Vladimir Vasiliev

Vladimir Viktorovich Vasiliev (; born 18 April 1940) is a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer. He was a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet and its director from 1995 to 2000. He was best known for his role of Spartacus and his powerful leaps and turns. He received the People's Artist of the USSR.

Vasiliev was named "God of the dance" and is regarded as a classical dancer on the same level as Rudolf Nureyev, Erik Bruhn and Mikhail Baryshnikov. His first teacher was Elena Romanovna Rosse.

He entered the Moscow Ballet School, commonly known as The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, in 1949 and graduated in 1958. His teachers at the Moscow Ballet School included Aleksey Yermolayev.

Career Principal Dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet 1958 he entered the Bolshoi Ballet and became a principal dancer in 1959. There he received further training and guidance from the renowned ballet masters Alexei Yermolayev, Asaf Messerer, and later Galina Ulanova.

The great male dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov paid tribute to the couple, saying Maximova, with her "elegant build, beauty, virtuosity and even more so her spontaneity and sincerity", was treated like a "rare treasure" by the indomitable Vasiliev. This gave their performances an almost sacred aura, to which audiences gratefully responded.

At the end of the 1990s, he was one of the first ballet directors who recognized the class and the outstanding qualities of Svetlana Zakharova, then principal dancer with the Mariinsky ballet. Svetlana Zakharova became a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet in October 2003.

Vasiliev was dismissed as director of the Bolshoi Theater on 28 August 2000. He created and staged new ballet productions in Russia and abroad, working with companies such as the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and other international theatres.

He also appeared in guest capacities as a teacher, jury member, and artistic advisor within the ballet world and is maintaining an ongoing presence in the Russian and international ballet community. Mathias Heymann, who was promoted to principal dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet in 2009 at only 22 years old, told in an interview that he takes inspiration from watching videos of Rudolf Nureyev, whom he regards as his role model, along with Vasiliev and Baryshnikov.

Russia's influential ballet critic and choreographer Fyodor Lopukhov called Vasiliev "God of the dance" and "A miracle in art, perfection".

Performance style On stage Numerous roles were created for Vasiliev, and he performed throughout the world, usually partnering his wife. Among the most notable were those created by Yury Grigorovich, who gave him the principal roles in his original productions of The Tale of the Stone Flower, Spartacus, The Nutcracker, the ballet version of Ivan the Terrible, Valery Gavrilin's Anyuta (1982), and Yakov Eshpai's Angara (1976). Besides Maximova, Vasiliev's famous partners included Galina Ulanova, Maya Plisetskaya, Alicia Alonso, Carla Fracci, Rita Poelvoorde and Ambra Vallo.

Over the years, Vasiliev has received many of the most prestigious Soviet, Russian and foreign prizes, orders and highest awards including the USSR State Prize, Russian State Prize, Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" 1964 : Grand Prix of Varna at the Varna International Ballet Competition 1993 : Crystal Turandot Award for theatre arts, along with Ekaterina Maximova

Filmography Katia et Volodia: : A Portrait in Dance with Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev, film by Dominique Delouche, 58 min, 1988