Nadezhda Gracheva

Born in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, Gracheva studied at the Kazakh Ballet School in Alma-Ata.

In 1986, after winning second prize for the juniors at the International Ballet Competition in Varna, she was admitted to the Moscow College of Choreography where she studied with Sofia Golovkina.

Rehearsed under Galina Ulanova and later Marina Kondratieva, she created the leading roles in the classical repertoire and as well as those in many works by contemporary choreographers.

She quickly became the Bolshoi's leading dancer, earning the title of prima ballerina after dancing Nikiya in the 1991 production of La Bayadère.

[2] In 2023, it was discovered via Alexei Ratmansky’s Instagram that she was writing letters to the Russian soldiers during the Russo-Ukrainian War.