Russian prima ballerina, most recognized for her work as a principal Dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow.
When she was five, her mother took her to a performance of The Nutcracker; after she left the theatre, she claimed to tell her mother that she could not imagine doing anything else with her life besides dance.
She was mired in controversy after the Boshoi Ballet fired her for allegedly gaining too much weight.
Her daughter, Ariadna, was born in 2005.
She and Galina Ulanova are two of the most famous ballet Dancers in Russia.
