UPDATED: Ivan Vasiliev to dance in Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

Posted on February 6, 2014

Ivan Vasiliev is to dance in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi on February 7.

The spectacular event will be televised around the world, with UK coverage starting at 3.30pm on BBC Two. Vasiliev will dance in a War and Peace section inspired by Russian history, with choreography by Radu Poklitaru.

Vasiliev will appear in Kings of the Dance at the London Coliseum from March 19–22. See the forthcoming March issue of Dancing Times for an interview with Vasiliev. 

UPDATE: Vasiliev appeared in the Tolstoy-themed section with Svetlana Zakharova as Natasha. Later, the ceremony showed the Olympic “doves of peace”, with Diana Vishneva dancing to music from Swan Lake.

UK readers can watch the ceremony on BBC iPlayer here. The War and Peace ballet section starts two and a quarter hours into the broadcast, at 2.15:50. The “doves of peace” section, with Diana Vishneva, starts at 2:57:18.

Picture: Svetlana Lunkina and Ivan Vasiliev in Le Jeune homme et la Mort. Photograph: Irina Lepnyova

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.