For the 2010–11 season, Ilinykh/Katsalapov chose a ballet-themed free dance to "Don Quixote": "[Zhulin] wanted us to do something classical Russian, and only very few people have done a real ballet program in dance." Ilinykh's tutu was made at the Bolshoi. They made their senior debut at the 2010 NHK Trophy where they finished fourth. At their next event, 2010 Cup of Russia, they won the bronze medal, their first medal on the senior Grand Prix series. At the 2011 Russian Nationals, they were second after the short dance behind Ekaterina Bobrova / Dmitri Soloviev but placed fourth in the free dance to finish third overall behind Ekaterina Riazanova / Ilia Tkachenko. However, their bronze medal was enough to earn them their first berth to the European Championships.