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The Latvian National Ballet is the  only professional ballet company in Latvia. The more than ninety-year  history of Latvian ballet has close ties with the finest traditions of  the Russian school of classical ballet. In this way, the classical  Russian ballet traditions were passed down from generation to  generation, and eventually gave the world such ballet stars as Mikhail  Baryshnikov, Māris Liepa, and Alexandr Godunov, each of whom trained  right here in Riga.

The Latvian ballet was born on December 1, 1922 (though the company  had begun to form much earlier – it was founded in 1918 as a part of  Latvian Opera company under the leadership of ballet master Voldemārs  Komisārs). That night, the curtain opened on the company’s first  full-length production, Peter Ludwig Hertel’s La Fille mal Gardée,  which was based on Marius Petipa’s 1885 St. Petersburg production of  the work and was staged by Nikolai Sergeyev. In 1920s, ex-prima  ballerina of Mariinsky Theatre Alexandra Fyodorova, a member of the  renowned Fokin family, began to work as a ballet dancer and  choreographer staging many ballet performances on the basis of Marius  Petipa, Lev Ivanov, and Mikhail Fokin choreography. Under her direction,  the company gained considerable artistic respectability and technical  progress. In 1932, Anatole Viltzak, former ballet soloist of Mariinsky  Theatre, Serge Diaghilev Russian Ballet Company and other famous  European ballet companies, became the head of the LNO Ballet. The  talanted dancer and choreographer Osvalds Lēmanis was the chief ballet  master of the LNO Ballet in 1934-1944. After the Second World War the  ballet was entrusted to Helēna Tangijeva-Birzniece; she had studied in  St. Petersburg with the legendary ballet teacher Agrippina Vaganova.  Helēna Tangijeva-Birzniece was predecessor of Yevgeny Čanga, Irēna  Strode, Aleksandrs Lembergs, Janīna Pankrate, Modris Cers, Lita Beiris  in later years, and Aivars Leimanis who is the LNO Ballet Artistic  Director since 1993.

Today, the Latvian National Ballet’s repertoire is founded on the “pearls” of classical ballet – like GiselleSwan LakeThe NutcrackerDon QuixoteLe CorsaireLa Bayadère – as well as classic productions by contemporary choreographers that have become audience favourites, such as CoppéliaThe Fountain of Bakhchisaray, and The Bright Stream. The legendary choreographer Boris Eifman complex and refined ballet Anna Karenina, the Argentinean choreographer Mauricio Wainrot’s Messiah, and the outstanding Russian choreographer Alla Sigalova’s Othello enrich the repertoire with elements of modern dance and show our dancers’ adeptness in contemporary ballet.

Source: The Latvian National Opera

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