In this gallery, celebrated ballet dancer Evgenia Obraztsova spends some “Personal Time” with Evgeny Krivtsov, journalist and host of the program on Russia’s culture channel Russia-K.

Evgenia welcomes the crew into her home, where in Act I, she escorts host Evgeny into her kitchen and the two prepare her grandmother’s famous “Zebra” cake. In Act II, Evgenia sits down with Evgeny, alongside her mom and a friend, sharing her legacy through photos and proudly recounting her family’s ballet roots.

Evegenia is a Vaganova Academy graduate who is a principal with the Bolshoi Ballet, where she transferred after almost a decade with her alma mater theatre, the Mariinsky.

Evgenia is the first to admit, that in large part, she owes her ballet pedigree to her mom, a talented hopeful who graduated under the tutelage of the famous Vaganova disciple Natalia Dudinskaya. The story goes that with Evgenia’s appearance, her mom redirected her energies towards little “Genia” as she is called informally, shaping her daughter from the earliest years at the kitchen table where Genia received the ever-ingrained instruction on the paramount importance of turnout (turning the feet out).

Apparently this was not enough.

After her famously shaky start, and a motivating kick to her pride from her parents, Evgenia was ‘game on!’ 

Evgenia was 11 when she found her spark for ballet with the tough, masterful teacher Nikolai Ivanovich Tagunov, whom she praises for getting her on track: “He transformed my world, helping me to think differently… he explained what to do in order to achieve success in the profession… I began to understand what to focus on in order of importance… studying with him changed my life,” she says in a documentary called Monologue. Evgenia recalls that she began to experience success, after taking classes with Tagunov.

With this vital knowledge, Evgenia was fully motivated to take charge of her destiny and begin to shape herself into who she is today, a rigorously trained and disciplined ballet dancer undeniably dedicated to her art.

Another facet of Evgenia is her distinctly feminine character and air of effervescence. Her flair for the artistic extends into the realm of style, where her trendy and playful compositions are enough to merit the title of ‘little fashionista’.