Biography

Yuri Possokhov received his training under Pyotr Pestov at the Choreographic Ballet Academy in Moscow. Upon graduating in 1982, he joined the Bolshoi Ballet. During his ten years with the company, he worked primarily with Ballet Master Yuri Grigorovich and was quickly promoted to become one of the premier dancers in the company, partnering Natalia Bessmertnova, Ludmila Semenyaka, Nadezhda Pavlova, and Galina Stepanenko.

During his time with The Bolshoi, Possokhov performed the leading roles in almost all of the classical and contemporary ballets in the repertoire at that time. He danced the lead role in the Bolshoi’s premiere of The Prodigal Son, the company’s first performance of a work by George Balanchine.

While performing, Possokhov studied choreography and the teaching of ballet at the State College of Theatrical Arts, completing the five-year course under Evgeny Valukin in 1990. In addition to participating in the Bolshoi’s frequent international tours, Possokhov was often invited to perform as a guest artist in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He also performed with Bolshoi ballerina Nina Ananiashvili’s own company, Ananiashvili and Friends, in numerous performances and galas worldwide.

In 1992, at the invitation of Ballet Master Frank Andersen, Possokhov joined the Royal Danish Ballet as a principal dancer. Performing many leading roles on the stage of The Royal Danish Theater, Possokhov’s repertory diversified with works by John Neumeier, Anna Laerkesen, George Balanchine, and John Cranko. Possokhov was also cast in the role of Prince Desiré in the Royal Danish Ballet premiere of Helgi Tomasson’s The Sleeping Beauty. The following year, he was invited to dance a guest performance at San Francisco Ballet’s opening night gala, after which Helgi Tomasson invited him to join the company as a principal dancer.

Possokhov spent the following 12 years dancing with San Francisco Ballet, performing leading roles with the company both in San Francisco and abroad, and partnering many of the company’s ballerinas, including Yuan Yuan Tan, Joanna Berman and Lucia Lacarra. During this period, he began choreographing. In 1997, he completed three separate works – Songs of Spain and A Duet for Two set on fellow San Francisco Ballet Principal Dancers Muriel Maffre and Joanna Berman; and Impromptu Scriabin for San Francisco Ballet Soloist Felipe Diaz.

He also organized a program titled Ballet Beyond Borders, with sixteen dancers from San Francisco Ballet, which performed in five cities in Russia. The success of the tour led to additional performances with San Francisco Ballet dancers in Japan, China and Denmark in the following years.

In 1998, Possokhov premiered in the title role of Lar Lubovitch’s Othello — a co-production of the San Francisco Ballet and American Ballet Theatre (ABT) — and reprised the role as a guest artist with ABT in New York City the same year.

In 2000, Yuri Possokhov created Magrittomania, a work commissioned for San Francisco Ballet’s Discovery Program and inspired by the paintings of René Magritte. The ballet won an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for outstanding choreography the following year.

In 2002, Possokhov premiered Damned, a work based on Euripides’ play Medea. The piece was performed during the season and was taken on tour to New York City with the company that fall. Damned was subsequently re-staged and performed under the name Medea at The Perm Opera and Ballet Theater (Russia) in 2009.

In 2003, he co-choreographed a full-length production of Don Quixote with San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson, which the company subsequently performed in Los Angeles and Paris. Study in Motion, set to the music of Alexander Scriabin, was Possokhov’s piece for San Francisco Ballet in 2004, which was performed in London the same year and reprised in San Francisco the following season. The same year, he was invited by Oregon Ballet Theater (OBT) to create a new production of Firebird, which was so successful that he was invited back the following year to create La Valse.

For San Francisco Ballet’s 2005 Repertory Season, Possokhov created Reflections, a piece set to the music of Felix Mendelssohn. In early 2006, he was invited by the Bolshoi Ballet to create a full-length Cinderella, which premiered to critical acclaim and was performed by the company in Moscow, at the Royal Opera House in London, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

As part of San Francisco’s earthquake centennial in 2006, Possokhov created Ballet Mori, which was performed by SFB principal dancer Muriel Maffre. After the 2006 Repertory Season, Yuri Possokhov retired from the stage as a principal dancer; his last performance was during the company’s tour to New York’s Lincoln Center that summer.  

