I must say that’s my first visit to London, I saw it for the first time in my life and simply fell in love with this city! Now my wish is to go there once again as a tourist and not to be bound to any theatre or performances, and be able to see everything, all the sites, without haste, to take my time... On the London stage I participated in three performances: danced the Emperess of dryads and Êitry in " Don Quixote ", Polish Bride and Îdette-Odile in " Swan Lake ", the Congo River in " the Daughter of Pharaoh ". Unlike the majority of our actors who were to dance practically every evening I was lucky to have a holiday of its kind during our London tour just in the middle of the intense and tough schedule: the repertoire was arranged in such a way that " Romeo and Juliet " and "Spartacus" followed each other with no break. I did not dance these performances and could afford a walk around London.

Our actors, certainly, did their best to see the city, too, but unfortunately they were more occupied than me and could do it in short breaks between rehearsals and performances. Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Tower impressed me best of all. It was eye opening to walk around the city! And what’s more, we got an excellent guide: he sounded really fascinating when telling it all, that he made us all ears. There is no book to read about it! All of us, we walked around the city a lot, admired the streets, visited its parks and squares...

The building of Covent-Garden theatre, certainly, didn’t seem so impressive to us as Grand Opera. The building of Parisian Opera is huge, beautiful, amazing with its magnificence, splendour, scale, while Covent-Garden is plain-looking and modest, but inside the theatre is surprisingly convenient, equipped with every possible modern gadget.

The performances were a great success, with all of them sold out. And there was no end to applauses. Any failure is absolutely out of the question! " Don Quixote " and " Swan Lake ", " The Daughter of Pharaoh " and " Spartacus " - everything was accepted enthusiastically, especially after " Romeo and Juliet ". To tell the truth, I didn’t see "Romeo", but I know that this very ballet caused most controversy. Both the spectators’ response and the press coverage differed greatly. The English were telling us more than once that it’s beyond them to understand why the notorious Declan Donnellan was invited to do the ballet and why this version of “Romeo and Juliet” was brought to London at all, while old well-established version by the Leonid Lavrovsky had been awaited. Russian classics of the 1950-s with unforgettable Galina Ulanova starring. The English felt nostalgic about it: they expected this version to arrive, but instead they had to see something absolutely different and naturally felt disappointed. As to the new version of "Romeo", it was not interesting enough to impress them...

And in general all the English are very benevolent and friendly. They waited for us to say something nice at the theatre after each performance, congratulated us, expressed their delight, asked for autographs. There were surprisingly many Russian-speaking people among them. Obviously, emigrants living in London. It was extremely pleasant to find ourselves for a while among Russians in London. One of the spectators even presented me with a photo of myself taken by him at Kishinev Festival, where I once danced. Certainly, it was fun to meet this man in London, a man, who had seen and remembered me dancing before...

I happened to visit London five years ago exactly, together with the Bolshoi Ballet troupe. That time my impressions of the city were much stronger. I managed to visit quite a number of museums, to see both the Òower and St. Paul’s Cathedral with its 600-step staircase, I admired Madam Òussaud’s Museum and had a rest on the historical Trafalgar Square... This time I was much more busy, did far more performances so I found my working schedule so tough, that I could hardly find enough time to see anything. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help trying a ride on their new huge Megawheel erected on the bank of the Thames to enjoy the wonderful view of London from there. This attraction wheel was constructed in 2000 to honour the Millennium and it is rightfully considered one of the Wonders of Great Britain. In my scarce free moments I simply walked about London parks, did some sunbathing in St. James’ Park, one of the city’s most beautiful. And as a general impression I find that the city hasn’t changed during the past five years: Londoners are surprisingly lovely, cheerful, smiling... City life in summer is in full swing - London attracts tourists from all over the world, the streets are crowded which naturally makes the prices sky-rocket.

This time the performances were held on the premises of Covent Garden, which had been under repairs five years ago. The theatre has nice and light rehearsal rooms, cleverly equipped with all sorts of electronics, with movable constructions which bare the scenery placed on them in advance, and then just in time the scenery passes onto the stage. There are also enormous underground premises at its service, where all the scenery is kept orderly and handy.

I danced in every performance except for " Don Quixote ". There was no performance that wasn’t sold out. Covent Garden was packed to capacity, with Bolshoi Ballet theatre-lovers from Japan, Mexico, USA being frequent guests. Many Russians who live in London and saw us in 1999, came to see us again. When at night we were leaving the theatre, there were always lots of fans, admirers and just friends of ours waiting for us. They asked for autographs, and it was very pleasant. All our performances were a great success, though " Swan Lake” seemed to have been accepted least enthusiastically if compared with the other ballets. At "Spartacus", "Romeo and Juliet", "The Daughter of Pharaoh", "Don Quixote" the audience applauded on their feet in the finale and the applause was thunderous and long. The opening night of " Romeo and Juliet " is worth a separate remark. The first cast danced their best but they did not win a single ripple of applause. When Act I was over and the curtain was closed, a long pause was hanging in the air. We were at a loss as to what that pause may mean. None of us was quite sure whether there would be any at all. Declan Donellann, frightened and discouraged, turned up in the wings, his face red with anxiety, he did not even try to hide his emotions.

