Career
Since 1986, she has been with the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet where she is a principal dancer. Born in Leningrad, she trained under Marina A. Vasilieva at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, graduating in 1985. Her repertoire has included the major classical ballets as well as works choreographed by George Balanchine including Theme and Variations, Scotch Symphony, Apollo, The Prodigal Son and Symphony in C. Makhalina"s role debuts with the Kirov/Mariinsky included Myrtha (1986) and the title role (1991) in Giselle, Medora (1987) in Le Corsaire, Odette/Odile (1987) in Swan Lake, Gamzatti (1988) and Nikiya (1990) in Louisiana Bayadère, Kitri (1989) in Don Quixote, Lilac Fairy (1989) in Sleeping Beauty, title role (1994) in Raymonda, and Countess of Elba (1996) in Goya Divertissement.
She has also performed the title roles in Roland Petit"s Carmen and in Kenneth MacMillan"s Manon.
Exotic roles have included Zobeide in Scheherazade and Death in The Youth and Death, while supporting roles have included the evil stepmother in Cinderella. She has also performed as a soloist at the Royal Danish Ballet, Berlin"s Deutsche Oper, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and at the Paris Opera.
In Moscow"s Bolshoi Theatre, she has danced in Swan Lake, Louisiana Bayadère and The Firebird. In 2014, it was announced that Makhalina would return to Montreal"s "Gala des Étoiles du ballet russe", known as "Don des Étoiles" in 1988 when she first appeared at the event.
With a repertoire of 40 roles, Makhalina also has outside interests in areas such as architecture and nature.