Билетёрша у входа улыбнулась и показала нам дорогу в партер.

Билетёрша means a female ticket attendant or usher, especially in a theater or cinema.

It is the feminine form of билетёр. In this sentence, the person is explicitly female, so the feminine noun is used. Because the subject is feminine, the past-tense verbs are also feminine: улыбнулась and показала.

Both verbs are in the past tense, singular, feminine form.

That happens because the subject is билетёрша, which is:

• singular
• feminine

So:

• улыбнулся = he smiled
• улыбнулась = she smiled

And similarly:

• показал = he showed
• показала = she showed

Russian often leaves out subject pronouns like он, она, они when the subject is already clear.

Here, билетёрша already tells us who did the actions, so adding она would be unnecessary.

English usually needs she smiled, but Russian can simply say улыбнулась once the subject has been stated.

У входа means by the entrance or near the entrance.

The preposition у is commonly used to mean at, by, or near a place/person, and it takes the genitive case.

So:

• вход = entrance
• у входа = by the entrance / at the entrance

This is the natural Russian way to say that someone is standing or located near the entrance.

Because the preposition у requires the genitive.

So:

• nominative: вход
• genitive: входа

That is why we get у входа.

Нам is the dative case of мы.

The verb показать often works like to show someone something. The person receiving the information is in the dative:

• показать нам дорогу = show us the way

So:

• мы = we
• нас = us (often accusative/genitive)
• нам = to us

Here the meaning is basically she showed the way to us, so the dative is used.

Because дорогу is the accusative case, used for the direct object of показала.

She showed what?

• дорогу = the way / the road

So:

• nominative: дорога
• accusative: дорогу

Also, показать дорогу is a common expression meaning to show the way.

Партер means the stalls, orchestra seats, or the main seating area on the ground floor in a theater.

The difference is case and meaning:

• в партер = into/to the stalls → direction of movement
• в партере = in the stalls → location

Here the phrase is about direction: she showed the way to the stalls. That is why в takes the accusative:

• партер is masculine inanimate, so accusative singular looks the same as nominative: партер

Both are perfective:

• улыбнуться = to smile once / to give a smile
• показать = to show, as a completed action

Perfective verbs present the actions as completed events:

• she smiled
• she showed us the way

That fits the sentence well, because it describes two finished actions in sequence.

If imperfective were used, it would suggest an ongoing, repeated, or descriptive action:

• улыбалась
• показывала

That would change the feel of the sentence.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible.

This order is natural because it first introduces the person:

• Билетёрша у входа = the ticket attendant at the entrance

Then it tells what she did:

• улыбнулась и показала нам дорогу в партер

You could rearrange parts of the sentence for emphasis, but the original order is neutral and smooth.

For example:

• У входа билетёрша улыбнулась и показала нам дорогу в партер.

This version emphasizes the location a bit more.

Yes, it is a very common and natural expression.

Показать дорогу means:

• to show the way
• to direct someone

It does not necessarily mean she literally pointed at a road. In context, it means she guided them or indicated how to get to the stalls.

So показала нам дорогу в партер is a normal idiomatic way to say she directed us to the stalls.

The letter ё shows both the pronunciation and the stress:

• билетёрша

The stress falls on ё. In many printed texts, ё is often written as е, but it is still understood as ё from context.

So you may sometimes see:

• билетерша

but it is pronounced билетёрша.