It’s so hard to say why a performer speaks to you, isn’t it? When I started my YouTube ballet adventure, armed with absolutely no knowledge whatsoever, everyone I watched seemed equally amazing. Even then, though, there were dancers who astounded me with what they could do with their bodies, but never really drew me in, and others who I found myself re-watching in odd moments on the train, in my lunchbreak, queuing for my coffee.

So I’m not sure what it was about Uliana Lopatkina that grabbed me and made me want to watch her over and over. I didn’t – and still don’t, shamefully – know enough to tell you what might be special about her technique. It could be that to this newbie, she seemed like the archetype of a ballerina: serious, emaciated, Russian. Or her status. I’m certain that there is something about a dancer approaching the…