Valery Lantratov

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birthname = Valery Vaseilievich Lantratov
birthdate = birth date and age|1958|4|24
location = Moscow,USSR
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Valery Lantratov (Valeri Lantratov, Walerij Lantratov, Valeriy Lantratov. ( _ru. Валерий Лантратов) Moscow-born ballet dancer and general director of the Russian National Ballet Foundation. (Born April 24, 1958)

A graduate of the Moscow Academic Choreographic College, Lantratov was selected as a first soloist with the State Musical Theater K. Stanislavski and V. Nemirovich-Danchenko (Moscow Stanislavski Ballet). With the theater, he danced principal roles in such ballets as Don Quixote, Copellia, Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet.

In 1991, he was one of eight soloists in Rudolf Nureyev's "Farewell Tour" of the United Kingdom. During an engagement of this tour in Sunderland, England, The Chicago Sun Times reported that the music broke down during a solo "leaving... Lantratov dancing to silence." In 1993, Lantratov began working for the Kremlin Ballet. There he danced the role of Napoleon Bonaparte in the ballet Napoleon, Ruslan in a production Ruslan and Ludmilla directed by A. Petrov, Basil in Don Quixote, production by Vladimir Vasiliev, Tibald in Romeo and Juliet by U. Grigorovich, and Coppelius in Koppelia, production by A. Petrov.

This same year, Lantratov formed the Russian National Ballet Foundation, a Moscow-based charitable organization with the purpose of promoting the traditional art of the Russian classical ballet and providing aesthetic education. Its creation was supported by the Moscow Actors’ Charitable Foundation under the guidance of Galina Ulanova and the Stanislavsky and Nemorovich-Danchenko Moscow Musical Theater.

In 1986 Lantratov was awarded the title "Honored Artist of Russia," and in 1997, Russian president Boris Yeltsin named Lantratov “People’s Artist of Russia,” the Russian Federation's highest artistic honor.

Lantratov has appeared in the United States as a guest artist with the Portland Ballet and Boston Ballet and was a guest instructor with the Boston Ballet. From 2000-2003 Lantratov directed one of two touring companies for SMI, Inc's Moscow Ballet and danced the role of Drosselmeier in the company's "Great Russian Nutcracker" production. "Valery Lantratov's Drosselmeier is young, vibrant and full of explosive energy," wrote reviewer Nancy Johnson. "The mischief in his eyes reaches the back of the house." In 2004, however, he publicly split with Moscow Ballet's U.S.-based production company.

In 2004, Lantratov premiered the role of Czar Nicholas II in the ballet Rasputin staged by the New Imperial Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. The ballet, which featured Farouk Ruzimatov in the role of Rasputin, drew protests from Orthodox Catholics. Nicholas II was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000. The protestors objected to the depiction of a saint in ballet and especially to the concept of Nicholas II costumed in tights. Lantratov appeared on Russian television with his costume to show that he would not wear tights in the production.

Lantratov is the father of Vladislav Lantratov of the Bolshoi Ballet.