After nine years with the Kirov (Maryinsky) Ballet, principal dancer Leonid Sarafanov upped stakes in January 2011 and moved a few grand jetes away to start work at the Mikhailovsky Ballet situated by the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

After pressure from Spain’s ministry of culture in 2010, Nacho Duato left his company Compañía Nacional de Danza. He accepted a position as artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, offered by the new general director, the Russian “banana mogul” Vladimir Kekhman.