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
Ballet dancer Most injuries do not show up until later in a ballet dancer’s life, after years of continuous strain. Traditional, gender-specific titles are used for ballet dancers. In French, a male ballet dancer is referred to as a "" and a female as a "". In Italian, a "" is a female who typically holds a principal title within a ballet company; the title for equally ranked males is "". In Italian, the common term for a male dancer is "danzatore" and a female dancer is a "danzatrice". These terms are rarely used in English. Since ballerino is not used in