Debuts in The Nutcracker

Scene from the ballet The Nutcracker

On 26 May Valeria Martynyuk will be performing the role of Masha in Vasily Vainonen’s ballet The Nutcracker. Valeria first danced this role while still a student of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. Vainonen’s choreography has been in the Academy’s repertoire for years, and its pupils are familiar with it from their very first days in the profession – the pupils appear in it as the children at the Christmas party, those who are older dancing as dolls as well as performing in the divertissement and senior pupils appearing as Snowflakes and in the Waltz of the Flowers. Only the most talented are honoured with the opportunity of performing the lead roles in the ballet. Many of those who dance as Masha and the Prince join the Mariinsky Ballet, though far from all of them have the chance to perform these same roles as part of the ballet company. The role of Masha is technically complex, and the task of the ballerina – as an adult dancer – is to create the image of a young and dreamy heroine with light dance and by overcoming every technical complication. After all, The Nutcracker tells the story of a normal girl, the story of her soul growing up. The petite and refined Valeria Martynyuk, who has made a name for herself with her technical confidence and stability, is ideally suited to the role.
The second debutante Oxana Marchuk, another graduate of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, is also familiar with the theatre’s version of The Nutcracker. At the Mariinsky Theatre on 26 May she will be dancing the Pas de trois and as the Doll.