Svetlana Zakharova

Zakharova is married to Russian violinist Vadim Repin, and they have one child, daughter Anna (b. 2011). She had withdrawn from the Bolshoi Ballet tour to London in the summer of 2010 citing a hip injury; she was pregnant at the time. Zakharova returned to dancing, and performed in London on 15 May 2011 , in a gala performance celebrating Soviet ballerina Galina Ulanova.

Zakharova was one of the dancers featured in the 2006 documentary Ballerina.

By 2003, Zakharova "was getting itchy feet" at the Mariinsky, and moved to the Bolshoi Ballet. The offer from the Bolshoi company was longstanding, and the departure from the Mariinsky was reportedly due to discontent with that company.

From 1999 on, Zakharova regularly performed as a guest soloist at the Paris Opera where she worked with French choreographer Pierre Lacotte. Lacotte is viewed as a leading authority on classical ballet contributing to the career of Evgenia Obraztsova and Hannah O'Neill. Svetlana Zakharova was the first Russian principal dancer performing in Paris and became a world star as of 2000.

In 1997, after her first year with the Mariinsky, at 18, Zakharova was promoted to principal dancer. Her first partner was principal Igor Zelensky. Olga Moiseyeva was her coach.

After attending the pre-eminent Russian ballet school for one year, Zakharova then joined the Mariinsky ballet in 1996.

Zakharova debuted with the Mariinsky Ballet in 1996, appearing as Maria with Ruben Bobovnikov, in Rostislav Zakharov's The Fountain of Bakhchisarai.

In 1995, after six years at the Kyiv School, Zakharova entered the Young Dancers' Competition (Vaganova-Prix) in St. Petersburg. The youngest contestant, she took second prize and was invited to continue her training in the graduating course of St Petersburg's Vaganova Academy. It was the first time in the school's history to allow a student to skip two grades.

Svetlana Yuryevna Zakharova (Ukrainian: Світлана Юріївна Захарова , Russian: Светлана Юрьевна Захарова ; born 10 June 1979) is a Russian prima ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet and an étoile of the La Scala Theatre Ballet.

Svetlana Zakharova was born in Lutsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, on 10 June 1979 . At the age of six, she was taken by her mother to learn folk dancing at a local studio, and by the age of 10, she had auditioned and was accepted into the Kyiv Choreography School. Valeria Sulegina was one of her teachers.