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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/diamondsandglass on 2024-02-05 06:14:06.
I’ll try to keep this post shorter than my previous ballet drama summaries. Also I'm not on mobile for once! So any formatting issues are entirely my own fault.
This happened fairly recently, and yet lots of people have already forgotten it. In the heady days of 2022 though it was big news in ballet.
What is the Bolshoi?
The Bolshoi Ballet is a ballet company located in Moscow founded in 1776. It was frequented by the Russian nobility and upper crust, but importantly was not directly sponsored by the tsar. This has made it more stable than the Marinsky, which as an imperial theater has struggled to find its footing through the 20th and 21st centuries. Bolshoi
Who is Olga Smirnova?
Olga Smirnova has been a professional ballet dancer since 2011, and a prima ballerina (the highest rank) since 2018. She studied at Vaganova Academy, the leading ballet school in Russia, from which most Bolshoi dancers are directly hired. Such was the case with Smirnova, who started as a soloist (second highest rank overall) skipping an apprenticeship or the corps de ballet, where most dancers start. Clearly, someone high up considered her a star in the making. She would prove them right, not only headling at the Bolshoi, but also doing guest appearances in other countries, including American Ballet Theatre.
A quick recap of why no one wants to live in Russia
I’m sure most people don’t need to be reminded of this, but there is a war going on in Russia right now. One they are losing! The current president/lifelong god king of Russia, Vladimir Putin, is obsessed with expanding the borders of the country. A notable example is the 2012 invasion of Crimea, which is currently still a Russian territory. He had been menacing Ukraine for well over a decade before invading in spring of 2022.It was supposed to be a quick and easy takeover, knocking out the Ukrainian government and gaining a new Russian territory, but it turned out not to be that simple. The world closed ranks to support Ukraine, providing arms, accepting refugees, and more than anything endless morale support. Russia is almost universally hated right now, and those that can afford to have moved abroad and distanced themselves from their home country. This includes ballerinas.
March 16, 2022
Smirnova makes an announcement. She is leaving the Bolshoi Ballet and defecting from Russia altogether in protest of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. She had already expressed dissent online and through social media, but this announcement shook the ballet world. Smirnova was far from the first person to defect from Bolshoi, ballet was often the only way out of the constrictive Soviet Union in the 20th century, however she was the first notable dancer to do so over the current crisis. She also made it very clear that this was a moral decision, and that were it not for the invasion she would have stayed at home in Russia.It’s important to note that Smirnova was in a privileged position when she made the decision to defect. As a prima ballerina at a (if not the) top ballet company, she was at the absolute top of the ballet world. She could have had a job at any company she preferred, or even started freelancing and traveling around the world. She was able to negotiate a position at the Dutch National Ballet before even announcing her departure from Bolshoi. It’s possible others may have followed her, but were scared for their livelihoods or even their lives. Russian ballet has a history of dramatic and even violent power struggles, something I plan to write about further in future. I also specifically want to write a post about ballet and defection, so look out for that if you’re interested.
Additional Reading
You can find Smirnova’s website, including an in-depth a recap of her career, here- https://www.olgasmirnovaballet.com/about#:~:text=Immediately%20upon%20graduating%20from%20the,the%20Bolshoi%20Theatre%20in%202016.And here are links to some articles I read covering her defection at the time-