The most beautiful ballet couple in Russia told a love story: the Prince brought Masha a frost

They are a really beautiful couple with a pronounced individuality – on stage and in life. Nastya is emotional, impulsive, with a chuckle in her eyes, so similar to stars. And Victor is soft in his movements, outwardly calm. They perfectly complement each other and are happy, like Masha and the Prince in The Nutcracker.

Nastya: It would seem that from year to year we play whole blocks of The Nutcrackers, but due to the fact that this story has different versions and interpretations, and the music is so multifaceted that you can find completely different colors in it, and the performance reveals itself every time new. I never get tired of him. In the choreographic school, I remember, I stood in the Pink Waltz, and I liked the music so much that I smiled all the time, and our tutor thought that I was giggling, secretly a hooligan, and all the time she scolded me for it.

– Have you already danced all the parts in The Nutcracker – from snowflakes and the corps de ballet in the Rose Waltz to the main character?

– As a girl, I danced little Masha at the school, at the theater of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, too. And the pas de trois, where usually small children dance, and soldiers (in Vaganovsky, the boys danced them, and in our Moscow school, the girls). Wherever I just stood – in snowflakes, in an oriental dance. And then in the Bolshoi Theater almost everywhere. And Vitya was immediately a Prince.

Victor: Well, no, at school I was also a soldier, I danced the pas de trois, and only after that the Prince was paired with Olya Smirnova.

– For you, the most magical ballet, fairy tale is connected with something magical? Or is it such a job – to do miracles for others, but for the artists themselves – they are bypassed?

Nastya: It happens in different ways – simple, trouble, or in Don Quixote you have fun, sparkle, and at home our baby has a temperature of 40 below. But all the same, you need to find a fairy tale in yourself, in order to give it to people later. Especially for children. In any case, I like The Nutcracker, especially at the beginning when I can be a child. And the meeting, when the Nutcracker transforms into a handsome Prince, is a touching moment, I enjoy everything: the music in the Grand Adagio, and partners.

But if The Nutcracker is put into the repertoire in the summer, then the performance has a completely different mood. In summer, the words “Christmas Eve” sound a little strange. And in December it really is Christmas Eve, everything is decorated, and the girls in the hall are in beautiful dresses.

Victor: And you yourself run for gifts in order to do everything. Yesterday I had a good day. The entire trunk was filled with gifts.

“Vitya somehow parted everyone: “Well, get up, or something, here”

– And your acquaintance is like a fairy tale? Or did it all start out quite normally?

Victor: Of course it does. I offered Nastya a freeze when she fell on the stage. This happened at a ballet competition here in St. Petersburg, we were still students. Nastya twisted her leg, but no one offered her a frost. Only me.

Nastya: We were 16 at the time. I remember how we were driving from Moscow to the competition in St. Petersburg in Sapsan, everything was so serious, and the teachers told us that the Vaganov Academy is the best school in Russia, that there is such competition. “In St. Petersburg everyone is such an intriguer,” they told us. – Everyone wishes you harm. And in general, behave decently.

– And in Moscow, then, all the bunnies? White and fluffy.

– We are so intimidated that we come to the rehearsal, and there is Vitya: he has piercings, tattoos, and not ballet shoes, but healthy leggings. And this is the best school in Russia?! In Moscow, we have draconian methods about appearance – no nail polish, not even pink. Washed right there, if someone put on makeup. And here – piercings, tattoos, and he is still rehearsing in trousers. But then, when Vitya changed into a prince, and even offered me a freeze … This is such a spray.

– Vit, tell me honestly, did you fall in love with Nastya at first sight?

“Then no.

Nastya: He’s just a very kind person. It was exactly the same when I came to the Mikhailovsky Theater for a lesson on the first day, and there were my own laws. For example, on the classics, each machine has its own place, and others, especially brand new ones, cannot stand on it. Well, I sat down on the edge, and some middle-aged lady came up to me and asked: “Girl, who are you?” I was so confused… And the lesson had already begun. And Vitya (he was on duty that day) somehow parted everyone: “Well, get up, or something, here.” And since then no one has touched me.

– Wow ballet hazing. Vitya, are you an authority in law?

— No, I went through it myself, I know what it is.

– Is everything really so tough in the ballet, in the castle of beauty, behind the scenes?

Nastya: Not now, but when I arrived, it was. In general, I must say, this is actually not bad, it instills respect for the place where you are. Ten years ago, for example, it was impossible to come to the theater and not say hello to the elders. Or scatter your belongings so that it would be impossible for any artist to lie down to rest on the couch. In this case, your things would be simply thrown out the window – in the truest sense of the word. And at corps de ballet rehearsals: if because of you alone 29 people will repeat the same thing, you are finished.

“I thought it was only worse in the army.

– I don’t think. In the army, at least you can not smile.

