Sergeev, Konstantin Mikhailovich

Born Feb. 20 (Mar. 5), 1910, in St. Petersburg. Soviet ballet dancer and choreographer. People’s Artist of the USSR (1957).

Sergeev graduated from the Leningrad Choreographic School in 1930. In the same year he joined the company of the Leningrad Theater of Opera and Ballet (named in honor of S. M. Kirov in 1935) and soon became one of its leading soloists. Beginning in 1946, he was the ballet master of the theater, and from 1951 to 1955 and 1960 to 1970 he was the head ballet master. Sergeev was the first to dance the following roles: Romeo in Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Evgenii in Glière’s The Bronze Horseman, and Lenny in Karaev’s The Path of Thunder. He also performed the leading roles in ballets by P. I. Tchaikovsky, A. K. Glazunov, A. Adam, and other composers.

In 1946, Sergeev staged Prokofiev’s Cinderella (State Prize of the USSR, 1947) and new versions of Glazunov’s Raymonda (State Prize of the USSR, 1949) and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. In 1958 he staged Karaev’s The Path of Thunder, which he later also staged for the Bolshoi Theater. He also staged Chervin-skii’s Hamlet in 1970 and Glazunov’s The Seasons in 1974. In his choreographic work Sergeev has preserved the purity of the classical dance and given new social meaning to ballet.

Sergeev began teaching in 1931. In 1973 he was appointed artistic director of the Leningrad Choreographic School, a position he had held from 1938 to 1940. Sergeev received the State Prize of the USSR in 1946 and 1951. He has been awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.