Yury Trayan. Tough Call

On 13 February, numerous fans of the undoubted talent of the People's Artist of Belarus, principal ballet master of the theatre Yury Trayan had the opportunity to say the most heartfelt thanks to the Master for his professionalism, for sincere and honest work to the service theatre and ballet art. Trayan made a difficult decision to leave the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus and take his merited retirement. On 13 February, The Creation of the World was dedicated to the first Adam: Yury Trayan.

A dancer, teacher, ballet master, director, choreographer... You can add talented, brilliant, outstanding to each of these words... The organic combination of skill and expression, deep penetration into each role and acting talent made the figure of Yury Trayan a phenomenon of the Belarusian ballet art.

For the first time, Yury Trayan appeared on the Belarusian stage in 1958 as very young artist of supernumeraries ... in the opera. But gradually he turned his attention to ballet art. This hobby led Yury Trayan to the Minsk Choreographic College. After graduation, the young dancer joined the ballet company of the Belarusian Bolshoi. His first title roles included: The Prince in The Nutcracker, Siegfried in Swan Lake, Désiré in The Sleeping Beauty. It was the roles in the productions of the world classical ballet repertoire that brought Yury Trayan the first success, first recognition and title of the Honoured Artist, which he received ... at the age of 21.

For 20 years, Yury Trayan has performed on the stage of the Bolshoi different roles.  He was the first who performed the roles of Don José in Carmen Suite by Georges Bizet – Rodion Shchedrin, the Prince in The Nutcracker by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the Poet in Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, Adam in The Creation of the World by Andrey Petrov, the title roles in Till Eulenspiegel by Eugene Glebov and Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian.

Of course, the new productions staged by Trayan became a valuable contribution to the heritage of the Belarusian ballet, among them: The Wings of Memory by Vladimir Kondrusevich, Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner. Thanks to Yury Trayan, Belarusian art has been enriched with new national ballets: Vitaut and Anastasia to Vyacheslav Kuznetsov’s music. In October 2021, Rodion Shchedrin’s music sounded at the Bolshoi for the first time. Trayan staged production The Little Humpbacked Horse for the whole family.