“There are no taking days off.
There are no distractions.
If I had that, I physically wouldn’t be capable of going onstage and performing live theater.
It’s extremely demanding.
I have to be in ballet class every day. “
– Misty Copeland
Vaganova Ballet Academy student Daria Ionova photographed by Darian Volkova.
Backstage before Arabesque ballet competition
Perm, Russia
Photo by Marina Dmitrieva
Lac des cygnes (coulisses) | Opera de Paris
Artists of the Mikhailovsky Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty
© Nikolay Krusser
Elisabeth Platel in rehearsal for Gamzatti
Vaganova Ballet Academy student Daria Ionova photographed by Darian Volkova.
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“The discipline that ballet requires is obsessive.
And only the ones who dedicate their whole lives are able to make it.
Your toenails fall off and you peel them away and then you’re asked to dance again and keep smiling.
I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer. “
– Penelope Cruz
La Bayadere
Photos by Sasha Gouliaev
Artists of the Mikhailovsky Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty
© Nikolay Krusser
Vaganova Ballet Academy student Daria Ionova photographed by Darian Volkova.
Elisabeth Platel in rehearsal for Gamzatti
Marianela Nuñez as Giselle, and Federico Bonelli as Albrecht, in Giselle(Royal Ballet, 2018)
Artists of the Mikhailovsky Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty
© Nikolay Krusser
La Bayadere
Photos by Sasha Gouliaev
Elisabeth Platel in rehearsal for Gamzatti
Artists of the Mikhailovsky Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty
© Nikolay Krusser
Backstage before Arabesque ballet competition
Perm, Russia
Photo by Marina Dmitrieva
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“I think that taking ballet is one of the best things a girl can do.
Period.”
– Karlie Kloss
Vaganova Ballet Academy student Daria Ionova photographed by Darian Volkova.
Elisabeth Platel in rehearsal for Gamzatti
Vaganova Ballet Academy student Daria Ionova photographed by Darian Volkova.
Artists of the Mikhailovsky Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty
© Nikolay Krusser
Vaganova Ballet Academy student Daria Ionova photographed by Darian Volkova.
“Ballet dancers are among the greatest living athletes. “
– Justin Peck
Lac des cygnes (coulisses) | Opera de Paris
Backstage before Arabesque ballet competition
Perm, Russia
Photo by Marina Dmitrieva
Artists of the Mikhailovsky Ballet – The Sleeping Beauty
© Nikolay Krusser
Vaganova Ballet Academy student Daria Ionova photographed by Darian Volkova.
“I love ballet.
Ballet is its own being.
It has its own vocabulary.
I feel as if I am in a different world when I am in the ballet studio. “
– Kiernan Shipka
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