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Azerbaijani ballet dancer appointed art director of Budapest Opera House

31 January 2011 12:24 (UTC +04:00)

Elder Aliev was born in 1957 in Baku. In 1966-1975 he studied at Baku School of Choreography. From 1974, he began to work at Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. Aliev got the 2nd place in V All-Union Competition held in Leningrad in 1975. During 1979-1992, he was principal of Kirov Ballet in Leningrad. Eldar Aliev performed in over 40 countries. At the invitation of Ballet Theatre of Indianapolis he moved to the United States in 1992. Since 1994, he is Artistic Director of Ballet Internationale. His commitment to the highest artistic standards and his inspiring leadership throughout his 14 years with Ballet Internationale enabled Aliev to build an artistic staff of international acclaim and recruit extraordinary dancers from around the world. Eldar Alievâ€™s choreographic debut of the full-length ballet A Thousand and One Nights was acclaimed as a tour de force in the world of dance. More than 30 spectacles were prepared by Ballet Internationale in 1996-2005. He participated in staging of several spectacles of world classics at theatres in Buenos-Aires, Sydney, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok, Madrid, Berlin, Ottawa, Rome and etc. In 2007, he worked as executive director of Boston Ballet School. Moreover, in the same year, Aliev served as a jurist at the 8th Youth America Grand Prix international ballet competition in New York and in 2008 at the 23rd Varna International Ballet Competition in Bulgaria, the 5th Seoul International Dance Competition and the 2nd Beijing International Ballet Invitational. And finally, at the end of January, Hungarian cultural circles proposed to appoint him as art director of Budapest Opera House within the next 5 years.