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Valery Vaseilievich Lantratov
Born April 24, 1958; Moscow,
USSR
(currently Russia)
Valery Lantratov (Valeri Lantratov,
Walerij Lantratov, Valeriy Lantratov, Валерий
Лантратов),
ballet dancer and general director of the Russian National Ballet Foundation.
A graduate of the Moscow Academic Choreographic
College, Lantratov was selected as a first soloist with the State Musical
Theater K. Stanislavski and V. Nemirovich-Danchenko (Moscow Stanislavski
Ballet). With the theater, he danced principal roles in such ballets as Don
Quixote, Coppélia,
Cinderella
and Romeo
and Juliet.
In 1991, he was one of eight soloists in Rudolf
Nureyev's "Farewell Tour" of the United Kingdom. During an
engagement of this tour in Sunderland, England, The Chicago Sun Times reported
that the music broke down during a solo "leaving... Lantratov dancing to
silence."
In 1993, Lantratov began working for the Kremlin
Ballet. There he danced the role of Napoleon
Bonaparte in the ballet Napoleon, Ruslan in a production Ruslan
and Ludmilla directed by A. Petrov, Basil in Don Quixote, production by Vladimir
Vasiliev, Tibald in Romeo and Juliet by U. Grigorovich, and Coppelius in
Koppelia, production by A. Petrov.
This same year, Lantratov formed the Russian
National Ballet Foundation, a Moscow-based charitable organization with
the purpose of promoting the traditional art of the Russian classical ballet
and providing aesthetic education. Its creation was supported by the Moscow
Actors’ Charitable Foundation under the guidance of Galina
Ulanova and the Stanislavsky
and Nemorovich-Danchenko Moscow Musical Theater.
In 1986 Lantratov was awarded the title
"Honored Artist of Russia," and in 1997 Russian president Boris
Yeltsin named Lantratov “People’s Artist of Russia,” the Russian
Federation's highest artistic honor.
Lantratov has appeared in the United States as
a guest artist with the Portland
Ballet and Boston
Ballet and was a guest instructor with the Boston Ballet. From 2000-2003
Lantratov directed one of two touring companies for SMI, Inc's Moscow
Ballet and danced the role of Drosselmeier in the company's "Great
Russian Nutcracker" production. "Valery Lantratov's Drosselmeier is
young, vibrant and full of explosive energy," wrote reviewer Nancy
Johnson. "The mischief in his eyes reaches the back of the house."
In 2004, however, he publicly split with Moscow Ballet's U.S.-based production
company.
In 2004, Lantratov premiered the role of Czar
Nicholas II in the ballet Rasputin staged by the New
Imperial Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. The ballet, which
featured Farouk
Ruzimatov in the role of Rasputin,
drew protests from Orthodox Catholics. Nicholas II was canonized by the
Russian Orthodox Church in 2000. The protestors objected to the depiction of a
saint in ballet and especially to the concept of Nicholas II costumed in
tights. Lantratov appeared on Russian television with his costume to show that
he would not wear tights in the production.
Lantratov is the father of Vladislav Lantratov
of the Bolshoi
Ballet.
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