After it came time to choose math or ballet, she claimed there was no choice and then admitted herself to a one-year pre-curriculum program at the Vaganova Academy, before embarking on the eight-year course.

She was a prize-winner at the Vaganova-Prix International Ballet Competition in St. Petersburg in 2002, and graduated in 2003 under the class of Lyudmila Safronova.

[1] She began at the Mariinsky Ballet by learning the Swan Lake variations under her teacher at the time, Olga Ivanovna Chenchikova.

She was also coached by Tatiana Terekhova who oversaw her rehearsals of George Balanchine's Symphony in C.[2] Somova rapidly climbed the ranks, being promoted to principal in 2008.

[5] In 2009, for her performance as the Tsar Maiden in the ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse, Somova received a Golden Mask in the Best Female Role category.