At the age of 11, Julian MacKay gave up his life in rural Montana to move to Moscow and train full-time at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. It paid off: With Apollonian lines and bravura reserves of technique, the young dancer is now a versatile first soloist with St. Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky Ballet, and brings an enterprising […]

He’s not David Hallberg, but he’s tall and thin, has beautiful feet and magnificent ballon, and is now in a Russian ballet company. Meet Mario Vitale Labrador, the 24-year-old from the Bay Area who graduated from the Bolshoi Academy in Moscow and then joined the Mikhailovsky Ballet. Last April he won some of the top […]

With growing popularity, the company begins its first U.S. tour.     Angelina Vorontsova in The Flames of Paris. Photo by Stas Levshin, Courtesy Mikhailovsky Ballet.   Though audiences have long idolized the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Ballets, the Mikhailovsky Ballet is gaining ground as one of Russia’s most forward-thinking classical troupes. With more than $40 […]