Bolshoi Ballet

Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company, based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is one of the worlds oldest ballet companies, however it only achieved worldwide acclaim in the 20th century, when Moscow became the capital of Soviet Russia. Along with the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, the Bolshoi is recognised as one of the foremost ballet companies in Russia.


History


The earliest origins of the Bolshoi Ballet, can be found in the creation of a dance school for a Moscow orphanage in 1773.  In 1776, dancers from the school were employed by Prince Pyotr Urusov and the English theatrical entrepreneur Michael Maddox, to form part of their new theatre company.  Originally performing in privately owned venues, they later acquired the Petrovsky Theatre, which, as a result of fires and erratic redevelopment, would later be rebuilt as today's Bolshoi Theatre.
The early history of the Bolshoi Ballet is very sketchy and, despite staging many famous ballets, it struggled to compete with the reputation of the Imperial Russian Ballet, today's Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg. It was not until the appointment of Alexander Gorsky as Ballet Master in 1900 that the company began to develop its own unique identity, with acclaimed productions of new or restaged ballets including, Don Quixote (1900), Coppélia (1901), Swan Lake (1901), La fille mal gardée (1903), Giselle (1911), Le Corsaire (1912) and La Bayadère (1917).


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