KONSTANTIN IVANOVRUSSIA / YOSHKAR OLA
Choreographer, artistic director of the Mari State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Eric Sapaev.
Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation, People's Artist of the Mari El Republic, and laureate of the State Prize of the Mari El Republic.
Graduated from the Moscow Academic Choreographic School and the Moscow State Choreographic Institute. From 1992 to 2004, he was a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia and also performed with the “Bolshoi Theatre - Yuri Grigorovich Studio” company. Laureate of the “Arabesque” competition (1998). Initiator of major cultural projects in the Mari El Republic, including the Christmas Evenings (Winter Evenings) festivals and the Ballet Art Festival "In Honor of Galina Ulanova." He was one of the founders of the Choreographic Art department at the Mari Republican College of Culture and Arts.
Since 2001, he has been artistic director of the Mari Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Eric Sapaev. Since 2015 – professor at Mari State University. Since 2017, he has served as Minister of Culture, Press, and Ethnic Affairs of the Mari El Republic, and since 2023, as deputy chairman of the government of the Mari El Republic. In 2012, he was elected chairman of the Mari Regional Branch of the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation. Since 2021, he has been secretary of the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation.
He was awarded the medal and the Order "For Services to Mari El," and in 2022, the Order of the Second Class. He is a laureate of the "Soul of Dance" prize from Ballet magazine in the "Knight of Dance" category (2006).