Uliana Lopatkina, seen here performing The Dying Swan with Russia's Kirov Ballet, will make her Canadian debut Feb. 10 at the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. (Helena Davis, courtesy Mariinsky Theater/Associated Press)

Uliana Lopatkina, the principal dancer with Russia's Kirov Ballet, will make her Canadian début Feb. 10 at the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

Renowned for her interpretation of Mikhail Fokine's short ballet, The Dying Swan, Lopatkina will perform in The Passion of Russia, an evening of Russian music and dance, at Vancouver's Orpheum Theatre.

She'll be accompanied by Russian viola master Yuri Bashmet, dancers from the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theatres, and the Moscow Soloists, a Grammy-winning ensemble.

The show is one of 36 new programs announced Friday to round out the roster of the Cultural Olympiad.

The 2010 Winter Olympics' cultural festival runs from Jan. 22 to March 21 and includes 186 performances and artistic events. Two have yet to be announced.

On Feb. 20, the Nunavut-based arts collective Artcirq will take the stage at the Squamish-Lil'wat Cultural Centre in Whistler.

Founded in 1998, Artcirq's circus show combines big-top thrills — acrobats, jugglers and clowns — with Inuit throat singers, drummers and traditional games.

New York's STREB Extreme Action troupe will bring its distinctive slam dancing and acrobatics on plywood, steel, glass and other building materials to Vancouver's Roundhouse Feb. 22 to 24.

The Cultural Olympiad also includes performances by the National Dance Company of Korea; the Moscow State Chamber Choir; Quebec's Yelo Molo music group; and three of Canada's best standup comedians, Shaun Majumder, Sean Cullen and Nikki Payne in Laugh It Out.

For more events and details, visit www.vancouver2010.com.