Vladimir Bourmeister (1904-1971). Russian dancer, choreographer and ballet master

Vladimir Bourmeister was born in Vitebsk in 1904, and studied at the Lunacharsky Theatre School in Moscow from 1925 to 1929. In 1930 he joined the Moscow Arts Theatre of Ballet on its foundation (which became the Stanislavsky and Nemirovitch-Danchenko Theatre Ballet in 1933), where he later became a soloist. Bourmeister became choreographer for the company in 1941. He mounted his version of Swan Lake at the Paris Opéra Ballet in 1960, and in 1961 choreographed The Snow Maiden for London Festival Ballet in London – he was the first Soviet choreographer to work with a Western ballet company. Bourmeister died in Moscow in 1971.