After 11 years with the Mariinsky, Nail Enikeev finally received some well-deserved recognition. In the spring he was appointed a second soloist as he continues to perform solo character roles in numerous classical ballets. VaganovaToday discusses his artistic path and the recent changes in the theatre with him. Click here to read the Russian language version of this interview.
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You come from Ufa and studied under Mansur Enikeev at the Vaganova Academy. Are you related?
We have the same last name, but we aren’t related. Everyone thought we were at the Academy, that I was his nephew or grandson. I just ended up in his class when I arrived in Petersburg.
You began to dance in Ufa?
Yes, in my childhood I loved dancing to music, just moving. And at age 3, at family celebrations I forced my grandparents to dance, and in kindergarten the teachers advised my parents to put me into dance when I began first grade.
My parents took me to children’s dance classes at the Center for Children’s Artistry, and I began my path there. I danced folk dances from age 7 to 11. We stood at the barre, did the splits, they taught us how to do everything. But my interest was in dancing, I wasn’t familiar with ballet in particular. None of my relatives had any relationship to art or creativity, they’re typical working people. Nevertheless, they follow my life and are very involved in it, my artistic work I mean.
After the children’s group, I began to attend the Rudolf Nureyev Bashkir Choreographic School. Now it’s called a college. At that time, Alik Salikhovich Bikchurin directed it, he’s also the founder of the school and he accepted me. Under his directorship I received the foundation of my training. There was an excellent teaching staff, all of the pedagogues graduated from the Vaganova Academy and they gave their knowledge to us.
How did they suggest that you shift to a professional path in ballet after the children’s classes?
It was an interesting story. My friend who attended the children’s dance classes with me told me one day that the city has a place where you can obtain a professional education in that area. “Let’s attend it together,” he said, and I agreed. He was a year younger than me. I was late by one year, I couldn’t attend based on age in the first year, so they immediately accepted me into the second class (grade) at age 11. And I studied there until I graduated. We participated actively in the Rudolf Nureyev Festival throughout our training, which is held in the Bashkir Opera and Ballet Theatre. We toured to Great Britain, Germany, more than a month in various cities, dancing “Swan Lake”. That was during the last 3 years of teaching. We had a great deal of performance experience.
Who was your pedagogue there?
In Ufa, Vyacheslav Igorevich Zhuravliev. And I’d like to mention my character dance pedagogue there, Aigul Raufovna Nasirova, who gave me a great deal in terms of interest to the profession. I was lucky to work with Leonara Safievna Kuvatova, she was director of the school. We rehearsed the graduation performances and prepared for the tours. As the artistic director she gave me a lot. Then it so happened that Mansur Shemilievich Enikeev, my pedagogue later at the Academy, he had a classmate who taught us at school. She was the one who recommended we go to Saint Petersburg to attend the Vaganova Academy, to expand our horizons and have greater opportunities. And I completed my training there, I received a baccalaureate degree from the Vaganova Academy.
Immediately after graduation, I went with my classmate and with that same guy who invited me to the school, Ilnur Ziyangirov, he’s a year younger than me, and now he’s working in Novosibirsk. The three of us went to audition at the Vaganova Academy and all three of us were accepted. At that point, Altynai Asylmuratova was still the director. I studied one year under her and then the directorship changed, and I graduated under Nikolai Tsiskaridze. Altynai and her committee assigned us to the class of Mansur Shemilievich. We worked a great deal with him on arms and self-dependence. Sometimes he would conduct class by asking us to take turns giving the combinations so that our brains worked as well.
The famous pedagogue Gennady Seliutsky did that too.
Yes, apparently they’re similar in that respect. And it’s interesting because when you start to think about how to place a specific exercise and movement within the musical phrase, it seems to help you a lot in your work to feel it. We did a lot of technique, he said to us more than once that the last two years of study at the Academy for boys are not study but increasing your qualifications. I really attended without any sort of technique and I discovered a lot of interesting things there.
Was there a particular focus on character dance or classical?
No, at the Academy there’s no focus on a specific subject, we study everything, there’s a wide range of subjects and we have to master all of them in order: duet dance, acting, history, character and, the most important subject – classical ballet. Although when I graduated from Ufa, my character dance pedagogue, Aigul Raufovna said, “It would be great if you worked in the Mariinsky Theatre and danced solo character roles there.” It was as if she foresaw what might happen. When I joined the theatre in 2014, I really wanted to try to the classics but the director didn’t see me in those roles, and from my first year I began to work with Dmitry Voldemarovich Korneev. At the very first rehearsal he said, “I’m Dmitry Voldemarovich but you can call me Uncle Dima.” That was so nice to hear, it immediately brought us closer.
I’ve been working with him for 11 years now. I became a soloist in April of 2025.
My first solo on stage was in the Krakovyak dance in “The Fountain of Bakchisarei” and then the Fandango (from “Don Quixote”). All of these dances that I could dance if you woke me up in the middle of the night, because I worked on them so much with Uncle Dima, down to the tiniest details, that these roles just live inside my body.
Did you enjoy character dance more?
Actually I understand that I feel better in character dance, I can open up fully in it since I feel that you can incorporate individuality here, there isn’t such a strict framework as you have in the classics. You can offer different things in the same production each time.
Of course, there are lots of dramatic accents in the classics, but character dancing is still more colorful, brighter. And the viewers probably understand it better because it’s closer to the people.
