catherine the Great at the Hermitage - Paquita ( Sylphide) - May 18 2010

Last year I followed Isabella McGuire Mayes, when she had been short-listed in the Great Britons competition run by British Airways. Isabella had been invited to train at the Vaganova Acedemy in St Petersberg - the only British girl to do so, and they broke the rules to allow her to join. 

Isabella outside the Vaganova Ballet Academy in a Russian mid winter

Thanks to your generosity in voting, Isabella won the competition. Izzy’s transport costs to and from the school were fully met, and becoming a Great Briton has rewarded Izzy in other ways, as she talks about in this interview.

Now you have the chance to watch Isabella dance.  Isabella is two years away from graduating, and has been invited to perform with the Mikhailovsky Theatre this July in the corp de ballet - and for a British girl to be invited to dance with a very Russian company is highly unusual.

Isabella - who was the first Briton to be invited to the Vaganova Ballet Academy when she was only 15, and Xander Parish - the first Briton from The Royal Ballet Company to be invited to the Mariinsky

Swan Lake is the jewel in the repertoire of the Mikhailovsky Theatre and the highlight of its London season. This is a revival of the historic Moscow staging in 1956.

Isabella in class at the

Vaganova Ballet Academy

The triumphal restaging of this Swan Lake at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in September 2009 was devised by Mikhail Messerer, the company’s Ballet Master in Chief. The epoch of Alexander Gorsky saw the development in the evolution of dance following the ballet classicism of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. This staging boasts the superb sets and costumes by renowned designer Simon Virsaladze. The legend of a young prince finding his true love, a swan princess bewitched by an evil genius, offers the many dancers of the company a great opportunity to show their talents.