A bit later there was some polite applause heard, but this pause made us anxious and nervous... And after Act 2 the audience burst into tremendous applause! Donellann beaming all over came out to bow together with the dancers and flew about the stage like a butterfly. The public were throwing flowers onto the stage, which is somewhat unusual for prudish, economizing and reserved British people. Many of them jumped to their feet and there was a long standing ovation which our “Romeo” had never heard in Moscow. There were countless curtain calls. Our ballet had never seen such a great appreciation by the audience at home! On the third and fourth nights of " Romeo and Juliet " with the second cast the applause was a bit less generous. To tell the truth, the third performance was a matinee and as a rule all the tour matinee performances were not so much applauded as the evening ones, even “ Spartacus’ which was considered to enjoy the most success.

After " Romeo & Juliet " we had to hear our spectators asking: " What for have you brought this performance here? " Truly speaking, the questions puzzled us not a little, as the choice was neither ours nor that of the Bolshoi management, actually it was up to the British party to make the choice. On our part, we only danced what was offered and tried to do the utmost. Certainly, the opinions concerning "Romeo" divided, but having seen it many people said they would never forget it. The majority of the spectators got a strongest shock from the modern version, we saw many people in the auditorium crying when the curtain closed. Such a tremendous impression it made. We knew that a few most wealthy Londoners as well as some theatre and cinema stars were present in the hall. They arrived to see " Romeo and Juliet ". Among them the well-known actor Joseph Faints, the title role performer in the film " Shakespear in love ". As we were later told the actor was very much impressed by our dancers’ perfect impersonating of Shakespear’s characters, both their dancing and acting. The English theatrical world really respect and love Donnellan. Certainly, the negative reviews in the newspapers upset him very much, it was beyond him to understand what was wrong with the ballet for critics if there were no faults found with it by the audience?! We hear that on Moscow TV "Romeo and Juliet" was said to have met boos and hisses from the London public.

We didn’t see a single “boo” when bowing! Where this information came from, I wonder, and was so quickly picked up by all the Mass Media!

After the run Declan Donnellan invited the participants of the production to his villa situated on a most beautiful hill within a 20 minute-drive from the centre of London, which he shares with the artist Nickolas Ormerod.

Both "Don Quixote" and "Pharoah's Daughter", nicely placed at the beginning and end of season.

"Pharaoh’s Daughter" was received very warmly too. Pierre Lacotte came to see it and was pleased with the performance. In all the four "Pharaoh" performances I danced Ñlassical Variation in Pas d’acion; then the central pas de trois of shepherds in all the Spartacuses, the part of Jester in " Swan Lake " and two times I appeared as Tybalt in "Romeo & Juliet". But there were practically no free evenings in my tour schedule because I was a reserve for the other productions and had to stay in the theatre almost all the evenings. John Neumeier came to see us in London both at rehearsals and performances, sitting and selecting soloists for his work " Summer Night Dream ", which he is going to bring to the Bolshoi this season. On the closing of the tour Lillian Hohauser, organizer of the tour, arranged a reception in the hotel for the whole troupe. She was happy and pleased with the tour’s results, she said she was going to invite the Bolshoi ballet once again in two years time at least to give a few concerts.

Of our soloists Sergei Filin saw the greatest success, of the ballerinas it was Masha Alexandrova, the English audience especially appreciated her dancing Àspichy in " Pharaoh’s Daughter ". Svetlana Zakharova won well-earned attention of the British public as well. In " Spartacus" Yura Klevtsov was most impressive and strong, while Dima Gudanov won the public in " Swan Lake ".

So on the whole this tour was a great success though an awfully hard one: a few actors got traumas right at the beginning of season.

For the dancers the season appeared to be physically exhausting for another reason as well, that was the timing of the tour. It was scheduled to start in the middle of summer, shortly after the season in the Bolshoi was over, and the dancers practically had no time to recover from it. And after the tour again we have very little time to get rested before the upcoming season starts. Those three working weeks in London have eaten up too much of our energy.

You know, that was my first visit to London, I saw it for the first time in my life and I must say I got greatly impressed! As a matter of fact, there, in London, I had my first tour abroad with the Bolshoi ballet, without taking into account the one to Paris where I danced only in corps de ballet. While here I did the title role in " Romeo and Juliet ". I found the tour really exhausting and it was so due to a very tough schedule. I danced all the productions in corps every evening and matinee (we call them "doubles "). There was only one time when I got a chance to see London when " Romeo " went with the second cast. So I didn’t have to dance and between the performances I could afford a short walk around the city (though I had to return to the evening performance as I was in reserve). We worked without a day off.

