Famous ballerina Alina Cojocaru

Alina Cojocaru was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1981. When Alina was a kid she was studying gymnastics and never saw a live ballet. This all changed when she was sent to Bucharest Ballet School and several months later sent with eight other students to Kiev to participate in student exchange program.

At the age 16 Alina won a gold medal at a prestigious international ballet competition Prix de Lausanne. The medal came with another benefit - a six month scholarship at the Royal Ballet School in London.

After intense ballet training in London Alina Cojocaru made a decision to join the Kiev Ballet as a principal dancer. After one season she returned back to the Royal Ballet in London in 1999, and soon she got promoted there to the principal dancer in 2001.

Since that time she performed in many dramatic roles on stage including her famous ballet dancing as Giselle, alongside her partner in life and on stage Johan Kobborg. Her famous performance was recorded in 2006 and aired in England on Boxing Day.

Famous Georgian ballerina Nina Ananiashvili

Famous Georgian ballerina Nina Ananiashvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1963. The beginning of her career was quite unusual, as at first little Nian was dreaming to become a figure skating star. And she even became a champion in the junior division in her native Republic of Georgia. However, at the age of 13 she entered the Moscow Choreographic Institute, successfully graduate from it and got invited into corps de ballet of entered the Bolshoi Ballet in 1981.

She quickly rose through ranks and became a prima ballerina in Bolshoi. With her dancing partner Andris Liepa she was the first Soviet dancer to appeared as a guest performer at the New York City Ballet in 1988 (they were first Soviet dancers invited to show their mastership there). Soon Nina became a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre, and in 1999 she joined the Houston Ballet with that same rank.

After her native Georgia became independent Nina Ananiashvili headed the National Ballet Ensemble of Georgia as an artistic director. Since 2006, she has been appointed as an United Nations National Goodwill Ambassador.

Famous Ballerinas of Modern Ballet

Born in 1926 Diana Adams was the favorite of George Balanchine and ruled the stage of the New York City Ballet from 1950 to 1963. She was the leading dancer for NYCB. When Diana retired from the stage, she switched to successful teaching and training young ballerinas and eventually became a dean at the School of American Ballet. She died on January 10, 1993.

Anneli Elisabeth Alhanko Skoglund is one of a few chosen ballerinas in the world with the title Prima Ballerina Assoluta. Alhanko was a dance student at Operabaletten, The Opera Ballet in Stockholm, Sweden. For many years she was the leading ballerina in the Opera Ballet in Stockholm. After retirement from the stage Anneli taught and then became a founder of the elite dance school Base 23 in Stockholm which opened its doors to young ballerinas on January 2010.

Eleonora Abbagnato was born in Palermo, Italy in 1978. When she was only 11 she debuted on Italian live TV program. At age 12 she moved to Monte Carlo, where she studied in the ballet school of Marika Bresobrasova. She went on with ballet training in Cannes and then entered famous ‘Ecole danse in Parisian Opera in 1992. She made an amazing career as she entered corps de ballet of Parisian Opera in 1996, and became a coryphee in 1999 , sujet in 2000 and premiere danseuse in 2001 .

Russian ballerina Svetlana Adyrkhayeva

The leading Russian ballerina Svetlana Adyrkhayeva was born in 1938 in a small Northern Ossetian city of Khumalg. Svetlana Adyrkhayeva successfully finished Leningrad Choreographic School which later got renamed as the Russian Ballet Academy, in 1955. Her way to Bolshoi Ballet was not easy, she danced for several years on stages of Chelyabinsk and Odessa before she was invited to Bolshoi Theater in 1960.

This is when Svetlana got her chance to shine. She was soloist and leading ballerina until 1988. Adyrkhayeva got very complex dramatic roles and made them her own. But Adyrkhayeva not only danced, she also became a russian balletmaster in 1980. She taught classical dance at Choreographic Academy until she returned back to Bolshoi Theater where she currently works as a Balletmaster-Repetiteur.

First in history

For example: in an entrechat-quatre starting from fifth position, right foot front, the dancer will jump crossing legs and beating first the right heel on the back of the left heel, then at the front of the left heel, landing in the same starting position.

Young ballerina who performed first in history of ballet entrechat quatre was magnificent dancer Marie Camargo. She performed it during her debut at the Paris Opera with the ballet Les Caracteres de la Danse in 1726. It brought Marie Camargo fame and fortune. And, no doubt she deserved it: after all at those times the standard women’s ballet shoes looked differently. These were not ballet slippers or pointe shoes as we know them. Ballerinas danced in the conventional shoes that had heels!

There are two classes of entrechats

It is impossible to imagine modern or classical ballet dance without entrechat. So what is entrechat in ballet moves, anyways? Basically, it is a step of beating in which a ballet dancer jumps into the air and rapidly crosses the legs before and behind each other. The dancer usually jumps from the fifth position and lands back in the fifth position. We count entrechats moves from two to ten according to the number of crossings required and counting each crossing as two movements, one by each leg. For example, in an entrechat quatre each leg makes two distinct movements.

There are two classes of entrechats in ballet dancing: even-numbered and odd-numbered. The even-numbered entrechats, or those which land on two feet: deux, quatre, six, huit and dix (2,4,6,8,10). The odd-numbered entrechats, or those which land on one foot: trois, cinq, sept and neuf (3,5,7,9).

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In any ballet studio

In any ballet studio we observer horizontal bars, approximately waist height, and wooden bars mounted along the walls. They are very important for ballet exercises and for developing dance techniques. In fact, every ballet training class for young and mature ballerinas start with basic barre ballet positions. These warm up exercises are very important for dancers as they relax ballerinas muscles. And this is just one of the benefits that barre work brings.

Typically, barre exercises make up a significant portion of the beginning ballerinas class. Young dancers who have just joined ballet studio may find barre exercises boring at first because they are slow and repetitive. Yet, soon enough, they learn to depend upon them.

Overall, barre exercises are extremely important in all levels of ballet training. They gradually build strength while teaching the body correct placement. Beginning pointe dancers will find them extremely useful too, as their ankles may not be strong enough to support them in the center. Barre work also prepares ballerinas for partnering, with the barre providing support that a partner would offer later, during actual partnering.