“From unpromising beginnings as a gawky young dancer, Uliana Lopatkina has become the greatest ballerina in Russia today, and a national legend… Russian ballet had been known for its small, delicate women, but the then Kirov director Oleg Vinogradov was mad about Sylvie Guillem and eagerly started unearthing tall new girls in her image – his ‘basketball team’, as they were known.” A decade on, Lopatkina is changing the face – and the body type – of classical ballet in Russia and beyond, but she remains quite conservative in her choice of roles, as well as in her assessment of what a dancer with her body can (or should) attempt.