Viktoria Tereshkina: her artistic vision, her busy life

Interview by Deborah Weiss

“My technique? It is just a means of expression“

According to her, the audience shouldn’t notice it, as “technique should not be distinguishable from the
character you portray“. The Mariinsky superstar opens up about her artistic vision, her busy life and the way
she is dealing with the pandemic. Here she explains us why she owes a lot to artistic gymnastics and she
rarely has time to unwind after a show. 

Viktoria Tereshkina is today one of the brightest stars in the Russian ballet firmament. A Principal dancer with the Mariinsky Theatre since 2008, she has a unique way to embody different styles and she is one of the few Russian Principals today able to wholly adapt her physicality to match the needs of each choreography. Even when it comes to not looking Russian-trained.
Born in Krasnoyarsk, in Siberia, Viktoria was trained in artistic gymnastics from the age of four. She started studying ballet when she was ten, and she spent the last three years of her ballet training in St. Petersburg, graduating from the Vaganova Ballet Academy. I reach her in a tough moment, while many countries are dealing with a dramatic second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet she doesn’t sound too worried, and she seems to think the worst is over.