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Ekaterina Shipulina


Ekaterina Shipulina was born in Perm in 1979 into a family of dancers. Both her parents, Valentin Markov and Ludmilla Shipulina, were soloists with the Perm Ballet company. Shipulina first studied at the Perm Choreographic School from 1989 until 1994. After her mother was invited to dance with the Stanislavsky Theatre in Moscow, she continued her training at the Moscow Choreographic Academy from 1994 until 1998, where she studied with Irina Y. Sirova and finally with Ludmilla S. Litavkina. Upon graduation in 1998 Shipulina joined the Bolshoi Ballet.

At the Bolshoi Ekaterina Shipulina started working with Marina Kondratieva, who prepared her for the International Ballet Dancers Competition in Luxembourg, where she obtained a silver medal, as well as for the 2001 Moscow International Ballet Competition, where she obtained silver again with Ruslan Skvortsov. Kondratieva is also Shipulina's main repetiteur at the Bolshoi.

Following regular corps de ballet work in her first seasons, Shipulina was soon preparing her first soloist parts and in 2000 she was singled out to create roles in Boris Eifman's Russian Hamlet as well as Pierre Lacotte's The Pharaoh's Daughter. In early 2001 she debuted as Myrtha in Giselle, followed by the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty and, in March 2002, Odette-Odile in Swan Lake. Among her most recently acquired roles are Kitri in Don Quixote, the Ballerina in Alexei Ratmansky's The Bright Stream and Aegina in Yuri Grigorovich's Spartacus, confirming her as one of the Bolshoi's most gifted young soloists. Shipulina has also been a successful soloist in Balanchine's Agon and Symphony in C.

Ekaterina Shipulina has been touring worldwide with the Bolshoi Ballet. She is also a recipient of the "Triumph" youth prize (2002) as well as the 2004 "Soul of the Dance" award from the magazine "Balet".

Marc Haegeman


Her repertoire includes:

  • Giselle's friend in Giselle (Perrot, Coralli, staged by Vasiliev) (1999)
  • Mazurka in Chopiniana (Fokine) (1999)
  • 2nd variation in Grand Pas of Don Quixote (Petipa, Gorsky, staged by Fadeyechev) (1999)
  • Queen of the Ball in Fantasy on a Theme by Casanova (Lavrovsky) (1999)
  • Tsar-Maiden in The Little Humpbacked Horse (staged by Androsov) (1999)
  • Magnolia in Cippolino (Maiorov) (2000)
  • demi-soloist in 3rd mvt. of Symphony in C (Balanchine) (2000)
  • the Heir's Wife (cr) in The Russian Hamlet (Eifman) (2000)
  • the River Kongo (cr) and Fisherman's Wife in The Pharaoh's Daughter (Lacotte after Petipa) (2000)
  • Queen of the Dryads in Don Quixote (Petipa, Gorsky, staged by Fadeyechev) (2000)
  • Sapphire, Gold and Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty (Petipa, staged by Grigorovich) (2000)
  • 2nd variation in Raymonda's dream in Raymonda (Petipa, staged by Grigorovich) (2000)
  • 2nd Shade in La Bayadère (Petipa, Chabukiani, Ponomarev, staged by Grigorovich) (2000)
  • Myrtha in Giselle (Perrot, Coralli, staged by Vasiliev) (2001)
  • Polish Bride, Big Swan in Swan Lake (Petipa/Ivanov, staged by Grigorovich) (2001)
  • Gamzatti in La Bayadère (Petipa, Chabukiani, Ponomarev, staged by Grigorovich) (2001)
  • Odette-Odile in Swan Lake (Petipa/Ivanov, staged by Grigorovich) (2002)
  • the Ballerina in The Bright Stream (Ratmansky) (2003)
  • Henrietta in Raymonda (Petipa, staged by Grigorovich) (2003)
  • Esmeralda in Notre-Dame de Paris (Petit) (2003)
  • 7th Waltz and Prelude in Chopiniana (Fokine) (2003)
  • Kitri in Don Quixote (Petipa, Gorsky, staged by Fadeyechev) (2004)
  • soloist Agon (Balanchine) (2004)
  • soloist in 4th mvt. of Symphony in C (Balanchine) (2004)
  • soloist in Magrittomania (Posokhov) (2004)
  • Aegina in Spartacus (Grigorovich) (2004)
  • Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Neumeier) (2005)
  • soloist in Les Présages (Massine) (2005)
  • soloist in Go for Broke (Jeu de Carte) (Ratmansky) (2005)
  • title role in Cinderella (Posokhov) (2006)


Additional information on Ekaterina Shipulina can be found on
www.bolshoi.net
Small Ballet Encyclopedia (in Russian)

Copyright © 2004-2007
Text and photos of  Ekaterina Shipulina Copyright © 2004-2007 Marc Haegeman. All rights reserved.