Maria Allash

Born in Moscow, then part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in the Soviet Union, Allash joined the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, under the tutelage of Professor Sofia Golovkina.

The following year she appeared as the Dryad ruler in Don Quixote, as Countess Cherry in Cipollino, as Mirta in Giselle and as Aegina in Spartacus.

Allash has gone on to appear in a number of ballet productions, including La Bayadère, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Raymonda, Mozartiana, The Legend of Love, The Little Humpbacked Horse, Symphony in C, The Golden Age, A Midsummer Night's Dream, La Esmeralda, Paquita and Jewels.

She again performed in Krasnoyarsk in 2007, once more in La Bayadère, this time as Nikiya, and as Aegina in Spartacus, choreographed by Yury Grigorovich.

Later that year she performed at a gala concert at the Royal Opera House in London in honour of the 80th birthday of Yury Grigorovich.