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 ballet student or dancer. Ballerina was once a rank given only to the most exceptional female soloists. More or less, depending on the source, the rankings for women—from highest to lowest—used to be: For men, the ranks were: Ballet companies continue to rank their dancers in hierarchical fashion, although most have adopted a gender neutral classification system, and very few recognise a single leading dancer above all other company members. In most large companies, there are usually several leading dancers of each gender, titled principal dancer or "" to reflect their seniority, and more often, their status within the company.