Vladimir Vasiliev (dancer) Vladimir Vasiliev (dancer) Vladimir Viktorovich Vasiliev (Russian: Влади́мир Ви́кторович Васи́льев), (born April 18, 1940) is a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer from Moscow, Russia. He was a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet and its director from 1995 to 2000. He was best known for his role of Spartacus and his powerful leaps and turns. Vladimir Vasiliev was named "God of the dance" and is regarded as a classical dancer on the same level as Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. At the height of their careers, Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maximova were the golden couple of Russian ballet. Vladimir Vasiliev
Connor Walsh (ballet dancer) Connor Walsh (ballet dancer) Connor Walsh (born 1986) is an American ballet dancer who currently performs as a principal dancer with the Houston Ballet. Born in Fairfax, Virginia and raised in Maryland, Walsh began dance training at the age of seven with his mother, Constance Walsh. He continued his training with a year each at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C. and the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida. In 2001, he started at the Houston Ballet's Ben Stevenson Academy. Walsh joined Houston Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet in 2004, the year he won