Ballet stars

No other dance form combines athleticism, strength, endurance, and grace in such a beautiful union and expression like ballet. To achieve international fame as a ballet dancer requires skill, talent, and hard work that is intense and unflinching. Here are a few ballet stars who have earned international renown for their craft:

Anastasia Volochkova: A Russian prima ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet since 1998. She now focuses on a solo career.

Carlos Acosta: A member of the Royal Ballet since 1998 and Principal Guest Artist of the same establishment since 2003.

Ivan Vasiliev: Is a Russian ballet dancer with the Mikhaylovsky Theatre, St. Petersburg, since December 2011. He was also the principal dancer for the Bolshoi Ballet.

Misty Copeland: Started the art form at the age of thirteen. Misty is a soloist since 2007, for the American Ballet Theatre. She is only one of three female African American classical ballet dancers to receive that honour since the theatre’s inception in 1940.

Paloma Herrera: She made history by becoming the youngest principal ballet dancer at the age of nineteen, in 1995, for the American Ballet Theatre.

Rasta Kuzma Ramacandra (Rasta Thomas): He is an independent performer with the Bad Boys of Dance Group which he established. He was the youngest dancer to win the Jury Prize at the 1994 Paris International Dance Competition (aged thirteen), the Junior Gold Medal in 1996at the Varna International Ballet Competition (aged fifteen), and the gold medal in 1998 at theUSA International Ballet Competition (USAIBC) aged sixteen in the senior division.