Ilya Ustyantsev


Choreographer, stage director

• Prize-winner at the Fiestalonia Milenio Festival and Competition (Lloret de Mar, Spain, 2013; 1st prize)
• Recipient of the St Petersburg Youth Prize for Artistic Creativity (2012)
• Prize-winner at the Riga Spring International Choreographers Competition (2012; 1st prize)
• Prize-winner at the Lopukhov Open Choreographers’ Competition (St Petersburg, 2010)
• Prize-winner at the Golden Phoenix International Competition (St Petersburg, 2007; Grand Prix)

Ilya Ustyantsev was born in 1987. In 2009 he graduated from the Dostoevsky Omsk State University with honours, having specialised as a teaching choreographer. In 2015 he graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory, specialising as a choreographer and stage director (class of Georgy Kovtun).

During 2003–2009 Ustyantsev was a ballet soloist of the Omsk State Music Theatre.

As a choreographer Ilya Ustyantsev worked on productions of The Lefthander (2013), Eugene Onegin (2013), The Queen of Spades (2015), A Christmas Tale (2015), Die Fledermaus (2020), The Maid of Orleans (2021) (all staged by Alexei Stepanyuk), L’elisir d’amore (2013) (staged by Alexander Petrov), Adriana Lecouvreur (2017) (staged by Isabelle Partiot-Pieri), The Diary of Anne Frank (2017) (staged by Mstislav Pentkovsky) at the Mariinsky Theatre.
As a choreographer and assistant director Ustyantsev worked on many productions at the Mariinsky Theatre: Carmen (new director’s version of the 2005 production), The Story of Kai and Gerda, Scenes from the Life of Nikolenka Irteniev, White Nights, The Idiot, The Little Prince (all staged by Alexei Stepanyuk) in 2016; Murych the Cat, staged by Alexei Stepanyuk, and Brundibár, staged by Mstislav Pentkovsky, in 2017; The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya, directed by Alexei Stepanyuk in 2022.
At the Mariinsky Theatre he also took part in the preparation of concert programmes of the International Women’s Forum (2015) and the gala opening of the 6th St Petersburg International Cultural Forum (2017).
As a choreographer and assistant director Ustyantsev took part in the production of Eugene Onegin at the Primorsky Opera and Ballet Theatre (since 2016 Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre) (Vladivostok, 2014) and the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania Branch of the Mariinsky Theatre (Vladikavkaz, 2018), as well as Brundibár (2017), Aida (2018) and Die Fledermaus (2021) at the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania Branch of the Mariinsky Theatre, Aida (2019) at the Primorsky Stage.
In 2018 Ustyantsev staged the ballet Tango Without You to Astor Piazzolla’s music at the Mariinsky Theatre branch in Vladikavkaz.
In 2022 he was one of the directors of the reconstruction of the Polish act and the new version of the epilogue of the opera A Life for the Tsar, the adaptation director and choreographer of the opera Don Pasquale (1980 production revival) at the Mariinsky Theatre.
Director and choreographer of new Mariinsky Theatre productions of Die Entführung aus dem Serail (2023) and Sorochintsy Fair (2025), director of the world premiere of the opera Mandragora, which took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in 2025.

Director and choreographer of the rock show Wings of Gryphon (2018) of the Concord Orchestra at St Petersburg’s Ice Palace.

Ustyantsev has collaborated with theatres in St Petersburg, Krasnodar, Novosibirsk and Omsk as well as in Almaty (Kazakhstan).

Teacher and choreographer at the St Petersburg Palace of Studying Youth since 2011, teacher and stage director at the St Petersburg Conservatory since 2016 and at the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia since 2018.
Information for June 2025

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