Oleg Vinogradov (Choreography) Soviet dancer, choreographer, and ballet director. He studied at the Leningrad
Ballet School, a student of Aleksandr Pushkin, graduating in 1958. He joined the
Novosibirsk company (1958-65) as a character dancer, and there began his career
as a choreographer by making ballets for opera productions, as well as acting as
assistant ballet master to Petr Gusev. His first important ballet stagings were
Prokofiev's Cinderella (1964) and Romeo and Juliet (1965), fresh
and radical productions which brought him much attention throughout Russia. In
1967 the Bolshoi Ballet invited him to stage Asel (mus. V. Vlasov) and in
1968 the Kirov asked him to stage Goryanka (Mountain Girl, mus. M.
Kashlaiev). From 1968 to 1972 he was a choreographer with the Kirov and from
1973 to 1977 he was artistic director and chief choreographer of the Maly
Theatre Ballet in Leningrad, where his experimentation did much to restore the
theatre's reputation for innovation and daring. In 1977 he returned to the Kirov
as artistic director and chief ballet master, where his first act was to fire
more than half of the dancers, most of whom were of pensionable age. During
almost twenty years at the helm of the Kirov he revivified the company: he
brought in younger dancers, broadened the repertoire and opened it to foreign
choreographers like Petit, Bйjart, and Balanchine, and imposed a strict
aesthetic on the look and style of his dancers. The company toured abroad
frequently, spending more time on the road than in its home theatre, and critics
later complained that productions were becoming stale. Vinogradov maintained the
company's proud heritage repertoire and introduced many exciting young dancers
to an international public. In 1997 his directorship ended when Kirov Opera
director Valery Gergiev took over the ballet company as well. From 1998
Vinogradov directed the Universal Ballet in Seoul. A list of his works includes
Alexander Nevsky (mus. Prokofiev, Kirov, 1969), La Fille mal
gardйe (mus. Hйrold, Maly Theatre Ballet, 1971), The Enchanted
Prince, or Prince of the Pagodas (mus. Britten, Kirov, 1972),
Yaroslavna (mus. B. Tishenko, Maly Theatre Ballet, 1974), The Fairy of
the Rond Mountains (mus. Grieg, Kirov, 1980), The Government
Inspector (mus. A. Tchaikovsky, 1980), Testaments of Past Times (mus.
various, Kirov, 1983), The Knight in Tigerskin (mus. Machavarian, Kirov,
1985), Battleship Potemkin (mus. Tchaikovsky, Kirov, 1986),
Petrushka (mus. Stravinsky, Scottish Ballet, 1989), and Adagio
(mus. S. Barber, Kirov, 1991).
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