Debuts in Anna Karenina

 Scene from the ballet Anna Karenina

The role of Anna Karenina will be performed by Viktoria Tereshkina for the first time. In her eleven-year career at the Mariinsky Theatre she has danced almost every lead role in the ballet repertoire. The dancer’s career began with the roles of Myrtha, Kitri and Gamzatti which were followed by such lyrical heroines as Nikia in La Bayadère that the dancer says are much closer to herself in terms of character. Tereshkina is certain that her “good co-ordination came from gymnastics and her character developed thanks to competition.” Her ballet coach Lyubov Kunakova, People’s Artist of Russia, believes that Tereshkina’s undoubted qualities include her “flexible spine, tremendous leap and light turns” as well as the “inner freedom,” although “the most important thing is the natural co-ordination that allows her to dance the same way she breathes”. Regardless of acclaim in Russia and abroad, Tereshkina considers St Petersburg to be a unique city, her own city, one that produces “Russian art, Russian audiences and her favourite theatre.”

Tereshkina will be partnered by Vladimir Shklyarov as Vronsky. “He is one of those dancers who, it seems, instinctively know they are born for the stage,” wrote Great Britain’s The Daily Telegraph. The duo of Tereshkina and Shklyarov has drawn the attention of the press on numerous occasions. The dancers have created stunning romantic images in Don Quixote, Le Corsaire and Romeo and Juliet. Together they have also performed in another ballet by Ratmansky – The Little Humpbacked Horse to music by Rodion Shchedrin.

There will be a further two male debuts in Anna Karenina. The roles of Karenin and Levin will be performed by Viktor Baranov and Maxim Zyuzin respectively.