The Latvian National Ballet is the only professional ballet company in Latvia. The more than ninety-year history of Latvian ballet has close ties with the finest traditions of the Russian school of classical ballet. In this way, the classical Russian ballet traditions were passed down from generation to generation, and eventually gave the world such ballet stars as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Māris Liepa, and Alexandr Godunov, each of whom trained right here in Riga.