Oleg Vinogradov

Oleg Mikhailovich Vinogradov (; born 1 August 1937) is a Russian former dancer, choreographer and ballet director. He graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet under Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin and went on to become a choreographer, working with some of the Soviet Union's most important ballet companies, including the Kirov Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet. In the early 1970s he was artistic director and chief choreographer at the Maly Theatre Ballet, and became artistic director of the Kirov Ballet in 1977. During this period, relations between the Soviet Union and the United States grew warmer, and the Kirov Ballet embarked on several US tours for the first time in decades. Vinogradov became the first Soviet ballet master to invite Maurice Béjart and Roland Petit to stage works for the Kirov, and also helped to bring authorized productions of George Balanchine's ballets to Russia for the first time. He was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1983.

Early career Oleg Vinogradov was born in Leningrad on 1 August 1937. At the age of 20 he graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, then called the Leningrad Choreographic School, where he studied under Aleksandr Pushkin. Between 1958 and 1965, Vinogradov was a character dancer with a company in Novosibirsk. He later began choreographing short ballet scenes for operas. He staged several ballets as an assistant ballet master to Pyotr Gusev, including Prokofiev's Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet in 1964 and 1965 respectively.

His first two stagings of classic Prokofiev ballets were well received in Russia and he was invited to stage two productions for Russia's largest ballet companies: the Bolshoi Ballet and the Kirov Ballet. In 1967, he staged a relatively unknown ballet called Asel, with music by Vladimir Vlasov, for the Bolshoi, and in 1968 he staged Goryanka for the Kirov. He received a position with the Kirov as a choreographer and in 1973 he became the artistic director and chief choreographer of the Maly Theatre Ballet. The company toured with only 39 dancers in 1987, performing excerpts rather than full-length ballets. The choreographers represented on this tour included Boris Eifmann, Dmitry Bryantsev and an excerpt from Béjart's Notre Faust.

The Kirov Ballet had never performed any Balanchine ballets prior to 1989. The Balanchine Trust only allows Balanchine's works to be performed when the staging is supervised by a ballet master who has been trained in the "Balanchine style". Vinogradov helped bring authorized productions of Balanchine's ballets to Russia for the first time.

Vinogradov also became the first Soviet ballet master to invite Maurice Béjart and Roland Petit to stage works for the Kirov.

The Kirov Academy of Ballet The Kirov Academy of Ballet, formerly called the Universal Ballet Academy (UBA), opened in Washington DC in 1990. The Gorbachov era policy of glasnost made it possible for Vinogradov to retain his position as artistic director of the Kirov Ballet in Russia, and also spend four months per year in the United States to serve as director of UBA. Though not a teacher at the school himself, Vinogradov appointed four Russian teachers to teach a curriculum based on the Russian Vaganova syllabus: Ludmila Sakharova, Nikolai Morozov, Ludmilla Morkovina and Azari Plissetski.

Post-Kirov Vinogradov's style of directorship proved controversial and in 1997 Valery Gergiev took over directorship of the ballet theatre.