Marianna Ryzhkina

Biography

Born in Moscow. In 1989, on completing her training at the Moscow College of Choreography (Yelena Ryabinkina’s class), she joined the Bolshoi Ballet Company. She graduated from the ballet master’s faculty of the Institute of Choreography (today college and institute have been amalgamated into the Moscow State Academy of Choreography).
When she started at the Bolshoi Theatre, she rehearsed under Nina Timofeyeva. Most of her roles she prepared with Raisa Struchkova.
Then her teachers-repetiteurs were Ekaterina Maximova, Tatiana Golikova.

Main Repertoire

1989
Peasant Pas de Deux (Giselle; Yuri Grigorovich’s version)

1990
Spanish doll, Columbine (The Nutcracker; choreography by Yuri Grigorovich)
Two Wilis (Giselle)

1993
Eleventh waltz (Chopiniana; choreography by Mikahil Fokine)
1^st variation in Raymonda’s Dreams scene (Raymonda; choreography by Marius Petipa in a version by Yuri Grigorovich)
First odalisque (Le Corsaire; choreography by Konstantin Sergeyev after Marius Petipa)
Shireen’s friends (Arif Melikhov’s Legend of Love; choreography by Yuri Grigorovich)
French doll (The Nutcracker)

1994
Third odalisque, Pas d’Esclave (Le Corsaire; choreography by Konstantin Sergeyev after Marius Petipa in a version by Yuri Grigorovich)
Beatrice (Tikhon Khrennikovэы Love for Love; choreography by Vукф Boccadoro, after motifs of William Shakespeare’s comedy Much Ado About Nothing)
Cupid (Don Quixote; choreography by Marius Petipa, Alexander Gorsky in a version by Yuri Grigorovich, danced at premiere)

1995
Little Radish (Aram Khachaturian’s Cipollino; choreography by Gennadi Mayorov)
Marie (The Nutcracker)
Effi (La Sylphide by Herman Lшvenskjold; choreography by August Bournonville in a version by E.M. von Rosen)
Shireen (Legend of Love)

1996
Friend to Juliet (Romeo and Juliet; choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky)
Friends to the Prince (Swan Lake; choreography by Alexander Gorsky, Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov in a version by Yuri Grigorovich)
Katarina (The Taming of the Shrew to music by Kurt-Heinz Stolze after Domenico Scarlatti; choreography by John Cranko) — creator of role at Bolshoi Theatre
2^nd variation in Shades scene (La Bayadere; choreography by Marius Petipa in a version by Yuri Grigorovich)
Maids of Honour (Swan Lake in a version by Vladimir Vasiliev) — among the creators of the ballet in this version

1997
Waltz (Polish ball in the opera Ivan Susanin by Mikhail Glinka; choreography by Rostislav Zakharov)
Fairy of Tenderness , Diamond Fairy (The Sleeping Beauty; choreography by Marius Petipa in a version by Yuri Grigorovich)
Kitri (Don Quixote; choreography by Marius Petipa, Alexander Gorsky in a version by Yuri Grigorovich; she later danced this role in a version of the ballet by Aleksei Fadeyechev)

1999
Princess Florine (The Sleeping Beauty)
Title role (La Sylphide)
Soloist Part 1 (Symphony in C to music by Georges Bizet; choreography by George Balanchine)

2000
Guadalquivir (La Fille du Pharaon by Cesare Pugni, in a production by Pierre Lacotte after Marius Petipa)

2001
Title role (Giselle in versions by Yuri Grigorovich and Vladimir Vasiliev)
Friends to the Prince, Polish bride (Swan Lake in second version by Yuri Grigorovich)

