In this age of the tall and long-legged ballerina, a smallish, soubrette-type dancer like Anastasia Goriacheva seems out of place. Yet, very few will be able to resist the combination of awesome terre-à-terre virtuosity and girlish charm (in many ways reminiscent of the young Ekaterina Maximova), of spontaneity and stylistic sensitivity amply displayed by this up-and-coming dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet.

Anastasia Goriacheva was born in Moscow in 1980. At the age of ten she entered the Moscow Choreographic School, where she studied under V. Samarokova, M. Mikhailova and the final three years under T. Galtseva. Upon graduation in 1998 she joined the Bolshoi Ballet. At the Bolshoi she has been working mainly with the distinguished Raisa Struchkova.

Quite soon Anastasia Goriacheva began to prepare soloist roles. After dancing smaller concert pieces like Flower Festival at Genzano pas de deux and Goleizovsky's Mazurka, she was cast in Balanchine's Agon, recently acquired by the Bolshoi, and in Maiorov's Cippolino. For these auspicious debuts Goriacheva was awarded the "Moscow Debuts" prize in 1999. In the 1999-2000 season she also danced her first Masha and Aurora.

During the USA tour of the Bolshoi Ballet in the Summer of 2000, Goriacheva was noted and praised by the American critics after she successfully covered for an indisposed Svetlana Lunkina in the first movement of Symphony in C at the performance in the New York State Theater on July 20. "It is a measure of depth of the Bolshoi's youngest ranks that Ms. Goriacheva could sail so smoothly through the lively first movement with such charm, confidence and polish and keep up in the unison finale with three, mostly senior, ballerinas" (Anna Kisselgoff in The New York Times). Goriacheva had learned the role in less than 24 hours. She just turned 20 on that day.

In her third season with the Bolshoi Anastasia Goriacheva danced her first Sylphide (with Yuri Klevtsov; later she also danced the role with Danish guest star Johan Kobborg, now a principal with the Royal Ballet).

In her fourth season she made a remarkable debut as Giselle and appeared as Lise in the newly obtained La Fille mal gardée from Frederick Ashton.

Marc Haegeman
(with special thanks to Ms. Ludmilla Dukova, Moscow, for the extra information)

Her repertoire includes:

• Flower festival in Genzano pas de deux (Bournonville)
• Flames of Paris pas de deux (Vainonen)
• Mazurka (Goleizovsky)
• Little Radish in Cipollino (Maiorov) (1999)
• 2nd trio Agon (1999) (Balanchine)
• Spanish doll and Masha in The Nutcracker (Grigorovich)
• The Little Demon in Balda (Vasiliev)
• Maid of Honour in Swan Lake (Vasiliev)
• Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty (2000) (Grigorovich after Petipa)
• Diamond Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty (2000) (Grigorovich after Petipa)
• soloist in Symphony in C (2000) (Balanchine)
• soloist in Mozartiana (2000) (Balanchine)
• Neapolitan Bride in Swan Lake (Grigorovich)
• pas d'action in Giselle (2000)
• Pearl in The Little Humpbacked Horse
• pas d'action in Pharaoh's Daughter (Petipa/Lacotte)
• Cupid in Don Quixote
• title role in La Sylphide (2001) (Bournonvile, von Rosen)
• soloist in Second Before the Ground (McIntire) (2001)
• soloist in Chopiniana (2001) (Fokine)
• Lise in La fille mal gardée (Ashton) (2002)
• title role in Giselle (2002)

A biography and additional information on Anastasia Goriacheva (in Russian) can be found in THE SMALL BALLET ENCYCLOPEDIA

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Copyright © 2002
Text and photo of  Anastasia Goriacheva Copyright © 2002 Marc Haegeman. All rights reserved.