Following his retirement, he joined the Artistic Staff at San Francisco Ballet as a Choreographer in Residence, where he continually choreographs new works for the company and dances principal character roles. In 2006, he created Once More, a ballet performed at the New Century Chamber Orchestra Gala by Joanna Berman and principal dancer Damian Smith. The following year, he premiered his Firebird with San Francisco Ballet, adapted from his previous work for Oregon Ballet Theater. In 2007, The Georgia State Ballet commissioned Sagalobeli, a one-act work that the company presented on its first-ever American tour in 2008.

In the following years, Yuri Possokhov has continued to create new works for each of San Francisco Ballet’s repertory seasons, including Fusion, Diving Into the Lilacs, Classical Symphony, RAkU, and Francesca da Rimini. Both Classical Symphony, premiered in 2010, and RAkU in 2011, have been presented on the company’s national and international tours, including an engagement at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theater. In 2013, he created The Rite of Spring to mark the centennial year of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps; in 2015, the widely acclaimed Swimmer; and in 2017, Optimistic Tragedy.

Yuri Possokhov is a frequent guest at Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet, having staged both Bells and a new full-length Don Quixote for the company in 2011, and The Miraculous Mandarin and Bluebeard’s Castle (opera), in a program titled Bartok on Stage with the Cleveland Orchestra in 2012.

Possokhov returned to Copenhagen several times: in 2012 to create Narcisum, and then a production of Cinderella in 2016 and Snow Queen, his  interpretation of H.C. Andersen’s classic fairy tale in 2019, both at Tivoli Ballet Theatre with sets and costumes by Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II.

Starting in 2015, Possokhov created a number of full-length productions for the Bolshoi Theater Ballet: A Hero of Our Time, based on Lermontov’s literary classic; and a three-act ballet Nureyev, inspired by the life and art of the legendary dancer. The production was a unique theatrical endeavor involving 200 artists, including stage actors and opera singers. The ballet was recognized by four nominations for Benois de la Danse International Awards, winning for Best Choreography.

He then choreographed The Seagull, a ballet adaptation of Chekhov’s famous play with commissioned music by Ilya Demutsky; and Queen of Spades, a two-act ballet based on Pushkin’s short story, music by P. Tchaikovsky and Y. Krasavin.

For Atlanta Ballet, Possokhov created an innovative production of the Nutcracker, making extensive use of digital projections. It premiered in December 2018. Later he staged another version of the Nutcracker for Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow.

In 2019, he adapted Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina to create a two-act ballet of the same name, a co-production of the Joffrey Ballet and the Australian Ballet. The music, written by I. Demutsky, was their fifth collaboration; the others were Hero of Our Time, Seagull, Optimistic Tragedy and Nureyev. Anna Karenina was awarded the Benois de la Danse International Award for Best Choreography.

Possokhov, being the Choreographer in Residence of SF Ballet, continues to create ballets for this company. For the 2019 season, Yuri choreographed a one act ballet, Two United in a Single Soul, in which he explores the eternal theme of Narcissus using a contemporary arrangement of Handel’s arias performed onstage by a countertenor.

Dedicated to…, a short piece choreographed specifically for Yuan Yuan Tan of SF Ballet, was staged as a film and was a part of SF Ballet’s 2020 streaming season during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rising — a piece created on Frances Chung, SF Ballet principal dancer, was part of the 2022 San Francisco Ballet opening night gala. His Violin Concerto — a one act ballet set to music by Stravinsky, premiered during the SF Ballet 2023 season.

Senseless Kindness — a short double duet set to two themes of Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 1 was his first ballet created for English National Ballet. A film adaptation also aired in October 2020.

For the State Ballet of Georgia, Possokhov revised one of his early one act ballets, Damned, created originally for SF Ballet, and named it Medea. It premiered in Tbilisi, Georgia in December 2021.

Possokhov has also created ballets commissioned by outstanding dancers, such as a one act ballet for prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova —Gabriel Chanel, about the life of the renowned fashion designer. It premiered in June 2020 at the Bolshoi Theater as part of Zakharova’s Modanse Project and was later presented on tour in the UK. Jacopo Tissi, principal dancer with the Dutch National Ballet, commissioned a piece that was presented by him at the ‘Past Forward’ gala performances in Italy in August 2023.

In 2024, Possokhov created a pas de trios Andante to Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto #2 for Victoria Jaiani, principal dancer of Joffrey Ballet, to mark her 20th anniversary with the company. The premiere of Possokhov’s new production of Swan Lake for Hong Kong Ballet has been announced for May 31, 2024.

Roles