Gennadi Nedvigin (Artistic Director) was born in Rostov, Russia, and began his initial training at the age of five. At 10 years old, Nedvigin was accepted into Bolshoi Ballet Academy, one of the most prestigious schools in the ballet world. Upon graduating, he joined his first professional company, Moscow Renaissance Ballet, as a soloist before he was invited to dance with Le Jeune Ballet de France in Paris. In 1997, while on tour in the United States, San Francisco Ballet Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson offered Gennadi a soloist contract. Later that year, Nedvigin joined San Francisco Ballet. After three years with the company, he was promoted to principal dancer. During his career in San Francisco, Nedvigin was a winner of the International Competition’s Erik Bruhn Prize (1999) and has received three Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (2001, 2010 & 2017). Over the years, Nedvigin has shared his knowledge and training with other dancers by teaching master classes at numerous highly esteemed ballet schools in the United States. Nedvigin has been a guest artist with several internationally acclaimed companies and has appeared in many gala performances, tours, and festivals across the globe. During his time at San Francisco Ballet, Nedvigin served as ballet master for a number of works by Yuri Possokhov, including Classical Symphony and Swimmer, as well as excerpts from Bells, Diving into the Lilacs, and Carmen. In February 2016, Nedvigin became the fourth artistic director in Atlanta Ballet’s then 87-year history.