The ballet company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre is a unique international team, comprising dancers from Russia, Ukraine, Japan, Brazil, the USA, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. The company’s soloists and artists are diploma-recipients and prize-winners at various international competitions, as well as grant recipients of major foundations. Ballet master in chief of the company is Eldar Aliev.

Principal dancers of the Primorsky Stage are Irina Sapozhnikova, Anna Samostrelova and Sergei Umanetc.

Troupe’s repertoire includes classical favorites Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutracker by Petr Tchaikovsky, Giselle and La Corsaire by Adolphe Adam. The neoclassical style choreography is represented by George Balanchine’s one-act ballets:  Apollo by Stravinsky, Prodigal Son by Prokofiev, Serenade to the music of Tchaikovsky and The Scottish Symphony to the music by Medelssohn. One of the main events of the season was the transfer of Bizet-Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite in legendary choreography by Alberto Alonso to the Primorsky Stage. These ballets, requiring serious physical training and virtuosic technique, have propelled the Company onto a totally new level.

After acquiring the status of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, the theatre has been regularly engaging world renowned dancers: Mariinsky prima ballerinas - Ulyana Lopatkina, Diana Vishneva, Ekaterina Kondaurova, Oxana Skorik, principal dancers  - Kimin Kim, Vladimir Shklyarov, Danila Korsuntsev, Evgeny Ivanchenko, Igor Kolb, internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer Vladimir Malakhov, the Paris Opera Ballet soloist Hannah O’Neil, “Korean Phenomenon” Soo Bin Lee, the National Ballet of China soloists Xu Yan and Sun Ruichen and many others.

Ballet Company in Chief bio:

Eldar Aliev was born in Baku where he graduated from the Baku College of Choreography. From 1979–1992 he was a leading soloist of the Kirov (Mariinsky) Theatre. In his time at the theatre he proved to be not only a technically outstanding classical and contemporary dancer but a talented interpreter of the roles he performed. His repertoire includes leading roles in Don Quixote, The Legend of Love, Le Corsaire, Swan Lake, La Bayadère, Spartacus, and many more.

The geographical area of Eldar Aliev’s tours spans over 40 countries and some of the most prestigious stages: The Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C., The Metropolitan Opera in New York, Opéra de Paris, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, La Scala Milan, Covent Garden and the Coliseum in London, The Berlin State Opera, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Sydney Opera House and others. His solo career also included performances as a guest artist of the Bolshoi Ballet and the Australian Ballet.

As a dancer he worked with such leading choreographers as Y. Grigorovich, R. Petit, M. Béjart, A. Alonso, O. Vinogradov, V. Vasiliev, M. Vainrot. His partners on the stage included outstanding ballerinas: Galina Mezentseva, Gabriela Komleva, Tatiana Terekhova, Sylvie Guillem, Amanda Mckerrow, Leslie Browne, Altynai Asylmuratova.

Since 1992 he has worked in the USA, where he was invited to be a leading soloist of the ballet company of Ballet Internationale (Indianapolis Ballet Theater), and soon became artistic director of the company. The only ballet company in Indiana became a world class professional collective and performed before delighted audiences in Los Angeles, New York, Montreal, Beijing, Taipei and other cities.

From 1992 – 2005, under the direction of Eldar Aliev, Ballet Internationale presented more than 30 productions, including their own versions of 1001 Nights by F. Amirov, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty by P. Tchaikovsky, The Firebird by I. Stravinsky, Le Corsaire and Giselle by A. Adam, Don Quixote by L. Minkus and others.

In 1996 he was awarded the “40 under 40” award, given to the 40 best leaders in the State by the Indianapolis Business Journal. For his input into the development of arts in The USA he was given a special award by the Governor of the State of Indiana, and the 21st of June was pronounced by the mayor of Indianapolis to be Eldar Aliev Day.

Since 2006 he has worked as a guest consultant, pedagogue, ballet master and choreographer with the leading companies and academies of Europe, Asia and America including The Royal Swedish Ballet, The Slovak National Ballet, The National Ballet of China, The National Ballet of Canada, Cincinnati Ballet in The USA, Universal Ballet in Seoul, Korea, Ballet Hong Kong, The Beijing Academy of Dance, Teatro Massimo in Italy, and The Spanish Ballet.

Eldar Aliev has also held responsibility for the artistic direction of the Hungarian National Ballet and the Boston Ballet Academy and has given lectures at Harvard University and Vassar College. He was a jury member of international ballet competitions in Prague, Seoul, New York and Beijing; in 2014 he was elected deputy chairman of the jury in the 26thInternational Ballet Competition in Varna.

The creative destiny of Eldar Aliev developed just as ballet critic Clive Barnes predicted when he wrote in the New York Post: "[It] is a rare versatility and the ability to dive into the depth of role that makes Eldar a truly exceptional artist, [which] will greatly contribute to the development of dance in this country."

Currently Eldar Aliev combines work as a choreographer and producer with teaching activities throughout the world.

Since 2016 he has been the head ballet master of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.

In June 2016 Eldar Aliev was awarded the titles of Honourary Professor of dance by the Shenyang Conservatory of the People's Republic of China.