Signed by the author, and Irina Kolesnikova. Beautiful portraits of ballerina Kolosnikova. Irina Kolesnikova was born in Saint Petersburg. In 1998, she graduated from the Vaganova Ballet Academy where she had been studying in the class of Elvira Kokorina. That same year in December, Irina was accepted into Konstantin Tatchkins St Petersburg Ballet Theatre(SPBT) as a soloist where her first teacher was Russias Honoured Artist, Svetlana Efremova. Due to her extraordinary dancing and acting skills, Irina was promoted to principal dancer in 2000 and by 2001 became the companys Prima Ballerina. Her many roles include Odette/Odile, Clara, Aurora, Kitri and Giselle. On the 1st of November 2004, she added Nikiya to her repertoire when the SPBT premiered its latest production, La Bayadere. As a member of the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre, she has toured extensively in Holland, Germany, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. Irina Koles