Alexej Afanassiev

Permanent guest of the Prague State Opera ballet company

Native of Siberia, he obtained ballet education at the State Ballet School in Novosibirsk, Russia. He then furthered his studies of the classical, modern and jazz repertoire at John Cranko’s Ballet Academy in Stuttgart, Germany. In 1997 he was engaged by the ballet company of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where he became a soloist two years later. While there, he danced leading parts in Youri Vàmos’ productions, The Nutcracker – A Christmas Tale; and West Side Story, as well as in others, choreographed by John Neumeier, Hans van Manen, Christopher Bruce, Uwe Schulz and Petr Zuska. From 2006 he also started to work as a ballet master, contributing to numerous productions of ballets choreographed by Youri Vàmos in Prague, Brno, Naples, Tallinn, Ljubljana, and Perth. Since the 2009/10 season, he has been engaged as ballet master and dancer in the Prague National Theatre, beyond that guest appearing regularly at various venues of the international circuit.