PRESIDENT/DIRECTOR, A&A BALLET

 

As the founding Artistic Director of The Joffrey Academy of Dance and the Joffrey Studio Company (2009-2016), Alexei Kremnev brought a reputation to the Academy as one of the most innovative and fast-growing dance organizations worldwide. The Joffrey Academy was the third organization where Mr. Kremnev stimulated substantial financial and artistic success as an Artistic Director. Previously, he was the Artistic Director of the Evansville Dance Theatre and Southold Dance Theatre, respectively, between 2003-2009.

 

He began his career in Moscow at the world famous Bolshoi Ballet Academy (Degree of Ballet Artist), the Russian Academy of Theatrical Art (GITIS), and the Moscow State Academy of Choreography (Degree in Pedagogy and Choreography). Either as a Principal Artist, Choreographer or Teacher, he has worked internationally with the Moscow Festival Ballet (Russian National Ballet), England's Northern Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, BalletMet, Tulsa Ballet Theatre, Bolshoi, Russian and European Stars of the Ballet. Mr. Kremnev received superlative reviews in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Dance Magazine for the leading roles he danced. He is the Laureate of the Leonide Massine Award, the Nureyev International, and Lifar International Ballet Competition. Among the legendary teachers Mr. Kremnev studied with, there are two who influenced his teaching philosophy the most: Eleonora Vlasova was a great ballerina and a laureate of the Paris Academy of Dance Award for her achievements in ballet, and German Pribilov, who studied with the great Alexander Pushkin, a teacher of Rudolph Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. 

 

Mr. Kremnev has been featured on PBS Holiday Specials Love is Here to Stay and A Family Thanksgiving. He has been praised for his extraordinary ability to work with a young generation of dancers, as well as for his original, creative choreography. Mr. Kremnev’s choreography was presented at the legendary Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 2004-2006, Lincoln Center in New York in 2015, and the Opernhaus Zurich in 2016 and 2017. He received the Outstanding Choreographer Award at Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) in 2006, 2007, 2009, 2021, and the Outstanding Teacher Award in 2017 and 2018. His works have been successfully performed in collaborations with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater and the Cleveland Orchestra.

 

In 2001, Mr. Kremnev was recognized as one of the Most Influential People in the Arts in Cincinnati and was elected to the Advisory Board on Eastern Europe for Illinois under Senator Mark Kirk in 2011. Under his leadership, the Southold Dance Theatre was named Outstanding School at YAGP in 2008, the Joffrey Academy of Dance claimed the same title at YAGP every year they participated in 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016, and the A&A BALLET in 2019,2020, 2022, 2023.

 

Mr. Kremnev's artistic vision was essential in the creation and success of the Gala of the International Ballet Stars in Cincinnati, Children's Ballet Theatre Series, and Winning Works: Choreographers of Color at the Joffrey Ballet. During his time as Artistic Director of the Joffrey Academy of Dance and the Joffrey Studio Company, Mr. Kremnev created sixteen new works at the Joffrey. In 2013, Mr. Kremnev received the Achievement Award in Culture from the Chicago Sister Cities International (CSCI), and the Business Leaders Award from the American Councils for International Education and Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the United States Department of State in 2017.

 

His thorough knowledge of the most current teaching methods and styles has produced many dancers who have been accepted into some of the most prestigious companies and elite dance institutions in the world, including the Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Royal Danish Ballet, Staatsoper Berlin, Dresden Semperoper, Norwegian National Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater, Polish National Ballet, Estonian National Ballet, New Zealand Royal Ballet, Czech National Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, Les Grands Ballet Canadiens, Bejart Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Met, Kansas City Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Sarasota Ballet, Oregon Dance Theater, Orlando Ballet, Ballet San Jose, Ballet San Antonio, Milwaukee Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, Richmond Ballet, Tokyo City Ballet, K-Ballet, Ballet du Capitole, Tulsa Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Dortmund Ballet, Bayerisches Staatsballet Junior Company, Complexions, Lines Ballet, Royal Ballet School, English National Ballet School, Dutch National Ballet School, USC Kaufman School of Dance and many others.

