Vladimir Vasiliev (dancer) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Vladimir Vasiliev
|
|
|---|---|
Vasiliev in 1972
|
|
| Born |
Vladimir Viktorovich Vasiliev
18 April 1940 |
| Education | Moscow Ballet School |
| Occupation |
|
| Spouse(s) |
Ekaterina Maximova
(m. 1961; died 2009) |
| Former groups | Bolshoi Ballet |
Vladimir Viktorovich Vasiliev (Russian: Владимир Васильев; born 18 April 1940) is a famous Soviet and Russian ballet dancer and choreographer. He was a main dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet and later its director from 1995 to 2000. He was especially known for his role as Spartacus and for his amazing leaps and turns. People called him "God of the dance" because he was so talented. Many consider him one of the greatest classical dancers ever, alongside stars like Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Vladimir Vasiliev and his wife, Ekaterina Maximova, were a very famous ballet couple in Russia. They were often called the "golden couple" of Russian ballet.
Contents
Early life and training
Vasiliev was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1940. His father was an engineer. When he was seven years old in 1947, Vladimir joined a ballet group for kids. He stayed there for two years. His first ballet teacher was Elena Romanovna Rosse.
In 1947, he also started studying at the Moscow Ballet School. This school is also known as The Bolshoi Ballet Academy. He finished his training there in 1958. After graduating, he joined the famous Bolshoi Ballet company. One of his teachers at the school was Aleksey Yermolayev.
Career highlights
Becoming a principal dancer
Vasiliev quickly became a top dancer at the Bolshoi Ballet. He was promoted to a principal dancer in 1959. This was only his second year with the company.
Dancing with Ekaterina Maximova
Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maximova were both principal dancers. They were known as the "dream couple" of the Bolshoi Ballet. They first danced together in 1949 when they were classmates. They got married in 1961.
When they performed in New York City in 1959, a dance critic named Anna Kisselgoff wrote about how exciting it was. She said they were "the greatest of the passionate young dancers" who helped make the Bolshoi Ballet's first American tour a huge success.
In 1969, the Bolshoi Ballet toured London. Their performance of the ballet Spartacus was a big hit. A famous critic, Richard Buckle, wrote that Maximova's dancing could "melt any tyrant's heart."
Mikhail Baryshnikov, another great male dancer, praised the couple. He said Maximova was like a "rare treasure" because of her beauty, skill, and honest performances. He added that Vasiliev treated her with great care, which made their dances feel very special to the audience.
Vasiliev and Maximova also appeared in a film. They danced in Franco Zeffirelli's movie version of Giuseppe Verdi's opera La traviata in 1983. In the film, Vasiliev played a matador in Spanish costumes.
A French director, Dominique Delouche, made a film about them in 1988 called “Katia et Volodia.”
In 2008, the Bolshoi Theatre held a special festival. It celebrated Maximova and Vasiliev's 50 years of dancing on the Bolshoi stage. During this time, Vasiliev shared a secret about dancing with a partner. He said the man should never get in the way of the woman. He believed the woman is the most important person on stage. He also said his wife inspired him throughout his life because of her beauty and her hard work.
Their marriage lasted for 50 years. Ekaterina Maximova passed away in 2009. They did not have any children.
Leading the Bolshoi Ballet
In March 1995, Vladimir Vasiliev was chosen to be the General and Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Theatre. He took over after the previous director, Yury Grigorovich, left.
As director, Vasiliev started many important projects. For example, he arranged for the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Ballet companies to exchange performances in 1998. He also started the first-ever New Year Ball at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1999. He also helped create the International Club of the Bolshoi Friends.
In the late 1990s, he was one of the first ballet directors to see the amazing talent of Svetlana Zakharova. She was a principal dancer with the Mariinsky ballet at the time. Svetlana Zakharova later became a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet in October 2003.
Vasiliev was no longer the director of the Bolshoi Theater on August 28, 2000. He found out about it by hearing it on the radio.
Working as a choreographer
After leaving the Bolshoi, Vasiliev continued to create new ballets. He premiered a ballet called Lungo Viaggio Nella Notte di Natale in Rome. He still works as a choreographer, creating and staging new dance performances.
Legacy and influence
Vladimir Vasiliev is not as well known in Western countries as some other famous male dancers. This is because he mostly stayed and worked in the Soviet Union. However, his dancing is considered just as good as that of Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Many dancers look up to him. For example, Mathias Heymann, a principal dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet, said he gets inspiration from watching videos of Vasiliev, Nureyev, and Baryshnikov.
A very important Russian ballet critic and choreographer, Fyodor Lopukhov, called Vasiliev "God of the dance." He also described him as "A miracle in art, perfection."
Performance style
On stage roles
Many ballet roles were created especially for Vasiliev. He performed all over the world, usually dancing with his wife. Some of his most famous roles were in ballets created by Yury Grigorovich. These included the main parts in The Tale of the Stone Flower, Spartacus, The Nutcracker, and Ivan the Terrible. He also danced in Anyuta (1982) and Angara (1976). Besides Maximova, Vasiliev also danced with other famous ballerinas like Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya.
Dancing style
Vasiliev had a very strong body, which helped him perform powerful moves. He made a huge impact on how male dancers performed in classical ballet. He helped define the strong, new style of male dancing at the Bolshoi.
In the 1988 film “Katia et Volodia,” Vasiliev explained his approach to dance. He said, "At the beginning we do things only as we have seen them done. Afterwards, we do them with what we find inside ourselves." This shows how he put his own feelings and ideas into his performances.
Awards and recognition
Vladimir Vasiliev was the first dancer to receive "The Gold Medal of the World's Best Dancer." He is also the only dancer to win the Grand Prix award at the Varna International Ballet Competition. He won this award at the very first competition in 1964.
Over the years, Vasiliev has received many important awards from Russia and other countries. These include the USSR State Prize, the Russian State Prize, and the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland". He also received awards from France, Lithuania, Brazil, and the UNESCO Pablo Picasso Medal.
Key awards
- 1959: Gold Medal, Festival of Youth, Vienna
- 1964: Grand Prix of Varna at the Varna International Ballet Competition
- 1993: Crystal Turandot Award for theatre arts, shared with Ekaterina Maximova
Film appearances
- Katia et Volodia: A Portrait in Dance with Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev, a film by Dominique Delouche, 1988.
See also
In Spanish: Vladímir Vasíliev (bailarín) para niños
- List of Russian ballet dancers
