Sergei Upkin

(principal dancer)

EDUCATION AND WORK
Sergey Upkin graduated from the St. Petersburg Vaganova Ballet Academy in 1999. He was the principal dancer of the Estonian National Ballet (1999–2005) and is again since 2008. In 2005–2007 Sergey Upkin worked at the Staatsballet Berlin.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
He has won several international competitions: he deserved special recognition at the international Ballet Competition Vaganova Prix 1998 in St. Petersburg (Russia), he has won the 1st prize at the young dancers competition Fouetté (Tallinn 2000), a gold medal and the Mihhail Baryshnikov Prize at the ballet dancers competition Arabesque-2000, the Dance Prize of Philip Morris (2000, 2001, 2002), 2nd place at the 4th Ballet Dancers Festival in Helsinki, finalist at the Eurovision Dance Contest (2001), the Special Prize of the Best Dance Couple at the competition Jackson 2002 (with Eve Andre), the 1st prize at the Premio Roma 2003 contest and the Theatre Union Dance Prize for the role of Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (2004), ERGO Dance Award 2010, the Estonian Professional Dancers Union Award 2010,  the Annual Estonian Theatre Award (2015), MUBA Teacher of the Year Award (2024).

MEMORABLE MOMENT IN BALLET
“The winning of the Audience Award at a competition in Perm (2000) and participating in Premio Roma Competition, where the audience asked me and Galina Rohumaa to repeat Auber’s Grand Pas de Deux. And once I forgot the dance steps to the “Neapolitan Dance” in “Swan Lake” by Tiit Härm, although I had danced it a million times.”

REPERTOIRE
Romeo (Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet”)
Mitch (Meckler/Ochoa/Salem’s “A Streetcar Named Desire”)
Nutcracker-Prince (Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker”)
Farmhand (Tubin’s “The Goblin”)
Dopey (Harangozó’s “Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs”)
Pas de deux (Adam’s “Giselle”)
Zborowski (Edur’s/Aints’ “Modigliani – the Cursed Artist”)
Iason (Schiavoni’s “Medea” to the music of Stravinsky, Schnittke and Dead Can Dance)
Petrushka (Stravinsky’s “Petrushka”) 
Des Grieux and Lescaut (MacMillan’s “Manon”)
Othello (Kesler’s “Othello”) 
Franz (“Coppélia” by Delibes)
Lensky (Cranko’s “Onegin”)
D’Artagnan (Nixon’s “The Three Musketeers”)
Prince Désiré and Blue Bird (Tchaikovsky’s “The Sleeping Beauty”)
Dr. Falke (Hynd’s “Rosalinde”)
Prince (Prokofiev’s “Cinderella”)
Nathanael (Delibes’s/Bigonzetti’s “Coppélia”)
Paride (Cannito’s “Cassandra”)
Ivan (Stravinsky’s “The Firebird”)
Lankendem (Adam’s “The Corsair”)

Soloist roles:
Elo’s “Red With Me” 
Bournonville’s “Flower Festival in Genzano”
Asafyev’s “The Flame of Paris”
Chopin’s “Les Sylphides”
Gorsky’s “La fille mal gardée”
Auber’s “Grand pas Classique”
Basilio (Minkus’ “Don Quixote”)
3rd pas de deux (Christe’s “Before Nightfall”)
Joker (Edur’s/Aints’ “Catherine I”)
Man (MacMillan’s “Song of the Earth”)
Soloist (Edur’s “Silent Monologues”)
Soloist (Murdmaa’s “Symphony No. 6”)
Lankendem (Adam’s “The Corsair”)