Andrey Merkurev

Biography

Andrei was born in Syktyvkar. In 1996 he graduated from Ufa Ballet School (now Bashkir Choreographic College named after Rudolf Nureyev). In 1996-1997, he was a member of State Theatre of Opera and Ballet of the Komi Republic.
In 1997-2001, he was a soloist at the Saint-Petersburg M. Moussorgsky State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Since 2006, he has been a soloist at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Andrei participated in the New Choreography Workshop, a project of the Bolshoi Theatre in 2006, where he showed an act “+2” with Ekaterina Krysanova to the music by G.F. Handel, staged by Vyacheslav Samodurov (London), and in 2008 they danced in the Drama Poem, which was introduced in Part I of the Workshop based on Skryabiniana by Kasian Goleyzovsky. In 2007, he took part in the ballet Old Women Falling Out to the music of L. Desyatnikov (choreography by A. Ratmansky), which was first shown at the Territory Festival, and then within the New Choreography Workshop.

In 2011, he established a scholarship fund for the best students of Bashkir Choreographic College, and in 2012 — an award at the open international ballet competition Arabesque for “Truth of the image, emotion and expressiveness”.
In 2014 he tried his hand as a choreographer and staged the ballet Yell to the music of S. Houppin, G. Vandenbroucque, E. Mellec, G. Sollima, H. Torgue, M. Richter, P. Vasks, R. Wagner based on the novel Go to Golgotha by Alexander Zinoviev at Odessa National Opera and Ballet Theatre.
In 2015, he was on the jury of the Golden Mask National Theatre Award.

Since 2016, he has worked with Moscow State Ballet as a guest leading soloist and choreographer. In 2016, he staged the one-act ballet Carmen for the theater.