Mikhail Messerer – Principal Guest Ballet Master of the Mikhailovsky Theatre

By agreement with Nacho Duato, Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet, Mikhail Messerer has been entrusted, in particular, with controlling the quality of the classical productions in the current repertoire.

Mikhail Messerer, one of the most in-demand ballet teachers and a skilled choreographer/restorer, has been working with the Mikhailovsky Theatre since 2008, when he was invited to take part in the preparations for the ballet company’s first appearance in London. He has been the theatre’s Ballet Master in Chief since May 2009. He has restored ballets from the classical body of work: Swan Lake (choreography by Alexander Gorsky and Asaf Messerer, premiere 14 September 2009) and Laurencia (choreography by Vakhtang Chabukiani, premiere 5 June 2010); he has also staged the choreographic miniatures Spring Waters (choreography by Asaf Messerer), Ocean and Pearls (choreography by Alexander Gorsky) and Polonaise and Cracovienne (choreography by Rostislav Zakharov). Mikhail Messerer also made a hugely important contribution to the preparations for the ballet company’s highly successful second London tour in summer 2010. His acknowledged talent as a teacher has assisted the rapid increase in the ballet company’s professionalism.

Mikhail Messerer’s plans for the near future include a production of the celebrated Class Concert, which has already been included in the programme for the theatre’s New York tour in June 2012. The dramatized ballet exercise, in which virtuoso combinations grow out of elementary movements, demonstrates the endless possibilities of the classical school of dance and shows the work which lies behind a ballet production and which the audience does not normally see. Looking further into the future, Mikhail Messerer plans to restore the ballet Coppélia (based on Alexander Gorsky’s choreography).

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