Svetlana Zakharova dancing Giselle, Act 1, Variation

Svetlana Zakharova, principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet and the Teatro alla Scala, is widely considered among the greatest living ballerinas today, together with Sylvie Guillem and Diana Vishneva. Zakharova was born in Lutsk, Ukraine, on 10 June 1979. At age six, her mother took Svetlana to learn folk dancing at a local studio. At age 10, Svetlana auditioned for and was accepted into the Kiev Choreographic School. Just four months later, however, her father’s reassignment in the army to East German