Vadim Muntagirov was born in Chelyabinsk, the son of two principal dancers. Having trained in Perm from the age of nine and following success at the Prix de Lausanne, he moved to The Royal Ballet Upper School in 2006. He won the Gold Medal at the Youth America Grand Prix in 2008, graduated into English National Ballet (as a First Artist) in 2009 and was promoted to First Soloist in 2010, Principal in 2011 and Lead Principal in 2012. His roles with ENB included Apollo, Conrad (Le Corsaire), Albrecht (Giselle), Prince (Cinderella), Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake in-the-round at the Royal Albert Hall), Prince Désiré (The Sleeping Beauty) and Song of a Wayfarer. He created the role of Prince in Wayne Eagling’s The Nutcracker.
Vadim joined The Royal Ballet as a Principal in February 2014. His roles include Basilio (Don Quixote), Albrecht (Giselle),
Prince Siegfried (Swan Lake), Aminta (Sylvia), Prince Florimund (Sleeping Beauty), Prince (Nutcracker),
Colas (La Fille mal Gardée), Boy (The Invitation), Young Man (Two Pigeons), Franz (Coppélia), Jean de Brienne (Raymonda Act III), Lensky (Onegin), Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), Des Grieux (Manon), Jack/Knave of Hearts (Alice), Florizel (Winter’s
Tale), Don José (Carmen), Beliaev (Month in the Country), Vershinin (Winter Dreams), and ‘Diamonds’ (Jewels) as well as various one act ballets and pas de deux.
Vadim has appeared as a guest in full length ballets with American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, the Mariinsky, Shanghai Ballet, Cape Town City Ballet, Lithuanian National Ballet, National Ballet of Japan, the Mikhailovsky, Wiener-statsballett (Vienna), Bayerisches Staatsballett (Munich) Baletu Národní Divadlo (Brno,Czech Republic), the Kremlin Ballet, and the Ballet of Teatro di San Carlo (Naples). Dancing with RB and leading international ballerinas, he also appears regularly in galas allover the world.
Vadim’s awards include: Outstanding Male Performance (Classical) 2010/11 season and Best Male Dancer 2014/15 and 2017/18 seasons at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards; the Prix Benois de la Danse 2013 and 2019; and the Prix Benois-Massine Moscow-Positano Award 2019.
[Photo Daria Klimentova]