State Opera Rousse Ballet

The ballet company of State Opera Ruse performs both the classical repertory and works by Bulgarian and contemporary choreographers. Its productions have included Giselle, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, alongside Krasimir Kyurkchiyski's The Goat Horn and Emil Tabakov's Calliope. Choreographers associated with the company include Asen Manolov, Margarita Arnaudova, Hikmet Mehmedov and Antal Fodor. Mariyana Zaharieva served for many years as ballet master, and Silvia Tomova became artistic director after 2013. The company's touring activity has taken it to countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France and South Korea. Opera houses in Bulgaria keep permanent ballet companies, and the house on the Danube at Ruse is no exception. Its dancers carry the classical repertoire that a regional theatre is expected to have on hand and take part in the larger projects the house mounts, among them the staged world premiere of Nikolo Kotzev's rock opera "Nostradamus" — a homecoming for a composer born in the city.