Olga Smirnova (ballet) instrument of her art form", revealing his enthusiasm for her pas de deux with Semyon Chudin at the Royal Opera House. He also acclaimed her roles the same week of Odette-Odile in "Swan Lake". The enthusiasm was reflected by Clement Crisp of the "Financial Times" while Zoë Anderson of "The Independent" was impressed by her performance of Nikiya in "La Bayadère" in which she "carrie[d] the story with aplomb". Olga Smirnova (ballet) Olga Smirnova (born 1991) is a Russian ballet dancer who is currently a prima ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet. She has danced at venues across Europe as well
Ballet of the Nuns Andre Levinson writes, "The academic dance had been an agreeable exercise to watch. Now, [ballet] clarified matters of the soul. Ballet was a divertissement (an entertainment, a distraction). It became a mystery." Kisselgoff writes, "... the preoccupation with the supernatural that characterized so much of 19th-century ballet could be traced to the success of the "Ballet of the Nuns" in Meyerbeer's first production at the Paris Opéra". Ballet of the Nuns Ballet of the Nuns is the first "ballet blanc" and the first romantic ballet. It is an episode in Act 3 of Giacomo Meyerbeer's grand opera, "Robert le diable".