Yuri Smekalov

Biography

Was born in Nizhny Tagil. In 1998, he graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet (class of Konstantin Shatilov).

From 1998-2009, he was a soloist with the Boris Eifman St Petersburg State Academic Ballet Theatre, where he danced the lead roles in ballets including Don Quixote, or Fantasies of a Madman, Tchaikovsky, The Karamazovs, Red Giselle, Russian Hamlet, Don Juan and Molière, WHO is WHO, Anna Karenina, Requiem, My Jerusalem and The Seagull.

As a guest artist, he has appeared at the Mikhailovsky Theatre (as Spartacus in the ballet of the same name), the Warsaw National Opera (as Tchaikovsky in the ballet of the same name) and at the St Petersburg State Leonid Yakobson Academic Ballet Theatre (as Zeus in the ballet Andro-Geny and in the title part in the Leonid Yakobson’s ballet Spartacus).

In 2009, was invited to join the Mariinsky Theatre.

His repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre includes:
Gurn (La Sylphide; choreography by August Bournonville)
Hans (Giselle)
Birbanto (Le Corsaire)
Princess Aurora’s Suitors (The Sleeping Beauty; choreography by Marius Petipa, version by Konstantin Sergeyev)
Abderakhman (Raymonda; choreography by Marius Petipa, version by Konstantin Sergeyev)
Pierrot (Le Carnaval; choreography by Michel Fokine)
The Moor (Petrouchka; choreography by Michel Fokine)
Ghirei (The Fountain of Bakhchisarai; choreography by Rostislav Zakharov)
Evil Spirit, Ali-Batyr (Shurale; choreography by Leonid Yakobson)
Harmodius, Spartacus (Spartacus; choreography by Leonid Yakobson)
Paris, Tybalt (Romeo and Juliet; choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky)
Bacchus (Walpurgis Night; choreography by Leonid Lavrovsky)
Vizier (The Legend of Love; choreography by Yuri Grigorovich)
Torero, José (Carmen-Suite; choreography by Alberto Alonso)
Emeralds (Jewels; choreography by George Balanchine)
In the Night / choreography by Jerome Robbins
Drosselmeyer (The Nutcracker; production by Mihail Chemiakin and choreography by Kirill Simonov)
Gentleman of the bedchamber, Horses, Seahorses (The Little Humpbacked Horse; choreography by Alexei Ratmansky)
Count Vronsky (Anna Karenina; choreography by Alexei Ratmansky)
Dance Teacher, Male Dance (Cinderella; choreography by Alexei Ratmansky)
Pierrot Lunaire, Three Point Turn / Diana Vishneva: Beauty in Motion
Vernal Waters / choreography by Asaf Messerer
soloist (Le Parc; choreography by Angelin Preljocaj)

Has toured with the Mariinsky Theatre to Europe, Asia and America.

He has worked as a choreographer since 2008. He has staged the following choreographic miniatures and ballets:
Autumn Gold (Verba volant, scripta manent / Words fly away, what is written remains), a project in the memory of Georgy Aleksidze,
Parting (first performers: Yevgenia Obraztsova and Vladimir Shklyarov at the gala concert Malakhov and Friends, Berlin, 2008),
Requiem for Narcissus and Story on the Run (2009), and the ballets Presentiment of Spring and Bolero Factory (2010), in which he himself has danced lead roles.
Yuri Smekalov’s ballets Requiem for Narcissus and Parting have been performed throughout Europe and Asia.

Yuri Smekalov works with the coach Alexei Mishin and he is involved in creating programmes for Russia’s figure skating team. In 2003–2004 he was the choreographer for Yevgeny Plyushchenko’s programmes and, in 2008–2009, he created the programmes Narcissus and The Hermit for figure skater Artur Gachinsky.