Since Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Russian dancers have been praised worldwide for their tours, pirouettes and fouettйs. Now one of the country’s leading companies, the Mariinsky Ballet, has won acclaim as the most “Outstanding Company” in the UK.

The St Petersburg-based Mariinsky Ballet has received Britain’s Critics’ Circle prize as the “Best Dance Company” of the past season.

Sixty members of the expert dance committee had to judge productions performed in the UK between September 2010 and August 2011.

The Mariinsky received accolades from critics during last summer’s tour, marking fifty years since the company’s first visit to London.

To mark the golden jubilee, the Mariinsky Theater staged a large-scale program at Covent Garden, featuring classical masterpieces as well as ballets by Michel Fokine, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Among the highlights was the UK premiere of Anna Karenina by the former Bolshoi Theater luminary, Aleksey Ratmansky.

The Critics’ Circle Award summed up the results of the ballet year and confirmed the success of the Mariinsky Ballet Company’s anniversary tour to London. They pointed out that the Mariinsky demonstrated “elegant means, nobility of expression and historic resonance defining each step and every dramatic nuance” that were the result of “many years of consideration, inspiration and deference to the art that this company glorifies.”

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