Yuri Vasilkov

Graduate of Vaganova School in Leningrad (now Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, class of 1968), he was invited to join the company of Mikhailovsky Theatre, where he soon became the soloist and was featured in the leading parts in classical and modern repertoire.

He began teaching at the Vaganova Academy in 1981, and since 1991 has been teaching dance and movement at St. Petersburg Theatre Arts Academy collaborating with master teachers Veniamin Filshtinsky, Lev Dodin, and Yuri Krasovsky. In 1993 has became a repetiteur at the Maly Drama Theatre–Theatre of Europe.

Mr. Vasilkov has been staging choreography and movement for theatre and opera productions in Russia and Europe, most notably at the Maly Drama, the Bolshoi Drama, Atheneum Theatre in Warsaw, Dailes Theatre in Riga, Dutch National Opera, Teatro Comunale in Florence, Paris National Opera and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, collaborating with such directors as Lev Dodin, Veniamin Filshtinsky, Andrzej Bubień and Mikhail Gruzdov.

His credits include more that 100 productions such as Gaudeamus, Claustrophobia, A Play Without a Title, Love’s Labor’s Lost, The Queen of Spades, Salome, Demon and Othello directed by Lev Dodin; Daniel Stein, the Interpreter, Little Judas, On Foot and August. Osage County directed by Andrzej Bubień; Marriage and Venetian Woman directed by Mikhail Gruzdov; Romeo and Juliet directed by Veniamin Filshtinsky; The Winter’s Tale directed by Declan Donnellan.

In 2001 he received Latvian national award ‘Spēlmaņu nakts’.

Yuri Vasilkov's literary work has been published in the Aurora Magazine as well as in Great Britain and in Australia. He has co-authored a book with Veniamin Filshtinsky, and is the author of ballet libretti, including Quietly Flows the Don, Faust and The Moon Princess.