Ivan Putrov

Ivan Putrov (born 8 March 1980) is a Ukrainian-born ballet dancer and producer. He trained at The Kyiv State Choreographic Institute and at The Royal Ballet School. Upon graduation Sir Anthony Dowell invited him to join the Royal Ballet, which he did in September 1998.[1] He has continued to dance with companies around the world, to organize dance events and to teach.

Biography

Putrov was born in Kyiv to parents who were both ballet dancers from the Ukrainian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Natalia Berezina-Putrova and Oleksandr Putrov.[2] He appeared on stage for the first time at the age of 10 in the ballet "The Forest Song".[2]

Educated at the Kyiv Ballet School, at the age of 15 Ivan Putrov won the Prix de Lausanne competition (1996),[3] where the then Royal Ballet School director Merle Park was a judge. Putrov spent 18 months at the Royal Ballet School and on graduation in 1998 was invited by the Royal Ballet's director, Anthony Dowell, to join the company itself.[2] He was offered a principal's contract with the Kyiv Ballet, but turned it down and decided to join the Royal Ballet, as an artist; he began to dance roles such as the Nutcracker prince, the Boy with the Matted Hair in Shadowplay and Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet.[4] Having taken part in Royal Ballet School performances at Covent Garden in 1998 and 1999, in 1999-2000 he took roles in The Nutcracker, Les Rendezvous, Masquerade and Siren Song.[5] He danced many performances as the Nephew in Peter Wright's production of The Nutcracker and added roles in Romeo and Juliet, The Concert, and Giselle (Albrecht).[5]

He was coached by Dowell for his debut as Beliaev in A Month in the Country in 2001 and also added Basilio in Don Quixote to his repertoire. In 2002 he danced in Onegin (Lensky) and La Bayadère (The Golden Idol), as well as ballets such as The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Por Vos Muero, and The Leaves are Fading.[1] He became a principal with The Royal Ballet in 2002. Putrov won the National Dance Award for Outstanding Young Male Artist (Classical) the same year.[6] The following year Putrov danced in Coppélia, Mayerling, Swan Lake and Scènes de ballet. His debut as Le Spectre de la Rose at the Royal Opera House was in May 2004[5] (which he also portrayed, as Nijinsky, in the 2005 film Riot at the Rite).

In Sam Taylor-Wood's 2004 film installation "Strings", Putrov danced suspended by a harness above four musicians playing the slow movement from Tchaikovsky's Second String Quartet, filmed in the Crush Bar of the Royal Opera House.[7] He also appeared (as the artist) in the film installation The Butcher's Shop, commissioned by Kimbell Art Museum, in which Philip Haas recreated the 1582 Annibale Carracci painting of the same name, first seen in 2008 at the Sonnabend Gallery of New York.[8]

In 2004-2005 he danced in Cinderella, La Fille mal gardée (Colas), Rhapsody, Symphonic Variations and Symphony in C.[1] In March 2005 he came on stage from the audience to dance the solos in Rhapsody after Carlos Acosta suffered a twisted ankle.[9] In 2006 Putrov himself suffered an injury in an onstage fall, which led to a lengthy leave from dancing.[10] He returned to the stage without apparent lasting effects, and received notices for roles such as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake and Lensky in John Cranko's Onegin, for which The Guardian praised his "captivating blitheness."[11] He danced Beliaev alongside Alexandra Ansanelli's Natalia Petrovna in A Month in the Country in her final appearances before retirement, in New York and Havana, and gave his own last performance with the Royal Ballet in May 2010 as the Prince in Ashton's Cinderella.[5]

He created the role of Karl in The Most Incredible Thing at Sadler's Wells Theatre in 2011, and was also credited in the early development of the work.[12] In 2012 Putrov choreographed his first major creation for the stage entitled Ithaca, using La Péri by Paul Dukas.[13]

Putrov has appeared with national ballet companies in Hungary, Lithuania and Ukraine, and appeared at the Vienna Staatsoper.[12]

Since leaving the Royal Ballet, Putrov has planned the 'Men in Motion' ballet programmes, which were originally mounted in London and have since toured to Warsaw, Moscow, Łodz and Milan.[14] In January 2014 he closed an edition of the BBC2 current affairs programme Newsnight by dancing a solo to a song by Johnny Cash from Affi by Marco Goecke.[15] In 2019 Putrov produced a programme 'Against the Stream' designed as "a tribute to remarkable choreographers who changed the ecology of dance beyond recognition"; he also danced in the Ashton and Macmillan performed.[16]

He has danced the roles of the swan and the prince in the Matthew Bourne version of Swan Lake.[14]

On film and DVD, Putrov has featured in The Nutcracker (The Nutcracker/Hans-Peter) and as a lead dancer in Scènes de ballet (Ashton) and danced Le Spectre de la Rose in the 2006 BBC film Riot at the Rite.[17]

References
  1. Interview with Putrov at Ballet Association meeting on 20 February 2002 by Kenneth Leadbeater (Putrov was interviewed by David Bain). Archived 10 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 18 November 2013.
  2. Frater, Sarah (18 March 2011). "Dancing to a New Tune". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  3. "Ivan Poutrov Profile Page". Prix de Lausanne official website. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  4. Jann Parry. Slaves to the rhythm. The Observer, 8 October 2000.
  5. "Performance database search for Ivan Putrov". Royal Opera House Collections Online. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
  6. "National Dance Awards 2002 Awards". National Dance Awards official website. Retrieved 10 November 2009.
  7. Burt, Ramsay. Sam Taylor-Wood - 'New Work' - Art exhibition at White Cube November 2004. Ballet Dance Magazine., accessed 2 March 2017.
  8. Kimbell Art Museum page for Butchers, Dragons, Gods, and Skeletons (still photo) accessed 13 September 2020.
  9. Daily Telegraph 19 March 2005.
  10. Brown, Ismene (2 December 2007). "Russian aristocrat returns in beautiful and hungry form". The Telegraph. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  11. Mackrell, Judith (19 March 2007). "Onegin". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  12. Cast biography in theatre programme for The Most Incredible Thing, Sadler's Wells Theatre, 2012.
  13. Mackrell J. Ballet's men step out of the shadows. The Guardian, 15 January 2012.
  14. Graham Watts : Ivan Putrov – Men in Motion – Lodz Ballet Festival, Dance Tabs 10 June 10, 2015. accessed 20 February 2017.
  15. Former Royal Ballet principal Ivan Putrov dances out the programme to Johnny Cash, accessed 1 March 2017.
  16. Interview with Ivan Putrov about his 'Against the Stream' dance programme, accessed 8 July 2019.
  17. Radio Times entry for Riot at the Rite film, accessed 2 March 2017.
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