Permanent makeup artist of the Mikhailovsky Theatre
For more than 30 years Elena Karsten has been preparing dancers to go on stage. Elena does makeup of the most varied complexity: from Fairy Carabosse from “The Sleeping Beauty” and the Brahmin from “La Bayadère” to Rothbart from “Swan Lake” and the Tsar from “The Little Humpbacked Horse”.
Despite her high professionalism, one of her duties is to lift the mood of the dancer, regardless of what happened before. She worked with such ballet idols as Farukh Ruzimatov, Nikita Dolgushin, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Roberto Bolle, Nacho Duato and others. Elena did hairstyles, did makeup, prepared for the stage and tuned many of our favorite artists for a specific role, such as Ivan Vasiliev, Ivan Zaytsev, Denis Rodkin, Vladimir Shklyarov, Kimin Kim and others.
“The make-up artist at the Mikhailovsky Theatre is also a psychologist, maybe even first by profession, and then a make-up artist,” jokes Elena. “The artists come to me and sit in my chair right before going on stage, before the start of the performance. It’s so important to lift their spirits and convince them that they are the best in this world.”
Despite her high professionalism, one of her duties is to lift the mood of the dancer, regardless of what happened before. She worked with such ballet idols as Farukh Ruzimatov, Nikita Dolgushin, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Roberto Bolle, Nacho Duato and others. Elena did hairstyles, did makeup, prepared for the stage and tuned many of our favorite artists for a specific role, such as Ivan Vasiliev, Ivan Zaytsev, Denis Rodkin, Vladimir Shklyarov, Kimin Kim and others.
“The make-up artist at the Mikhailovsky Theatre is also a psychologist, maybe even first by profession, and then a make-up artist,” jokes Elena. “The artists come to me and sit in my chair right before going on stage, before the start of the performance. It’s so important to lift their spirits and convince them that they are the best in this world.”
