The Russian ballet director at Italy's La Scala, Makhar Vaziev, has been appointed as the ballet director at the Bolshoi Theatre.
"People who know the theatre, who know about ballet, know this name well," the Bolshoi general director Vladimir Urin said, presenting Vaziev to journalists, adding that he will take up his new post on March 18th when Filin's contract ends.
Makhar Vaziev was born on June 16th 1961 in Alagir (North Ossetia). He graduated from the Academy of Russian Ballet. From 1995 to 2008, Vaziev was the director of the Kirov Ballet of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, where previously he had been a principal dancer. From 1986 he performed solo parts in such ballets as La Sylphide, Giselle, Le Corsaire, La Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty, the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Raymonda, Don Quixote, Chopiniana, Scheherazade and Carmen.
Under his leadership, such productions as Symphony in C, Serenade, Apollo, the Prodigal Son, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Jewels, Theme and Variations, Waltz, the Four Temperaments, George Balanchine's Ballet Imperial; Spring and Fall, Now and Then, John Neumeier's Sounds of Empty Pages; Cinderella, the Fairy's Kiss, the Poem of Ecstasy, Alexei Ratmansky's Middle Duet; Princess Pirlipat or Punished Nobility, and Mikhail Chemiakin's ballet the Nutcracker.
On January 1st 2009 he took the post of the head of Italy's La Scala in Russia.
IFESCCO executive director, the former general director of the Bolshoi Theatre, Anatoly Iksanov, told Vestnik Kavkaza that "Makhar Vaziev is one of the recognized authorities in the ballet world," noting that he was a great ballet dancer, and then "for a long time headed one of the best classical ballet companies in the world - the Mariinsky Theatre." "Of course, he has gained extensive experience heading Milan's legendary La Scala," the former CEO of the Bolshoi Theater stressed.
According to him, Vaziev will be "a major asset to the Bolshoi Theatre."
"Moreover, I will say that I was negotiating with Mahar Hasanovic about his future work in the Bolshoi Theater, but it did not happen. If it turns out now, I'm just happy for the theater," Anatoly Iksanov admitted.
