Reflections Ballet Mistress

Anastasia Yatsenko was born in Moscow in 1973. She graduated from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in 1991 (class of Sofia Golovkina) and joined Bolshoi Ballet in the fall of that year. She is a Leading Soloist with the Company. For most of her career, Ms. Yatsenko was coached by the legendary Bolshoi dancer Raisa Struchkova. She currently works with Svetlana Adyrkhaeva.

Ms. Yatsenko’s repertoire with the Bolshoi includes among others the title role in Vladimir Vasiliev’s Anyuta; Marie in The Nutcracker; Kitri and Mercedes in Don Quixote; Myrtha in Giselle; Cinderella in Yuri Possokhov’s Cinderella; Diamond Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty; Ramze, the Fisherman’s wife, and Guadalquivir in Pierre Lacotte’s La Fille du Pharaon; Helena in Midsummer Night’s Dream (choreography by John Neumeier); Lise in Sir Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal Gardée; Gulnare in Le Corsaire (choreography by Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka); Zina in Ratmansky’s Bright Stream and Adeline in his The Flames of Paris; as well as soloist and principal roles in Balanchine’s Tarantella, Agon, Serenade, and Symphony in C.

She originated principal roles in Boris Eifman’s Russian Hamlet (Paul’s Wife); Radu Poklitaru Ward No. 6 (Nurse/Kitchen Maid); Christopher Wheeldon’s Misericordes (soloist); Ratmansky’s Capriccio (soloist), The Bolt (Nastya) and Jeu de Cartes (soloist).

Ms. Yatsenko’s awards include the Gold medal at the Arabesque Ballet Competition in Perm and the Silver medal at the “Maya” International Ballet Competition (both in 1996). She is an Honored Artist of Russia (2002).

She recently took on the role of Ballet Mistress responsible for the Balanchine and Forsythe works in the Bolshoi repertory.