Maxim Zyuzin makes his debut in The Little Humpbacked Horse

Scene from the ballet Giselle

The dancer, who joined the Mariinsky Ballet Company immediately after graduating from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, quickly rose to the rank of second soloist from the corps de ballet, having danced as friends of princes and other lead characters. His ambition to become a principal became clear following his appearance as Alexander in Kirill Simonov’s ballet Glass Heart in 2008, and one year later the dancer made his debut as Prince Siegfried in  Swan Lake. He has subsequently performed the roles of Count Albrecht in  Giselle and Prince Désiré in  The Sleeping Beauty. Last season the dancer appeared in the Russian premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s ballet Without, while on 4 November this season he performed as Romeo in Leonid Lavrovsky’s ballet Romeo and Juliet.

Maxim Zyuzin’s repertoire is rich in contemporary ballet. The role of Ivan the Fool in Alexei Ratmansky’s avant-garde ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse to music by Rodion Shchedrin will be yet another new role for him. Zyuzin has already danced the role of Gavrilo in this ballet, and he is familiar with Ratmansky’s choreographic style from the ballet Cinderella. Ivan the Fool, a character who undergoes numerous changes in the ballet – from a simple village boy to a noble Tsarevich – is a logical continuation of the theme first portrayed by the dancer in the famous Hoffmannesque fairytale role of the Nutcracker Prince which he performed to tremendous acclaim in Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker (production by Mihail Chemiakin and choreography by Kirill Simonov).