Masha Mukhamedov
Masha Mukhamedov, who was born in Moscow in 1962, was trained at the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet Academy, where she graduated with honours from the classes of Professors Kuznetsova and Uksusnikova. From 1980 to 1990, she was a First Soloist at the Bolshoi Ballet under the leadership of ballet mistresses Ulanova, Semyonova and Kondratieva.
Her repertoire included the soloist parts in such ballets as Don Quixote (Gorsky), Raymonda (Grigorovich after Petipa), Carmen Suite (Alonso), The Nutcracker (Grigorovich), Swan Lake (Grigorovich after Petipa and Ivanov), The Sleeping Beauty (Grigorovich after Petipa), Spartacus (Grigorovich), Les Sylphides (Fokine), La Ventana (Bournonville), Coppelia (Gorsky), Le Corsaire (Petipa), Polovtsian Dances in the opera Prince Igor (Goleizovsky), Dramatic Poem (Goleizovsky), Sketches (Petrov), Kalina Krasnaya (The Red Snowball Tree) (Petrov), The Little Prince (Mayorov), Love for Love (Boccadoro), The Legend of Love (Grigorovich), and Pakhita (Petipa).
In recent years she has been mainly working as a Ballet Pedagogue. From 2006 to 2010, she was engaged as a Chief Pedagogue at the Studio Mukhamedov Ballet School in Athens. From 2005 to 2006, she was teaching classical ballet and variations at the Elmhurst School for Dance in collaboration with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. She was also teaching variations at the Arts Educational School Tring in Great Britain from 2002 to 2003, and led the master class at the Royal Ballet in London in 1997. Among her most successful students are: Melissa Hamilton, who won the Youth America Grand Prix for 2007 in New York and is currently engaged by the Royal Ballet in London; Sasha Mukhamedov, who won the Bronze Medal at the YAGP for 2007 in Italy as well as the Most Talented Young Dancer Award for 2008 at the International Ballet Competition in Varna and is currently engaged by the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam; Jessica Morgan, who won the Bronze Medal at the Genée Ballet Competition in Hong Kong in 2006 and Yuki Hirota, who won the Silver Medal at the Fukoka Ballet Competition in Japan in 2006. Her other former students are also engaged by such prominent ballet ensembles as London Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet, English National Ballet, as well as by the ballet ensembles in Norway, Zurich and Leipzig. Masha Mukhamedov has so far collaborated in numerous ballet productions. In 2008, she was an Assistant Choreographer in the productions of Giselle (choreographed by Mukhamedov after Coralli, Perrot and Petipa) and Onegin (Mukhamedov), in 2007 she was a Guest Ballet Mistress in the production of Don Quixote Suite (choreographed by Mukhamedov after Gorsky) at the London Dance Studios, in 2006 she was an Assistant Choreographer in the production of A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mukhamedov) and Grand pas from The Carnival in Venice (after Petipa) at the Elmhurst School for Dance in Great Britain, in 2000 she was an Assistant Choreographer in the production of Swan Lake (Mukhamedov) at the Warsaw Big Theatre (Teatr Wielki), in 1997, she was an Assistant Choreographer in the production of The Talisman Pas de deux (after Petipa for Mara Galeazzi, Miyako Yoshida and Irek Mukhamedov) at the Royal Ballet in London and in 1993, in the production of The Diana and Acteon Pas de deux (after Vaganova for Viviana Durante and Irek Mukhamedov), staged at the Royal Ballet in London as well.