Youri Vàmos

Biography

YOURI VÀMOS was born in Budapest. He was trained as a ballet dancer at the State Ballet School in his native city. After his first engagement as a soloist of the Hungarian State Opera he was offered a contract as First Soloist at the Bayerische Staatsoper München.

He has since spent nearly the whole of his professional career in the German-speaking parts of Europe. After Munic followed stations as Ballet Director in Dortmund, Bonn, and Basel. Where ever he went he fascinated his audience with revised versions of classical works whose plots he imaginatively exchanged for new stories. Thus, Sleeping Beauty became Anastasia – the last daughter of the Romanov czars, and Tchaikowsky´s Nutcracker tells Charles Dickens`Christmas Tale of Scrooge, the converted miser.

Youri Vámos is counted among the very few leading European choreographers who with determination wish to secure the survival of full-length ballets. It is always stories of and about people which Vàmos chooses as his subjects telling them anew by way of dance. His works distinguish themselves by inventiveness, wit, as well as an outstanding sense of drama and highest musicality. The so-called ballet classics attract him not so much because of their dramatic contents but far more by the genius of their music. The fact that a hundred years ago classical ballets were not yet able to express the psychological and personal nuances of their characters, is sufficient motivation for Vámos to create such a number of revised versions. Nevertheless he remains faithful to the classical heritage as the foundation of his art.

His artistic creed of presenting traditional subjects in keeping with the times is the obvious reason for his success at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. The greatest compagnie in North Rhine Westphalia which for 13 years carried Vàmos stamp, has proved its high qualities over again in successful guest performances, but even more by regularly sold-out evenings in Düsseldorf and Duisburg.

And so it cannot surprise that Youri Vàmos is called »the supposedly best choreographic story-teller of the present« in the arte-edition book Tanzgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts in einem Band (The Twentieth Century History of Dance in one Volume). Since 2001 Youri Vámos is Honorary Professor at the Dance-Academy Budapest. In 2007 he was awarded with the order of merit of the state of Northrhine-Westfalia.

Since 2009 Vàmos is working as a freelance choreographer. He revised and staged his international known works with his coworker Joyce Cuoco, his productions “Romeo and Julia” for the Perth Australian Ballet, “Summernight’s Dream” and “Nutcracker” for the Ballet of the Badischen Staatstheater Karlsruhe, and Coppelia at Montmartre in the Nationaltheater Brno. Carmina Burana for the Summer Theatre Festival in Split, the Nationaltheater Moravia and Tirana as well. With huge success Lucidor, in Würzburg and Brno, Summernight’s Dream in the Opera House of Riga and Nationaltheater Ostrava. In the Opera House Prag, his Sleeping Beauty and Othello in the Nationaltheater Prag. 2013 he presented his Sleeping Beauty in Karlsruhe. 2014/15 Summernight’s Dream, for Nationaltheater Györ and Slovakian Ballet Bratislava. Invited to the 2016 Summer Festival in Spoletto Italy, his Romeo and Julia and the same production planned with the Györ Company. Hungary is the 11th. country that this work will be presented. This year he was awarded with the Knight's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit.