Alexander Shiryaev
Directing
Biography
Russian ballet dancer, ballet master and choreographer, founder of character dance in Russian ballet who served at the Mariinsky Theatre. Shiryaev was also a pioneering animation director who is credited with invention of stop motion animation.
Known For
A prominent Russian ballet dancer and teacher Alexander Shiryaev had another talent hidden for almost a century. Archive materials that date back to 1906 reveal his bold experiments at stop-motion and paper animation.
A Belated Premiere
No description available.
Buffon Dance
Partially lost.
The Comediant Girl
A girl dances with a ball.
Dance with a Ball
Alexander Shiryaev created “The Fool’s Dance” in Marius Petipa’s 1896 revival of the ballet “Mlada”, with music by Ludwig Minkus, at the Mariinsky Theatre. His innovation of combining high leaps with the characteristic squatting step, prisyadka, was so dangerous that Petipa turned his back during Shiryaev’s solo, and in fact he broke his fibula while performing it in London in 1912.
“Fool’s Dance” from Petipa's Mlada
One of the first Russian animated films, created by choreographer Alexander Shiryaev in the second half of the 1900s.
Pierrot-artists
A Pierrot and Harlequin clown act with a ball. Animated by Aleksandr Shiryayev sometime between 1906-1909.
Pierrot, Harlequin and a Ball
Experiment in animation: birds flying.