Video: The Great Russian Nutcracker

ABOUT THE GREAT RUSSIAN NUTCRACKER:
Tickets are now on sale for Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker go to www.nutcracker.com.

Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker tells the story of the girl who falls in love with a Nutcracker Prince - with Russian flair.

Praised by the NY Times Chief Dance Critic as "thrilling and expansive" and "elegant...brimful with feeling" the 40 impeccably trained Russian dancers leap, spin and lunge bringing the traditional story to life.
 
Unique to the Great Russian Nutcracker, Russian folk characters Father Christmas and the Snow Maiden escort Masha to the Land of Peace and Harmony in Act II where she and the Nutcracker Prince are honored by emissaries from heritages the world over; African, Russian, Asian, European and Hispanic.

$5  from each ticket sold, for the Dec 26 and 27, 7:30pm performances of Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker at the Mahaffey Theatre, will go directly to help abandoned, injured and abused animals at Pet Pal.
It's a win-win to invite the community to see the acclaimed Great Russian Nutcracker and, at the same time, to raise potentially thousands of dollars or more to save more homeless animals' lives.

To purchase tickets and simultaneously make a donation to Pet Pal call Moscow Ballet 800-320-1733 x15 or go to www.nutcracker.com/petpal
 

AUDITIONS TONIGHT!!
The host studio for auditions for Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker is Judith Lee Johnson's City dancers 
Auditions are today at 6 pm at 559 Mirror Drive, St. Petersburg, FL  33701. Student dancers will perform side-by-side with 40 Russian professionals. They will dance in the December 26 and 27, 7:30pm performances at the Mahaffey Theatre.

ABOUT SVETLANA TODINOVA
She was born in Yadrun, Russia just outside of Moscow
and completed formal ballet training at the Ufimsky Choreography School, now named the Rudolph Nureyev Russian State Ballet Academy in honor of the legendary dancer who was also a graduate, in 1997.

Svetlana was invited to join the Krasnodarsky Musical Theater troupe of the Bashkiria Theater and there danced for Yuri Grigorovich, famous for his virtuosic productions at the Bolshoi Theater and now retired.

In 1999, she joined Russia's renowned National Academy of Theatrical Arts, or "GITIS," founded in 1878 by theater pioneer and founder of the Stanislavsky acting method K. Stanislavsky, in Moscow with which she toured internationally. She has danced with Moscow Ballet since 2001 and has been a Master Teacher for 5 years.

Svetlana visits nearly 20 American cities between the months of September and November annually, where she auditions and trains hundreds of young, aspiring dancers to perform in Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker. 

Following this, Svetlana joins her colleagues for the 60 city North American tour of Romeo and Juliet and the Great Russian Nutcracker.