Laurent Hilaire, the French director of the Stanislavsky Theatre ballet company in Moscow has announced his resignation. He has been leading the company’s 120 dancers since January 2017. He left institution « in view of the geopolitical situation » He said to AFP: « I leave with sadness but the context does not allow me to work serenely ».
Hilaire was the second Frenchman to direct a ballet company in Russia, almost 150 years after his illustrious predecessor, the dancer and choreographer Marius Petipa.
Born in 1962, Laurent Hilaire is a graduate of the Paris Opera Dance School. Engaged in the corps de ballet, he was named « Etoile » by Nureyev in 1985, at the age of 22.
Ballet Master at the Paris Opera since March 2005, he left in 2014. He then worked with several ballets around the world, including La Scala in Milan before accepting the position in Moscow.
