Natalia Osipova, a principal of The Royal Ballet, danced a programme of duets by Ratmansky, Khan and Strømgren in the intimate Linbury Theatre.
Natalia Osipova danced a programme of duets in the Linbury Theatre at the Royal Opera House from Monday 10 November to Saturday 15 November 2025, the second Linbury evening built around her.
Born in Moscow in 1986, Osipova trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and joined the Bolshoi at eighteen, rising to principal in 2010. She left in 2011, danced with American Ballet Theatre and the Mikhailovsky Ballet, and joined The Royal Ballet as a principal in 2013, making her debut with the company in Romeo and Juliet that November.
The programme returned two pieces from the first Linbury run. Jo Strømgren’s The Exhibition, a duet for two strangers who meet in a gallery, was danced with the guest artist Christopher Akrill, and a film of Frederick Ashton’s Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan, shot at Alexandra Palace, played again.
Akram Khan’s Mud of Sorrow, a duet from his Sacred Monsters with Sylvie Guillem, was new for 2025, and Alexei Ratmansky’s Middle Duet, first made in 1998, appeared in a revised version with a score by Philip Feeney. Patricio Revé partnered Osipova in both duets, and in Middle Duet Katie Robertson and Blake Smith played a young couple, with Rain De Rye Barrett and Damien Lee Stirk as a white and a black angel. The evening ran for 1 hour 40 minutes with one interval.