Nikolai Boyarchikov

Boyarchikov, Nikolai (b Leningrad, 27 Sept. 1935). Soviet dancer, choreographer, and ballet director. He studied at the Leningrad Ballet School and graduated in 1954. He danced at the Maly Theatre in Leningrad from 1954 to 1971. From 1971 to 1977 he was artistic director of the ballet company at the Perm State Theatre. In 1977 he became chief choreographer of the Maly Theatre in Leningrad (later renamed the Mussorgsky Theatre). In 1989, following a visit to the American Dance Festival in Durham, N. Carolina, he invited Betty Jones to stage José Limón's modern dance classic There is a Time in Leningrad, an important event in Russian dance. As well as contributing his own ballets to the repertoire, Boyarchikov expanded the Maly's international repertoire. His own ballets are often inspired by classics of Russian literature. A list of his ballets includes The Three Musketeers (mus. V. Basner, Maly Theatre, 1964), The Woodcut Prince or The Wooden Prince (mus. Bartók, Maly Theatre, 1965), The Queen of Spades (mus. Prokofiev, Leningrad Chamber Ballet, 1968), Romeo and Juliet (mus. Prokofiev, Perm, 1972, also West Berlin German Opera, 1974), The Miraculous Mandarin (mus. Bartók, Perm, 1973), Tsar Boris (mus. Prokofiev, Perm Theatre, 1975), Hercules (1980), The Robbers (1983), Macbeth (1984), The Marriage (1986), Quiet Flows the Don (1988), Petersburg (1992).