VLADIMIR ISSAEV is currently Ballet Master, Choreographer & Artistic Director of Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida former Ballet Master of Ballet Nacional de Caracas - Teresa Carreño and Miami City Ballet School. He was born in Siberia, Russia, 1954. At the age of 11 he began his ballet studies at the Choreographic School of Voronezh, obtaining the degree of “Ballet Artist” in 1973.

2009 Best Arts Educator of the State of Florida by the Florida Alliance for Arts Education.

2002 “Best New Choreographer” at the Dance Under the Stars Choreographic Competition in Palm Springs, California.

2002 Honorable Merit Diploma from the Terpsihora Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts of Dance of Saint Petersburg, Russia, in recognition for his outstanding performance enhancing the art of classical ballet on the Vaganova Style in the United States.

2000 Most influential Ballet teacher by the National Foundation of the Advancement of the Arts

Mr. Issaev is currently Ballet Master, Choreographer & Artistic Director of Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida former Ballet Master of Ballet Nacional de Caracas – Teresa Carreño and Miami City Ballet School. He was born in Siberia, Russia, 1954. At the age of 11 he began his ballet studies at the Choreographic School of Voronezh, obtaining the degree of “Ballet Artist” in 1973.

After working as a ballet dancer for several years at the Opera House of Ufa ( Nureyev’s home town) and Opera House of Odessa, dancing the whole classical and modern repertoire, he was admitted at the State Institute of Arts Lunacharsky G.I.T.I.S. in Moscow to make his superior studies for Ballet Master & Choreographer under the tutelage of the great Russian Masters such as Eugeny Rudenco and Guerman Pribilov (both direct pupils of Nicolai Tarazov) Yulii Plagt (Vaganova’s direct pupil), Rastizlav Zaharov, Larissa Trembovelskaya, Tamara Varlamova, Raiza Struchkova, Tamara Tkachenko, Boris Jojlov, Marina Kondratieva, Eugeny Valukin, and Ludmila Kolenchenko. He graduated in 1986 as Ballet Master and Master Choreographer with the highest grades and honors of the Institution.

He has been Academic and Artistic Director at the Choreographic School of Frounze, where he held this position as the youngest director of all the ballet schools in the Soviet Union territory at that time and as a Ballet Master for the disciplines of Classical Ballet, Character Dance, Court Dances and Pas de Deux.

He relocated in Venezuela in 1987 and worked as Ballet Master and Regisseur for the Ballet Metropolitano de Caracas during one year. In 1988, he was invited by Mo. Vicente Nebrada to take the place of Ballet Master at the Ballet Nacional de Caracas- Teresa Carreño. He traveled to Puerto Rico invited by Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico to hold a Russian Ballet Seminar where he remained working as Ballet Master and Director of Rehearsals. During that time he worked as assistant to the famous Choreographer and ballet dancer Papa Beriozoff for Don Quixote having Julio Bocca and Eleonora Cassano as soloists.

He returned to Venezuela in 1991 to continue his work as Ballet Master for Ballet Nacional de Caracas- Teresa Carreño and repetiteur for the principal roles of its classical and neoclassical repertoire. During all those years he prepared, with the finest technical skills, the principal dancers of the company for their soloist roles: Susana Riazuelo (now at Nacho Duato’s Dance Company, Spain, as principal), Marifé Gimenez, (Soloist at Ballet Florida) David Fonnegra (Principal of Diablo Ballet, California), Mary Carmen Catoya (principal of Miami City Ballet), Marcela Figueroa ( Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico) , Robert Wohlert (Staatsballett Berlin) , Claudio Sandoval ( Ballet Theatre of Harlem), Pedro Szalay ( Richmond Ballet) , Roger Fonnegra ( Festival Ballet Providence) Abdo Sayegh, ( Minnesota Dance Theater) Rolando Troconis, ( Rhode Island Dance Theater) Zong Miao ( Boston Ballet), who, among others, are also joining other international relevant ballet companies.

As a Choreographer he has mounted several ballets in Russia, United States, Puerto Rico and Venezuela for the Choreographer School of Voronezh and Frounze, the Ballet School Teresa Carreño, Ballet Metropolitano de Caracas, Ballet Nacional de Caracas Teresa Carreño – Second Company and for the Ballet Nacional de Caracas Teresa Carreño itself, Ballet Concerto de Puerto Rico, Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, Miami City Ballet School, The Georgia Youth Ballet, The Vaganova Ballet Academy (Kirov) in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Among his many works we find: “Swan Lake”, II & IV Acts for Ballet Nacional de Caracas together with Mo. Vicente Nebrada, (I & III Acts); “Chipollino” (Music: Karen Kachaturian) two acts Ballet for Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, Ballet Juvenil de Venezuela and Georgia Youth Ballet and “Nutcracker Suites” for Ballet Nacional de Caracas -Second Company , The Ballet School of Teresa Carreño Cultural Center and Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, “The Seasons’ for The Vaganova Ballet Academy- Mariinsky Ballet.