 

 

 CHOREOGRAPHY:

 

Full-length: "Cinderella", "Snow Queen", "New Adventures of Pinocchio", "Coppelia", "La Fille Mal Gardee", 

"Blue Bird of Happiness", "The Sleeping Beauty", "The Nutcracker", "The Art Deco Nutcracker".

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Other works: "Aleko", "Everest", "Coco + Igor,"  "Windy Sand", "Swan Lake Inspiration", "Solo in Black", "Carnival of the Animals", "Sleepover at the Museum", "Rhapsody in Blue", "Le Roi s'amuse: Dances in Ancient Style", "The Firebird Suite", "Blue Velvet", "Lament", "Dances on the Rocks", 

"About the Tails... Northern Suite", "Pavane", "Toma Que Toma", "Beatles go Baroque", "Uakti",  

"Wall Street", "Amelie", "Running on a wave", "Shy","The Bloody Mary".

 

 

WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT ALEXEI KREMNEV'S CHOREOGRAPHY:

 

"It is impossible to find one word that summarizes Kremnev's choreography: It is everything, encompassing the best and brilliance of what movement can be while breaking boundaries of what we know. Perhaps this is fitting: Kremnev isn't one thing, either. He is a rarity. Choreographer, yes--but also a soulful transcendentalist and pioneer of physicality, musicality, and emotion in dance. He is a revolutionary. " (The Huffington Post )

 

"The electricity of his work echoes with audiences of all ages." (The Huffington Post)

 

"With every bit of zeal, heart, and exceptional attention to detail that have come to define his work as a choreographer--not to mention, make the smallest nuances of his pieces explosions of musicality, electricity, and vigor.” (The Huffington Post) 

 

"With choreography by Alexei Kremnev, it brought dance to a whole new level. He created some of the most interesting choreography in memory." (The Cincinnati Enquire)

 

"Kremnev is making ballet choreography as a whole better. He doesn't push limits; he works beyond them. His ideas aren't adapted; he invents new ones." (The Huffington Post)

 

“To put it simply, that's what Kremnev is: A story-teller; a master of rewriting the modern masterpiece--the lost pinnacle of true artistry that gets abandoned too often in today's too-many-pirouettes-to-count world.” (The Huffington Post)

 

"Kremnev's musical sense is outstanding. He's got an encyclopedic sense of what works for his purposes, uncannily links the mix and fits movements as though the collection was written specifically for him." (The City Beat)

 

"Emotion. How something makes us feel, and why we feel that way. Kremnev tackles that question audaciously, with a range of styles and different heartstrings they pull at. His Carnival of the Animals is, delightfully, equal parts comedic and captivating, with a forceful wit and choreography bursting with nuanced athleticism. In Kremnev's pieces--this one, in particular, dancers don't move with the music; his choreography provides them the opportunity to move as the music, divine musicality that is illustrative of every note and subtlety.”

 

"In keeping with his pronounced musicality, but serving a different side of the emotional spectrum, Windy Sand is introspective, filled with pas de deuxs and groups that shift like a kaleidoscope slide. As dancers waft through elaborate lifts, you're enchanted--but equally so when a pair stand facing each other, holding hands or sitting back to back on the floor. Windy Sand ricochets from movement inquisitively physical to profoundly intimate...and altogether, creates moment after moment where you can practically hear the audience catching their breath. Pieces like this remind us why we watch ballet to begin with." (The Huffington Post)

 

"Does ballet exist to open our minds? Kremnev's does. His 2012 Le Roi s'amuse: Dances in Ancient style is bold and refuses to conform to confines of traditional beauty. It is wonderfully eccentric, a blend of classicism and new power, shape-shifting in its lyricism and strength. Kremnev excels in the prowess of partnering: Never before have couples danced together with such force and tenderness.”