From December 11 to 14, 2025, the Primorsky Stage will be hosting the ballet segment of the International Mariinsky Far East Festival. Principal dancers and soloists from Saint Petersburg will participate in the spectacular events: Gala concert. Carmen Suite, Don Quixote, and A Thousand and One Nights.
The Festival will open with two nights dedicated to the great ballerina Maya Plisetskaya. Her genius has transformed the language of dance, expanded the boundaries of choreographic expression, and, for the first time in the history of Soviet ballet, elevated the ballet dancer from a mere performer to the author of an artistic statement. On December 11 and 12, 2025, Gala concert. Carmen Suite will be performed, continuing the series of events commemorating the centennial anniversary of the legendary ballerina’s birth. In this programme, the ballerina’s signature parts will be performed by principal dancers of the Mariinsky Theatre Ekaterina Kondaurova, Renata Shakirova, Maria Iliushkina.
Maya Plisetskaya invited Cuban choreographer Alberto Alonso to create a new ballet for her personally — not for a generalized heroine, but for herself. From this decision, Carmen Suite originated, a ballet orchestrated by Rodion Shchedrin. In the USSR, it was the first performance where the choreography, music, and costumes did not stem out of the tradition, but rather were predicated on the ballerina’s personality.
Plisetskaya’s repertoire embraced over 100 parts, from classics (Raymonda, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle) to more contemporary ones (The Lady with the Lapdog, Anna Karenina). She was the first to present Carmen Suite in New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo. Her recordings are preserved in the archives of the Library of Congress.
On December 13, 2025, the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will host the ballet Don Quixote, featuring soloists from Saint Petersburg. This vibrant, festive production draws on just one episode from Cervantes’s novel. The main characters are the lovers Kitri and Basilio, with Don Quixote himself appearing in a cameo role.
The programme of December 14, 2025 contains the ballet A Thousand and One Nights, a musical and dance interpretation of the Oriental tale featuring the principal dancer of the Mariinsky Theatre Renata Shakirova. Created by Azerbaijani composer Fikret Amirov in 1979, the performance will take the audiences to the world of Arabian legends. On the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, the ballet will be presented in a choreographic version by Eldar Aliev. This native of Baku created a new version especially for the Primorsky Stage ballet company, having preserved all the vibrant hues and poetics of the Oriental legend. The production is part of the Golden Pool of the Russian Theatrical Productions.
