A debut by Yekaterina Kondaurova

A First Soloist with the Mariinsky Ballet Company, Yekaterina Kondaurova’s repertoire has never included any insignificant roles – every image she creates is imbued with the ballerina’s own individual artistic spirit, easily recognisable for the nobility and light elegance of her dance, her natural plastique and dramatic conveyance of emotions, her style and sensitivity. Critics have extolled her supernatural flexibility, lightness and grace. She has been a “regally arrogant yet very feminine Queen of the Wilis” and seemed to “be a vision floating over the stage” in Giselle, a “vivid, intelligent and stately” as well as “effective and expressive” Aegina in Spartacus, “dazzling” in Paquita and “fateful” and “sensual” in Anna Karenina. The Los Angeles Times newspaper commented that “in each role she demonstrates unique skills and a perfect sense of rhythm and timing. The high sweeps of her legs drive the audience into an ecstatic frenzy. These are not just beautiful movements and poses that grab the attention, it is an individual interpretation of a very familiar image,” and so “this dancer is a ‘must-see’”.

A recipient of such prestigious awards as the Benois de la Danse, the Golden Mask and the Golden Sofit, Kondaurova admits that for her “it is important to achieve everything through hard work, then the character emerges as it should” and always “to keep heading towards your goal.” As a ballerina trained in the Russian classical school, the dancer is very familiar with the neoclassical and Soviet dance legacies, while at the same time she feels more at ease in contemporary choreography, such as pieces by Alexei Ratmansky, Pierre Lacotte, Angelin Preljocaj, Kirill Simonov and Emil Faski. The dancer considers one of the key stages in her career to be appearing in ballets by William Forsythe. George Balanchine’s legacy is represented in her repertoire by the ballets Prodigal Son, Serenade, Symphony in C (2nd movement), the Four Temperaments (Choleric), La Valse and Rubies, in which she has already appeared in Rubies.