Throwback Thursday and Vladimir Vasiliev
Born in 1940 as Volodya Vasiliev, he and a friend joined the Kirov House of Pioneers and began dancing with an amateur ballet group. His first teacher there was Elena Romaovna Rosse. Vasiliev credits her for “his whole life”. She told his mother that he must go to the Bolshoi Choreographic School, and he did, enrolling in 1949.
He joined the Bolshoi in 1958 and began to really polish his technical skills, becoming a principal dancer a year later in 1959. Numerous roles were created for him, and he traveled the world, often partnering his wife, Ekaterina Maximova. Their marriage was long – 50 years – lasting until Maximova died in 2009.
Probably Vasiliev’s most famous role was in the ballet Spartacus, where the power and amplitude of his technique was displayed. Although he was not as well known in the west as dancers like Baryshnikov and Nureyev, he was just as accomplished and did much to influence the development of classical ballet.
In 1995 he became the General and Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Theatre, following Yuri Grigorovich. In August of 2000, he was dismissed from his position.
From the Big Blue Book of Ballet Secrets:
Dance History Factoid #145:
“ Vladimir Vasiliev is a famous
Russian ballet dancer who is sometimes called God of the Dance.”
Link of the Day:
Quote of the
Day:
“You
see — at the beginning we do things only as we have seen them done. Afterwards,
we do them with what we find inside ourselves.”
-Vladimir
Vasiliev
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