“Oh, he knows me”

Victor: And then everything went differently. Mikhail Grigorievich (M. G. Messerer – chief choreographer of the Mikhailovsky Theater in 2009 – 2018 – M.R.) wanted Nastya to work in Mikhailovsky, but she remained in the Bolshoi.

Nastya: And when I worked for the third year at the Bolshoi, my teacher Lyudmila Ivanovna Semenyaka persuaded me to participate in the Moscow ballet competition, but I didn’t really want to. In general, I went to the competition, but the partner we were counting on decided to dance with another girl. And then Lyudmila Ivanovna remembered Vitya, whom she had seen earlier at a competition in Krasnoyarsk. “You should call this boy. You will look perfect, ”she told me. She always looked for harmony in a duet.

– And you called him?

— No, I was afraid, shy. Already working at the Bolshoi, I accidentally ended up in St. Petersburg and came to the performance on a service ticket. She sat down in her place, and next to him was Vitya. And I still don’t know if it was an accident or a set up? Vitya is not recognized.

— Kolis, Vitya!

– Well I do not know. I then had a block of four “Swans” in a row, and Mikhail Grigorievich decided to give one to another artist to dance. And for some reason he asked me to come to the auditorium, he said: “You can at least look at a white picture, and you can leave.”

Nastya: And Vitya, when I sat down next to me, immediately asked me: “Are you Nastya Soboleva?” “Oh, he knows me. I shouldn’t have called him then,” I thought. And he: “Well, why are you sitting there (in the Bolshoi, that means)? Would work for us. Maybe I would even dance with you.”

And during the intermission, Mikhail Grigorievich offered me to stay and work in Mikhailovsky. I was in a great emotional shock from this – I did not know what to do and could not continue to watch the performance. And now I’m here, and I even dream about it. You know, it seems to me that this is fate, which all the time led us towards each other.

– Thanks to Mikhail Grigorievich. What if he hadn’t arranged places for you nearby?

Victor: There would be other ways. But in the end we sat together. And everything’s good.

– Have you already been a couple on the Bolshoi Ballet program?

– No. Although everyone thinks that it was at the Bolshoi Ballet that we were already together.

“On stage, almost all the roles are treacherous”

– At what point did that click occur when you realized that Nastya is your destiny?

Victor: I don’t know, something clicked all the time.

Nastya: I can tell you: I’m already working at Mikhailovskoye, we are dancing together, and somehow Vitya says that, in general, he is serious, he is thinking of getting married – it’s time for him. And I, fool, didn’t even take his words at my own expense, I kept giggling: “Where are you going, ha ha! Where would you like to get married?”

And he was so offended that he even stopped talking to me. A week goes by, then another, and I realize that he turns out to be a huge part of my life. I’m happy – Victor is near, sad – Victor is near. I need something – Vitya is nearby …. And now he is gone, and I feel bad.

– Did the experience of ballet love come in handy in life?

– Yes, how can I say … Almost all my roles on stage are treacherous: in Swan Lake I betray, in La Bayadère I betray, in Giselle and in La Sylphide the same thing. But in life I try not to betray. In May, Nastya and I started dating, in August I proposed to her. In general, five years have passed since the moment I brought her a frost.

– Did you do it on stage? This is now a trend among actors, and the public is basking in the fact that they are involved in the personal life of idols.

– Just not on stage! For me it looks kinda weird. We work on stage and it’s so personal. Well, it’s all the same, as if Nastya gave birth to a child on stage. I proposed to her in Bulgaria, in a hotel on the balcony. By the way, we filed an application with the registry office three times – they did not take it from us for various reasons. And Nastya’s parents also did not take an application three times.

“You are so beautiful, and I can buy you beautiful things”

Nastya: In life, Vitya rarely comes out with bright, strongly negative emotions or even rage. But if someone offends me, his face changes. Ready to rush with the sword like a Prince. I want to say that he has the qualities of noble knights.

Victor: If they hurt me, I don’t care. And if Nastya is hurt or my son … I will not restrain myself. I can destroy… verbally.

Nastya: But he is courteous to girls, to women. He tries to patronize his sister, respectfully treat my mother.

– Time to buy and give gifts. Who is in charge of housekeeping in your home?

Victor: This is for me. I am a shopaholic, I buy clothes for Nastya. I gave her a dress (it was floor-length and all in sequins) so that she would wear it to my gala concert. And now I’m buying for our son too, I can’t pass by without buying Vova some sandals or fashionable sneakers.

– Would you like your son to do ballet?

Victor: I – yes!

Nastya: But not me.

– But why?

– Because everyone will compare Vova with his dad. And it’s difficult.

“And if the boy surpasses his father?”

Victor: That’s what I tell Nastya all the time.

Nastya: Yesterday, when Vitya arrived from the store, he said: “Thank God that you are so beautiful with me, and I can buy beautiful things for you. And everything suits you.” Vitya really dresses me, but I hate shopping, I get tired there.

Victor: I do not like to do it for a long time, I hate to measure something. I like to buy quickly, buy … and I have never made a mistake.