Anna Nekhludova
Ballet Master–West

Anna Nekhludova is the Ballet Master on the Western leg of Moscow Ballet’s 20th Anniversary tour of the Great Russian Nutcracker to 70 cities across the US and Canada. She was born in 1976 in Moscow, Russia and was accepted from among thousands of applicants to enroll at the prestigious Moscow State Academy of Choreography in 1986, at just 10 years old. The Moscow State Academy of Choreography, commonly known as the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious schools of ballet in the world. Nekhludova graduated eight years later at 18 years old in 1994.

She began her career at the “Kremlin Palace of Congresses” in 1994. The modern building is sleek, adorned simply with marble, with nearly half of it (17 metres) submerged underground. The main hall holds 6,000 people and is the venue of the Kremlin Ballet. The Bolshoi Theatre performed there while its historic building was under repair. Nekhludova later joined the Russian National Ballet in 1996.

Nekhludova has also been a ballet teacher and private tutor since 2000 and most recently has managed ballet tours in Russia and internationally. She brings the best ballet training in the world with her as she manages Moscow Ballet’s historic 20th Anniversary North American tour.

Arthur Oliver
Costume Designer

Arthur Oliver is the consummate Shakespearean theatrical costume designer, joining Moscow Ballet in 2011. He has created for such notable institutions as The Atlanta Opera, The Connecticut Opera, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Shakespeare & Company, Mixed Company, The Stratford Shakespearean Festival, The Yard, NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, Trinity College, and The Boston Conservatory. A chapter on his professional views of designing for Shakespeare was published in “Shakespeare Festivals Around the World.” He designed a series of short films for The Tropicana Film Festival in Sydney, Australia; worked on the worldwide broadcast of “Evening at Pops/Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” and on a live ESPN broadcast of a 1900′s period baseball game. Oliver's Broadway debut was “Broadway Bares XVII-Myth Behavior.” And in 2005, he collaborated with musician and Grammy Award recipient Carly Simon and Artistic Director Wendy Taucher of The Yard on “Created by Carly Simon: Dances at the Yard.”

Oliver created a complete new wardrobe of costumes in recognition of the 20th Anniversary year of the Great Russian Nutcracker—notably, the Rat King and Mice costumes are inspired by the surreal, dark, and fantastic art of Bosch and Brueghel. Oliver designed costumes for Moscow Ballet’s full-length Romeo and Juliet which premiered in 2011.

Oliver’s work is consistently recognized by top publications... the Boston Globe says, “sumptuous costumes;” Wall Street Journal raves, “richly wrought and resplendent costumes;” CurtainUp writer Elyse Sommer calls Oliver's work, “spectacularly stunning;” and the NY Times raves, “a resplendent tableau of the…royal court, in sumptuous costumes.”

(Costume sketches by Arthur Oliver)

Valentin Fedorov
Scenic Designer and Puppet Maker

Valentin Fedorov is a graduate of the Stanislavski Institute. Known as “the Russian Bear” to his colleagues, he is a prodigy of Valery Leventhal of the Bolshoi Ballet, known for his diverse and often wonderfully comical sets. Based in Chuvash, central Russia, he received the title “Honored Artist of Chuvashia” and in 1991, his “Blackberry Along the Fence” won at the Best Performances of Russia Festival.

(Pictured left: Valentin Fedorov amid his puppet creations.)

Fedorov has been art director at the Chuvashia State Theatre of Opera and Ballet since 1988, where he has designed more than 40 productions for opera and ballet to critical acclaim. Chuvash, a mostly rural province in the middle of the country has a centuries-old history of puppetry. Fedorov’s fanciful sets and unique 6-foot tall “stick” puppets add to the whimsical and imaginative storytelling that sets Moscow Ballet's Great Russian Nutcracker apart from others.

Moscow Ballet Producer Akiva Talmi raves, “Valentin brings his love of life into his puppets and even into his backdrops by adding treats for the eye, such as angels with three dimensional trumpets, and paying homage to great Russian artists in the interior backdrop with the “painting” of the Russian Troika, the famous sleigh pulled by three horses abreast, which is practically a symbol of Russia.”