Amirian Ballet Academy presents Elvira Mnatsakanyan's Masterclass.
Elvira Mnatsakanyan was born in Yerevan, on August 17th, 1944.
In 1963, she graduated from the Yerevan State Choreographic College and the same year, she was employed by the Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theater. In 1968, she was nominated Principal Dancer.
From 1968 till 1999, Mnatsakanyan starred in all of the company’s ballets. Among her roles were Odette-Odile, Kitri, Giselle, Paquita, Juliette, Phrygia and Aegina in Spartacus, Nina in Masquerade, Eurydice in Orpheus as well as characters in Armenian ballets, like Gayane, Shamiram, Khumar.
In 1971-1972, Mnatsakanyan attended master-classes by great Russian ballerina Natalia Dudinskaya in Leningrad (now St.Petersburg).
In 1978, she was awarded the title of People’s Artist of Armenia.
Throughout her career, Mnatsakanyan toured numerous countries, like Canada (as part of the historical Bolshoi Ballet tour of 1975, when Mikhail Baryshnikov made his escape to the west), Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Algeria, Tunisia. She also gave master-classes in Japan.
In 1985-1990, Mnatsakanyan studied at the Art of Choreography Department of the Leningrad (St.Petersburg) State Conservatory. Her professors were Pyotr Gusev and Nikita Dolgushin.
In the 1990s, Mnatsakanyan started teaching at Yerevan State Choreographic College. Her first mentor in teaching was outstanding Russian ballerina and teacher Feya Balabina. Since then, Mnatsakanyan has graduated several generations of ballerinas. One of them, Sona Vardanyan, is now Principal Dancer at the Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theater.
Since 1999, Mnatsakanyan has worked as ballet master-repetiteur at the Yerevan Opera and Ballet Theater.