2002
Lise (La Fille mal gardee by Louis Herold; choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton)

2004
Soloist Part 3 (Symphony in C)
Tarantella (to music by Louis Moreau Gottschalk; choreography by George Balanchine)

2005
Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream to music by Felix Mendelssohn and Gyorgy Ligeti in a production by John Neumeier)
Frivolity (Les Presages to music by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky; choreography by Leonide Massine) — creator of role in Russia
Glove Seller (Gaоte Parisienne to music by Jacques Offenbach arranged by Manuel Rosenthal)

2006
Phrygia (Spartacus; choreography by Yuri Grigorovich)
Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (choreography by George Balanchine)

2007
Soloist (In the Upper Room by Phillip Glass; choreography by Twyla Tharp) — she was among the creators of this ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre
Gulnare (Le Corsaire; choreography by Marius Petipa; production and new choreography by Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka)
Class Concert (to music by different composers; choreography by Asaf Messerer)

2008
Title role (Anyuta to music by Valery Gavrilin; choreography by Vladimir Vasiliev )
Variation (Paquita. Staging and new choreographic version by Yuri Burlaka) — was among the creators of this ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre
Title role (Herman Levenskiold’s La Sylphide; choreography by August Bournonville in a version by Johan Kobborg)

In 2001, she appeared at the Bolshoi Theatre in La Sylphide with Royal Ballet ( London) premier Johan Kobborg; and in 2004, she appeared in Don Quixote with the then ABT premier Julio Bocca.
In 2005, she took part in the Choreographers of the Bolshoi project (2^nd Workshop of New Choreography), mounting the number Capriccios to the music of Max Bruch’s First Violin Concerto, she was also among its dancers.

Tours

At many venues (in particular in Finland and Sweden) she danced Odette-Odile in Swan Lake and Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty.
In 1997, she participated in the premiere of Antigone (choreography S. Bobrov), at the International Festival of the Arts in the city of Merida (Spain)
In 1998, she took part in the International George Gershwin Festival (Perelada, Spain).
In 1999, she took part in the Bolshoi Theatre and Krasnoyarsk State Theatre of Opera and Ballet co-project — dancing Anastasia at the premiиre at the Krasnoyarsk Theatre of Ballet of V. Porotsky’s Tsar-Fish (choreography S. Bobrov).
She has often participated in Ballet Arlington productions (today the Metropolitan Classical Ballet, Texas, USA), led by the former Bolshoi Theatre soloist Alexander Vetrov. In 2001, with this Company, she first appeared as Carmen in Carmen-suite by Georges Bizet-Rodion Shchedrin (choreographer Alberto Alonso, partner Alexander Vetrov) and first danced La Rose malade (to music by Mahler; choreography by Roland Petit). In 2004 — she danced Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird (choreography George Balanchine, partner Alexander Vetrov ).
In 2003, she appeared as Odette-Odile (Swan Lake — Yuri Grigorovich version) with the National Ballet of Korea (Seoul); she took part in John Neumeier’s Hamburg Ballet traditional Nijinsky Gala (XXIX) dedicated to the memory of Rudolf Nureyev; dancing the pas de deux from Giselle (partner — Nikolai Tsiskaridze).
In 2004, she danced the part of Kitri in Don Quixote (choreography — V. Derevyanko) with Dresden Ballet (Semper-oper Ballet)
In 2006, in Mexico, she took part in the Baletissimo gala performance, in which soloists from the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres, and also the National Opera of the Ukraine participated.
In 2007, she appeared as Gamzatti in La Bayadere (choreography Marius Petipa, production Alexander Vetrov) with the Metropolitan Classical Ballet.

Awards

In 1994, she won 3^rd prize at the Serge Lifar International Ballet Competition, in Kiev.
In 1995, she won 2^nd prize at the International Competition of ballet Dancers at Osaka (Japan).
In 2002, she was made Merited Artist of the Russian Federation. Her performance in the pas de deux from Le Corsaire (partner — Alexander Vetrov) was voted by the Forth-Worth weekly into its yearly Best of the West category of events.
In 2004, she won the Golden Lyre competition (Personality of the year in the dance nomination, Moscow).