If you’d like to follow my career as a professional classical dancer, go over to my Instagram page here.  Read on to find out more about my life at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy …

Exams always feel worthwhile, but performances are understandably the most fun. When it came to my duet, however, the two were indistinguishable, due to my fantastic teacher, Georgy Konstantinovich Gusev, who choreographed such an inventive, impressive spectacle that will be remembered by its participants and the audience alike for the rest of our lives.  Here is a clip of excerpts from the hour long performance:

We’d been working on the exam for so long that its quality as a performance had become lost to us.  The day of the exam, however,  brought so many bravos and created such a electric atmosphere in the Academy’s theatre where we performed that it suddenly dawned on us how lucky we were to be presenting such a clever compilation of work.

Our exam began conventionally with a warm up releve leading into adagios but quickly evolved into original and quirky flourishes, such as a contemporary adagio concluding in a myriad of tricks, small jumps and big jumps being linked by a smart little coda and a finale of numerous lifts, some of which many had never seen before.

I was extremely honoured to have two solo tricks to perform with my partner, Andrei Feldt, both of which worked really well on the day.  In total, we were really pleased with how the exam went, especially the polonaise; a challenging adagio tat had taken a lot of preparation beforehand.

I could never have imagined what a celebratory and happy day the duet exam would turn out to be!  I am so grateful for the opportunity to be part of something so wonderful; thank you Georgy Konstantinovich!

See more photos here.