Career My teachers

Professor. A Soviet ballet dancer, choreographer, and teacher, he was a soloist at the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre in Leningrad. He was named a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1991 and People’s Artist of the USSR in 1957. Sergeev graduated from the Leningrad Choreographic School (now the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet), where his teachers included E. P. Snetkova, Maria Kozhukhova, Viktor Semyonov, and Vladimir Ponomarev. In 1930, he joined the Mariinsky Theatre, where he performed as a soloist until 1961. With his noble appearance and outstanding acting skills, he brilliantly executed leading roles in the classical repertoire, interpreting them in a deeply psychological and truthful manner. During the 1930s and 1940s, he performed alongside Galina Ulanova, forming one of the most celebrated duets in the history of Russian ballet. They were the first performers of the title roles in the premiere of Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet «Romeo and Juliet» on January 11, 1940. After the war, he danced in a duet with his wife, Natalia Dudinskaya. Starting in 1946, Sergeev worked as a choreographer. He served as the chief choreographer of the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre from 1951-1955 and 1960-1970. He produced the first stagings of several contemporary Soviet ballets, as well as new versions of classical productions, among which the most famous are «The Sleeping Beauty» by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, «Raymonda» by Alexander Glazunov, and «Cinderella» by Sergei Prokofiev (1945, 1964), among many others. He also staged ballets at the Leningrad Choreographic School, the Moscow Music Theatre named after K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, the Bolshoi Theatre, and abroad. Sergeev taught classical dance from 1931, and in 1938-1940 and from 1973 onwards, he was the artistic director of the Leningrad Choreographic School. From 1991, after the school’s transformation, he became the president of the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, where he led courses in «Classical Heritage» and «Acting Skills.» He also worked internationally, teaching at the International Summer Seminar in Split (Yugoslavia) from 1985-1988. He authored scripts for several ballet films, acted in such productions, and hosted a television series on the history of Russian ballet, «The Art of Russian Ballet.» In 1953, the Lenfilm studio released the movie «Masters of Russian Ballet,» which included fragments of Boris Asafyev’s ballets «The Fountain of Bakhchisarai» and «The Flames of Paris,» as well as Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s «Swan Lake.» In this film, Sergeev performed the role of Prince Siegfried with Odette played by Galina Ulanova and Odile by Natalia Dudinskaya. A television film dedicated to Sergeev’s work, «Konstantin Sergeev: Pages of Choreography,» was released in 1976.