Birthplace: Pinar del Río, Cuba. Training: Centro pro danza-Laura Alonso. Joined Trockadero: July 2023. Previous companies: California Ballet, Twin Cities Ballet of MN, Ballet Theater of Maryland, Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami. Silver medal at Festival de Danca, Joinville, Brazil.

BLAGOVESTA ZLOTMACHINSKAYA. Ever since her auspicious debut as the Left Nostril in the ballet extracted from The Nose by Gogol, Blagovesta has shown a unique appreciation of her homeland’s literary heritage. Back home, she is best known as the star of the hit TV show Challenge Anna Karenina, in which the eponymous heroine of Tolstoy’s classic novel seeks to expose the fin de siècle malaise at the heart of pre-Revolutionary Russia with the aid of a helicopter and walkie-talkie.

MIKHAIL MUDKIN, the famed Russian danseur for whom the word “Bolshoi” was coined, comes to America from his triumphs as understudy to a famous impresario in the role of The Bear in Petrushka.