Before the Dance (Yevgeni Balakshin, 2000)
I post this for my new acquaintance Bill Jones. He mentioned that he had a Russian painting with a ballerina as the subject that he enjoyed, so, I post a companion work for you, Bill. He and Lisa Towers have an excellent site called A Daily Column on Painting, it is listed on the blogroll. Do give it a look, because their viewpoints as practising artists differ from mine, as I am only a life-long art lover, not a serving soldier in the artistic trenches.