Yuri Possokhov

After receiving his dance training at the Moscow Ballet School, Yuri Possokhov danced with the Bolshoi Ballet for ten years, working primarily with Ballet Master Yuri Grigorovich. During this decade, he was promoted through the ranks to principal dancer. In 1992, he joined the Royal Danish Ballet as a principal dancer, at the invitation of Ballet Master Frank Andersen. The following December, Possokhov was cast as Prince Desiré in Helgi Tomasson’s The Sleeping Beauty and after being invited to perform in San Francisco Ballet’s opening night gala, he moved West. In 1994, he joined San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer.

Following his retirement as a principal dancer from the San Francisco Ballet, Possokhov was named choreographer in residence in May 2006. Possokhov has choreographed twelve ballets with the San Francisco Ballet and numerous others throughout the world. Bells is his first work with The Joffrey Ballet. In Autumn 2011, Possokhov returns to The Joffrey with a world premiere Don Quixote.