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Audemars Piguet, which has announced its association with the legendary Bolshoi theatre, also proudly introduces the latest star to grace its select constellation of brand ambassadresses: Svetlana Zakharova, principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet and Opera.

Svetlana was born in the Ukrainian city of Lutsk, into the family of a member of the armed forces. At the age of 10, she started her training at Kiev Ballet School. Having studied 6 years in Valeriya Sulegina's class, she took part in the Vaganova-Prix Young Dancers' Competition in which - at 15 years - she was the youngest competitor. She nevertheless won 2nd prize and was admitted to the third-year course at the A.Y. Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. That a first-year pupil from a non- Petersburg school should straight away be admitted to the graduation year was virtually unheard of in Academy history: Zakharova had joined the third year by, in effect, jumping, the second.

 
Added to which she was lucky enough to be among the first graduates of former ballerina Elena Evteyeva , a former distinguished Mariinsky Theatre dancer.
 
Having completed her training at the Academy, 17-year old Zakharova joined the Mariinsky Theatre Company and, by the following season, had been promoted to soloist. Svetlana's Mariinsky debut had taken place while she was still an Academy student - the young ballerina's brilliant performance as the Mistress of the Dryads in Don Quixote had marked the appearance on the horizon of a new major star of Russian ballet. Her second important work was Maria in The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, which she prepared with Olga Nikolayevna Moiseyeva, a famous ballerina and educator whohas been Svetlana's permanent teacher and mentor ever since.
 
Zakharova had her first major success dancing Giselle. This was a real youthful masterpiece, full of revelations and insight which took the debutante herself by surprise. The interest of public and critics was so great that Vladimir Vasiliev decided to invite Zakharova to Moscow to dance in the Bolshoi Theatre production of the ballet.
 
The ballerina's romantic gift also made itself felt in Chopiniana. And when Balanchine's ballets entered the Theatre's repertoire, Zakharova here too made an impact - dancing with great success the soloists in Apollo, Serenade, the Tchaikovsky pas de deux, Le Palais de cristal, Jewels.

In parallel, she prepared role after role in Petipa's major ballets - Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere. Her interpretation of the solo part in Neumeier's Now and Then was unforgettable. It was this work which revealed Zakharova to be an ultra-modern ballerina, who could master any styles and directions in dance.

While devoting most of her time to the Mariinsky Theatre, Zakharova began to appear in personal tours in Paris, Munich, New York, Buenos-Aires, Tokyo, London. The most brilliant episode was her performance of La Bayadere at the Paris Opera in 2001 - after a thirteen-yearlong 'iron curtain', a ballerina from Russia again danced at this great Theatre in a French production, and she was all of 22 years old.
 
In the 2003/2004 season, Svetlana switched to the Bolshoi Theatre Company. Here Lyudmila Semenyaka became her permanent repetiteur. Svetlana's work in Moscow started off with a major premiere - she prepared and danced the role of Aspicia in Pierre Lacotte's ballet La Fille du Pharaon. This ballet was recorded on DVD. In her six years of work at the Bolshoi Theatre, she has danced all the classical repertoire in Yuri Grigorovich's versions. And adding these versions to Konstantin Sergeyev's ballets which are in the Mariinsky Theatre repertoire, and also to the versions of Swan Lake, La Bayadere, The Sleeping Beauty danced at the Paris Opera, La Scala, Hamburg Opera, and Tokyo's National Theatre, Zakharova has become, at one and the same time, a unique and universal interpreter of the main ballets of the classical legacy throughout the world.
 
Wherever she goes to work, she is accepted as a bearer of the innately pure style of the Russian school of ballet. In recent years, Zakharova has filled out her repertoire with contemporary numbers and ballets. She is due shortly in Milan where she will meet Roland Petit. It will be her first work with the illustrious French choreographer. Roland Petit has created a new version of the ballet Pink Floyd specially for Zakharova.
 
Svetlana Zakharova has been acknowledged for her skills. She is the recipient of awards such as a prize from the Vaganova-Prix competition, the Our Hope prize from Baltica Brewery (1997), and the special St. Petersburg prize People of Our City (2001). She was twice awarded the Golden Mask National theatre award for the best woman ballet role - in 1999 (Serenada by Georges Balanchine) and in 2000 (The Sleeping Beauty - version by Sergei Vikharev).
 
In 2005 she was awarded the title of Merited Artist of the Russian Federation; also, for her performance as Hippolyta-Titania in John Neumeier's A Midsummer Night's Dream, she was awarded the Benois de la Danse International Dance Association prize.
 
Two years later, she was awarded the State Prize of Russia for 'the talented evocation of stage characters and the development of Russian ballet great traditions' and Ballet magazine's Soul of Dance prize (Queen of the Dance nomination).
 
In 2006, she was admitted to the Presidential Council for Culture and Arts.
In 2008, she was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation and became the first Russian dancer conferred the title of the La Scala Ballet Company etoile.

 "", said Audemars Piguet CEO, Philippe Merk.