Ivan Putrov

Ivan Putrov (born 8 March 1980) is a Ukrainian-born ballet dancer and producer. Ivan trained at The Kyiv State Choreographic Institute and at The Royal Ballet School. Upon graduation Sir Anthony Dowell invited him to join the Royal Ballet, which he did in September 1998.

Putrov was born in Kiev into a family of ballet dancers from The Ukrainian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Natalia Berezina-Putrova and Oleksandr Putrov. He appeared on stage for the first time at the age of 10 in the ballet "The Forest Song".

Educated at the Kiev Ballet School, at the age of 15 Ivan Putrov won the Prix de Lausanne competition (1996), where the then-Royal Ballet School director Merle Park was a judge. He spent 18 months at the Royal Ballet School and on graduation in 1998 Ivan Putrov was invited by the Royal Ballet's director, Sir Anthony Dowell, to join the company itself. He was offered a principal's contract with the Kiev Ballet, but turned it down and decided to join the Royal Ballet, as an artist; he began to dance roles such as the Nutcracker prince, the Boy with the Matted Hair in Shadowplay and Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet.

He became a principal with The Royal Ballet in 2002. Putrov won the National Dance Award for Outstanding Young Male Artist (Classical) the same year.

Having taken part in Royal Ballet School performances at Covent Garden in 1998 and 1999, in 1999-2000 he took roles in The Nutcracker, Les Rendezvous, Masquerade and Siren Song.

He danced many performances as the Nephew in Peter Wright's production of The Nutcracker and added roles in Romeo and Juliet, The Concert, and Giselle (Albrecht).

He was coached by Dowell for his debut as Beliaev in A Month in the Country in 2001 and also added Basilio in Don Quixote to his repertoire. In 2002 he danced in Onegin (Lensky) and La Bayadère (The Golden Idol), as well as ballets such as The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Por Vos Muero, and The Leaves are Fading.

The following he also danced in Coppélia, Mayerling, Swan Lake and Scènes de ballet. His debut as Le Spectre de la Rose at the Royal Opera House was in May 2004 (the part he also portrayed in the film Riot at the Rite).

In 2004-05 he danced in Cinderella, La Fille mal gardée (Colas), Rhapsody, Symphonic Variations and Symphony in C.

In 2006 Putrov suffered an injury in an onstage fall, which led to a lengthy leave from dancing. He returned to the stage without apparent lasting effects, giving his last performance with the Royal Ballet in May 2010 in Cinderella.

Putrov has also appeared with national ballet companies in Hungary, Lithuania and Ukraine, and appeared at the Vienna Staatsoper.

He created the role of Karl in The Most Incredible Thing at Sadler's Wells Theatre in 2011, and was also credited in the early development of the work.

In 2012 Putrov choreographed his first major creation for the stage entitled Ithaca, using La Péri by Paul Dukas.

He has received notice for roles such as Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake and Lensky in John Cranko's Onegin, for which The Guardian praised his "captivating blitheness."