Igor Anatolyevich Zelensky[a] (Russian: Игорь Анатольевич Зеленский; born 13 July 1969) is a Russian ballet dancer.

Igor Zelensky
Born (1969-07-13) 13 July 1969 (age 55)
Labinsk, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
OccupationBallet dancer
PartnerKaterina Tikhonova
Children1

Early life

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Zelensky was born on 13 July 1969, in Labinsk, Krasnodar Krai, Russian SFSR. He was a principal at the Mariinsky Ballet from 1991 until 2013. He graduated from the Tbilisi School of Ballet (class of Vakhtang Chabukiani) and trained at the Vaganova academy (class of Gennady Selutsky).

Career

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Zelensky was a principal for five years at the New York City Ballet. His roles include Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Siegfried in Swan Lake. He has performed around the world, including with the Royal Ballet in London, at La Scala in Milan, at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and with the New York City Ballet.

Zelensky served as the Artistic Director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre (2006–2015) as well as the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre (2011–2016). From 2016 to 2022, he was the Ballet Director of the Bayerisches Staatsballett;[1][2] he resigned on 4 April 2022 due to "private family reasons" after failing to denounce the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, and was summoned by the German Science and Arts Ministry to explain his links to a cultural heritage foundation tied with the Russian state. Serge Dorny, the general director of Bavarian State Opera, had inadvertently told Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus that Zelensky "didn't make that decision on his own", and said, "We had a conversation, and I brought him to this conclusion."[3][4][5]

Personal life

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Igor Zelensky (3rd from left) with Vladimir Putin in occupied Sevastopol, 2018

Zelensky is reportedly the partner of Katerina Tikhonova, the second daughter of Russian president Vladimir Putin. They reportedly have a daughter, born 2017.[4][3]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Also romanized as Zelenskiy

References

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  1. ^ "Igor Zelensky". Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  2. ^ "Ballettdirektor des Bayerischen Staatsballetts Zelensky tritt zurück [update, 19:00] – neue musikzeitung". nmz (in German). 4 April 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b Oltermann, Philip (19 May 2022). Written at Berlin. "Putin's daughter flew to Munich 'more than 50 times' in two years, leaks reveal". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Investigation Links German Ex-Ballet Director Zelensky with Putin's Daughter". The Moscow Times. 19 May 2022. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  5. ^ "Мюнхенская дочь Владимира Путина". iStories (in Russian). 19 May 2022.
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