Awards
The Golden Mask National Theatre Prize as the best choreographer (for Salieri Variations, 2014, for Colordelic, 2015, and The Order of the King, 2020).
His Salieri Variations and Romeo and Juliet (2017) won the Golden Mask as the best ballet productions.
Russian Federation Government Award (2020).
His Salieri Variations and Romeo and Juliet (2017) won the Golden Mask as the best ballet productions.
Russian Federation Government Award (2020).
Biography
Graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet (Gennady Selyutsky’s class) and joined the Mariinsky Theatre in 1992. Having won the Maya Plisetskaya International Ballet Competition (St. Petersburg, 1996) he was promoted to principal dancer.From 2000–03, he was principal dancer also at the Dutch National Ballet and the Royal Ballet (UK).
His repertoire includes the leading parts in ballets Don Quixote, Giselle, La Sylphide, Le Corsaire, The Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet (choreography by Lavrovsky), Swan Lake (choreography by P. Wright), as well as in ballets by G. alanchine, W. Forsythe, B. Niżyńska, K. MacMillan,F. Ashton, J. Robbins, H. van Manen, A. Ratmansky.
In 2006, he has made his Russia debut as choreographer at the Bolshoi Theatre Workshop of New Choreography (+/-2, to music by Handel). From 2009–10, he participated in the Royal Ballet project New Works in the Linbury.
His personal photographic exhibitions took place in London (Dynamics of Movement and Stillness, 2008) and St. Petersburg (Architecture of Body, 2009).
In 2011, Samodurov was appointed Artistic Director to the Ural Ballet in Ekaterinburg. His choreographic works for the company include Amore Buffo to music by G. Donizetti, H2O by S. Zherebtsov (coproduction with the Second Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art), The Salieri Variations to music by A. Salieri, Cantus Arcticus to music by E. Rautavaara, Colordelic to music by P. Tchaikovsky, A. Pärt and F. Poulenc, Curtain to music by O. Respighi, S. Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, The Snow Queen by A. Vasiliev, The Order of the King by A. Korolyov, The Little Humpbacked Horse by A. Korolyov (co-choreographer A. Pimonov), The Gift to music by L. Desyatnikov.
He finished the staging of Paquita after its ballet master S. Vikharev’s sudden death. As ballet master he staged Le Spectre de la rose (choreography by M. Fokine) and Napoli (suite from the A. Bournonville’ ballet).
His productions for other theatres include In a Minor Key to music by D. Scarlatti (the Mikhailovsky Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Royal Ballet Flanders), Le baiser de la fée by I. Stravinsky (Perm Ballet).
At the Bolshoi Theatre he staged Ondine, the full-length ballet by H.W. Henze’s in 2016.
Art. Lebedev Studio