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Delicate dynamite: the Bolshoi's Natalia Osipova wins over the world.

Article Excerpt
It was a brief YouTube clip of her Kitri that set balletomanes abuzz. From the first moment that Bolshoi starlet Natalia Osipova was spotted in a short solo from Don Quixote, the link flew from computer to computer around the world. Her performance commanded the stage with sparkling personality and breathtaking technique. Tossing off multiple pirouettes with a laugh, she flew through the air, her head almost touching her back leg, with such exuberance that audience and fellow dancers alike cheered her on. Via cyberspace, her fame was well-established long before most of her newfound fans saw her in the flesh. Within four years, she rose through the ranks of the Bolshoi Ballet to first soloist. Under Bolshoi Ballet director Alexei Ratmansky, she has been given the opportunity to perform many roles and to develop a partnership with the equally exciting dancer Ivan Vasiliev.

My first live sighting of her was in 2006 in Southampton when the Bolshoi was on a regional tour of Britain. It wasn't in some high-powered role, rather as one of the shepherdesses in Act II of Spartacus. But there was something mesmerizing about the way she skipped, light as a feather while clutching her arms around her head, that foretold of a star-in-waiting. That summer, the company returned to London where Osipova, still a corps member, performed the full Don Quixote to cheers and thunderous applause. The following year, partnered by the 18-year-old wunderkind Ivan...

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