Bolshoi Ballet of censorship. It was the first time a show has been pulled in such a way since the collapse of the Soviet Union, sparking rumours about the motivation behind it. Today the Bolshoi Ballet remains one of the world's foremost ballet companies, in addition to being one of the largest, with approximately 220 dancers. The word "bolshoi" means "big" or "grand" in Russian. The company operates on a hierarchical system, similar to those used by other leading European ballet companies, with senior dancers ranked as principals, and descending in order of importance through lead soloist, first soloist, soloist and finally,
Zmei (Russian) Zmei (Russian) A Zmei Gorynich or zmey (), in "Skazka" (Russian folktales) and "Bylina" (epic poetry), is a dragon or serpent, or sometimes a human-like character with dragon-like traits. Zmei Gorynych and Tugarin Zmeyevich are well-known "zmei", and appear as adversaries to the bogatyri (heroes) Dobrynya Nikitich or Alyosha Popovich. The word zmei in Russian is the masculine forms of "zmeya", a feminine noun, meaning "snake". The dragon in Russian folk fiction may be female, in which case she is called "zmeya". The tendency is for the prose folktale versions to have male dragons, and the byliny poetry to have