• Prize-winner at the Arabesque 1990 Open Ballet Competition in Perm (2nd prize and prize of the Leningrad Society of Balletomanes for performing two pieces from the classical legacy.
• Prize-winner at the International Ballet Competition in Helsinki (Gold Medal, 1994).
• Prize-winner at the International Ballet Competition in Varna (2nd prize. 1996).
• Prize-winner at the Serge Lifar International Ballet Competition in Kiev (Grand Prix, 1996).
• Prize-winner at the Maya-96 International Ballet Competition in St Petersburg (3rd prize and special prize “For Imagery of Dance special prize”).
• Winner at the festival Classics. Theatre. School (1994);
• Recipient of the Golden Sofit, St Petersburg’s most prestigious theatre prize, in the category “Best male role in ballet” (2006).
• Recipient of the Golden Mask, Russia’s most prestigious theatre prize, in the category “Best male role in ballet” (Akaky Akakievich in “The Overcoat” after Gogol, 2007).
Born in Baku (Azerbaijan).
Graduated from the Byelorussian State School of Dance (class of V. Ye. Glinskikh) in 1990. Soloist with the Choreographic Miniatures St Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theatre from 1990-2001. His repertoire included solo and lead roles in the ballets Giselle, Swan Lake, The Bedbug, Spartacus, Shurale, The Wedding Cortege, Schéhérazade and Vestris among others.
Joined the Mariinsky Ballet Company in 2001.
His repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre includes:
Giselle (Classical Duet);
La Bayadère (Golden Idol);
Swan Lake (Jester, Pas de trois);
Don Quixote (Basilio);
Polovtsian Dances (Polovtsian) – choreography by Michel Fokine;
The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (Nurali);
Spartacus (Retiarius, Dying Slave) – choreography by Leonid Yakobson;
Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio, Jester);
Walpurgisnacht (Pan);
The Legend of Love (Dance of the Jesters);
The Bedbug (Prisypkin);
The Prodigal Son (the Prodigal Son) – choreography by George Balanchine;
Études (Soloist) – choreography by Harald Lander;
Manon (Beggar Chief); choreography by Kenneth MacMillan;
Le Jeune homme et la mort – choreography by Roland Petit;
The Nutcracker (Chinese Dance) – production by Mihail Chemiakin and choreography by Kirill Simonov;
Alexei Ratmansky’s ballets The Little Humpbacked Horse (Tsar) and Cinderella (Spring);
William Forsythe’s ballets Steptext and Approximate Sonata;
Noah D. Gelber’s ballets “The Overcoat” after Gogol (Akaky Akakievich) and The Golden Age (Mr von Klein)
and the pas de deux from the ballet Harlequinade – choreography by Marius Petipa.
First performer of roles in the following ballets at the Mariinsky Theatre: Approximate Sonata, choreography by William Forsythe; The Little Humpbacked Horse (Tsar), choreography by Alexei Ratmansky.
In 1997 he was a guest soloist with the Los Angeles Ballet.
He has frequently appeared at the Stars of World Ballet festival in Donetsk.
As a guest soloist, he has performed the role of Sergei Yesenin in the ballet Yesenin at the St Petersburg State Leonid Yakobson Ballet Theatre (2008).
In 2011 at the Théâtre du Châtelet he performed the lead mime role and created the choreographic text for the stage version of George Frederick Handel’s oratorio The Messiah.
He has toured with the Mariinsky Ballet Company to Europe, Asia and America.
