He was born in Labinsk, Russia on 13/07/1969. He graduated from the Tbilisi School of Ballet (Georgia) under Vakhtang Chabukiani and continued his training at the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg under Gennady Selutsky. He danced at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theater (1988-1989). In 1988, he joined the Mariinsky Ballet, with which he became a principal dancer in 1991. In 1990 he won an award in the International Ballet Competition in Paris. He has danced all major roles in the romantic and classical repertory, as well as roles in the neoclassical, Russian or western repertory, choreographed by Mikhail Fokine, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Roland Petit and Kenneth MacMillan. During his artistic career he collaborated as principal dancer with the New York City Ballet (1992-1997) and the London Royal Ballet, as principal guest dancer in 1996. In 1999 he danced at La Scala Milan the leading roles in the ballets The temple dancer [La Bayadère] and Swan Lake. In 2000 he was guest principal dancer at the Bayerische Staatsoper dance company. In 2006, he became artistic director of the Novosibirsk Academic State Ballet Theatre, where he staged his own versions of classic ballet performances. He has been organizing the Siberian Ballet Festival since 2008. He is the director of ballet at The Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow since 2011. He has been honored with the “The Peoples Artist” award (2008) and the “Golden Mask” award. At the GNO, he collaborated in the productions of the ballet performances Sleeping Beauty (2001-02, 2002-03) and Swan Lake (2003-04), which were performed at the Herodeion in his own choreography that was based on the classic choreography by Petipa.