In the morning before each new run of ballets there was an obligatory dress rehearsal, and in the evening there was a performance for the public, so the performance was really "doubled". As it was explained to us, these morning “rehearsals” were arranged for the press, photographers and TV, for them to see and shoot the ballet beforehand in no haste and hurry. Their presence meant we were to dance a full-fledged performance in " full force ", with our make-up and costumes on. A matinee and this sort of "double" differed only in time: “doubles” began at midday, while matinees started at two a.m. and left us with no time for rest. During the breaks between the "doubles" we didn’t take off our make-up and costumes, neither we left the theatre. After the “rehearsal” we could have a little rest before the evening performance. Doubled “Spartavus”, the most difficult performance for male corps de ballet, turned out especially exhausting for me. So there was practically no time for a detailed survey of London, and in our only day off we all slept it off to recover our physical condition. We felt it was physically beyond us to go anywhere sightseeing. But all the same I managed to visit the National Gallery, the Tower of London, to walk a little around the city centre, to see the famous Tower Bridge (I saw the bridge being parted), take a ride on Megawheel which was not very far from our hotel, to see Big Ben, situated nearby, too.

The weather all the time remained perfect, it was sunny (except for one little rain), and our girls, who got on foot from the hotel to the theatre wearing shorts and slippers, got a bit tanned due to their daily "walks”. The main nuisance were our hotel rooms: “small” is not the word, they were tiny, uncomfortable and awfully stuffy though it was a 4-star hotel. Perhaps, it was a 4-star one due to its location in the centre of London, not because of its being comfortable. In my room, for example, the windows looked on the inside, completely closed hotel yard and consequently even with the windows open I could hardly breathe. It was stifling hot in the room and, just imagine, no air conditioning at all!

This problem made my room absolutely unfit to have an afternoon rest in and within breaks between performances I went to the park in the nearest neighbourhood which happily turned out to be just the right place to do it. Like in all the English parks it’s quite all right to come and lie down on the grass, wherever you want. With its fresh air, green trees and grass, its beauty, tame squirrels running, the park was much more restful than the hotel room. I happened to fall asleep there once, there, right on the grass, so exhausted I felt.

Our hotel breakfasts were our second problem, being unfortunately far from various: we had to do with fried eggs, coffee, ham and cheese every morning. These breakfasts got me sick and tired in three days, and we couldn’t think of having such breakfast every day during three weeks: we had to go shopping for some food in the evening when performances were over – we bought fruits, meat, and then made sandwiches to have a substantial breakfast. We had dinner at the theatre: we were given three two-pound food stamps per day, but these stamps were not enough so we had to pay our own money to get enough food. Supper was at our own expense. In the evening we were starving and after we had danced a ballet we had to hurry to the shops (which close early) to buy something nourishing...

Our tour was going on well, especially in the beginning, when all of us had enough energy. But by the end of season there was no energy left. We got so tired that this weariness started showing, which couldn’t help slightly affecting the performances. Therefore Ratmansky turned up in the morning class and asked us to pull ourselves together by all means. And we already were complete wrecks, did not feel our legs and arms, and we were at the end of our wits, too, working under such enormous pressure! But then we summoned up all the energy left and we did it! We won the audience, none of our performances went wrong with the public. In the finale they clapped and shouted "Bravo"!

Only after the first act of "Romeo" the spectators were silent, there was a little pause before the audience started to applaud. That pause naturally made us puzzled and a bit nervous over it as we were used to our audience applauding at that moment.

When the second act began we still felt nervous and far from being in tune with the people in the hall. Yet when it came to a close they burst into clapping; they were applauding with a lot of them on their feet, calling us again and again, even throwing bunches of flowers onto the stage, which fell completely out of their habit as we were told. And tellingly, it was the first night of "Romeo" when flowers were thrown onto stage. No one was whistling, no one was booing. And we were surprised to learn that the staging for some reason had got sharply negative reviews from the critics so the ballet turned out to be damned by the critics and adored by the spectators. In one of the reviews, by the way, an odd thing was referred to me: " …this Romeo running around the stage, as a salmon on a barbecue… ". Certainly, everyone has got his own opinion, but we were first of all guided by the audience’s reaction. And they obviously felt sympathetic both with our dancing and the whole piece. It grabbed them. They were watching it with an open mind and didn’t even try to hide their sensation and strain. There was no one in the hall carelessly sitting back and relaxing against the back of his armchair. For the audience it was no entertainment at all.

However, “Spartacus” was the most applauded and triumphant ballet of the four. " The Pharaoh’s Daughter " nicely placed at the end of the tour was also received very warmly. As for " Swan Lake ", it gained a bit less applause, probably, for the simple reason that it followed the cheerful, boisterous and sparkling " Don Quixote ". The revised staging took the British spectators some time and effort to appreciate. Every our soloist got his or her equal share of success, as there were no obvious favourites with the public – every participant was appreciated with utmost benevolence.