Was it difficult to adjust to the theatre work during your first season? From my graduating year, only three of us were accepted: Ramanbek [see interview with him here], me, and Vitaly Amelishko. It was difficult participating in various productions, learning a lot in the first year, and I also had applied to get a Master’s Degree. But I understood it wouldn’t work to combine a master’s degree program with my work in the theatre, so I retrieved my documents.
You were promoted in April this year. Did that change how people relate to you or the roles you dance?
The roles remain almost exactly the same as what I performed when I was in the corps de ballet. And some new ones appeared, I performed Garmodia from “Spartacus” this year. And just before being promoted I managed to perform Espada in “Don Quixote”. I can’t judge how people relate to them because I can’t enter their brains. But I didn’t’ notice any difference, I’m the same as I was before, nothing has changed. It happens that after someone is promoted they become a bit of a snob, but I try not to do that, I still interact with the same people as before, I didn’t change my circle of friends due to the fact that I’m now a soloist. In terms of work, I’m not in the corps de ballet anymore, I perform only the solo roles listed in the playbills.
Is it easier this way?
It would have seemed so, however when you’re in the corps de ballet, you are always in good shape, because I used to do both –corps de ballet and solo parts. I could perform the waltz and then in the second act, a solo character role. But now there are only solo character roles and sometimes I actually miss the corps de ballet, but it’s probably just a “residue” feeling. Because I just like dancing in general, I like going on stage.
Is there competition for roles, generally speaking?
I think every artist feels this, yes. I was discussing this with a colleague recently and he said he doesn’t experience any competition. I mean, healthy competition, when you try to be better than yourself and than others.
He doesn’t feel it, or so he said. I think it exists in the theatre. And each dancer tries to be better in any case, without this there’d be no progress. And then the Mariinsky Theatre wouldn’t be as famous if each dancer didn’t try to be better for the viewers. Concretely concerning roles in specific sets of productions, it doesn’t depend on us, but on the administration that creates the casting lists. We can’t affect that.
There are times when the artist is overloaded and the administration sees it and says “Well, we’ll give this to someone else,” for example, to someone who doesn’t have as much work, but that’s not competition, it’s just a working moment.
When we graduated 3 boys were accepted into the company. This year, they’ve accepted 18 people total.
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
When I first joined the theatre, it was hard after the class that ends at noon (which starts at 11 a.m.) to immediately go to the studio and rehearse. I wanted to drink water, rest, take a shower. But here you have to go straight to another studio. At first it was really hard, but then I got used to it and I regulate the workload as need be.
And the dancers jump less in company class for this reason?
Yes but, generally speaking, there is a huge responsibility for those who are working during their first year in the theatre: to demonstrate that you want to work. So you have to do the class until the end. I remember how we were walking down the hallway, covered in sweat, and the corps de ballet inspector stood there, pointing to the studio where the rehearsal was starting. It was our first day of work.
Now of course, that doesn’t happen. Having seen the rehearsal schedule, you can allocate your workload, know where you can rest, and if you don’t have enough work, you can add to your workload during class.
What’s the best part about your job?
There’s lots I can list. A debut after a long period of preparing for the role, and the point when you’re on stage, and when you’re bowing afterwards. I like when you return to the dressing room after the role, put down the flowers that the viewers have given you, take off your costume and rest a few minutes on the couch, relax, and there’s a huge sense of satisfaction from that, that you have given out a lot of energy on stage, but you received some in return. There’s the sense of a ringing emptiness. You always feel it when the viewers give you a warm welcome.
Do you have a favorite role?
I love all my roles. To single something out, you can judge when you haven’t been given a role in a certain set of performances, and the thought occurs “I would like to have danced that!” That’s an indicator that you love that particular role and not just the one you’re dancing that day.
Obviously I love going on stage in all of my roles. I’m grateful to Fate that I have so many varied roles, they all differ from each other. You can dance and enrich your prior role and find something interesting. And with age it’s easier, experience helps you. With experience you know when, at what point to allow yourself to rest and when to enhance something. And how it will look better to the audience. But my pedagogue, Korneev, says that none of my performances resemble the others, they’re always going to be different. And I agree with him. Absolutely. The same performance doesn’t repeat itself, it can’t. That’s the key, that you have to approach each performance and find something new.
You believe in Fate then?
Something probably guides us, let’s call it Fate or Providence, I don’t know. Probably I tend more to believe in it, yes. How can I explain this so that it doesn’t sound pretentious or loud: probably everything had to coincide so that things happened this way in my case. Everything depends on the dancer’s success. How lucky they are. I had a talk with Sasha Sergeev, literally in my first days in the theatre, and he said to me, “Each dancer has his own path absolutely, even for those who have the same niche, eveyrone’s going to have a different path.” It’s like branches on a tree, each has its own road. And I suppose I needed to work in the corps de ballet all these years in order to become a soloist. That means it’s the way it should be. So, may it be that way. I’m grateful it happened. The administration allows me to dance and I feel needed by the theatre, and that’s a good thing.
Do you believe emploi exists?
It seems to me that it exists, it should exist, and it’s good that it does. Of course, there are multi-facted artists or prima ballerinas who can dance absolutely everything. But concerning character roles, there are Eastern dances and passionate Spanish dances, these are both different types of emploi and not every dancer can dance both. The concept of emploi today is unnoticeable – everyone dances everything, that’s in part why our theatre is unique.
You differentiate Spanish and Eastern, but the typical viewer, especially in the West, doesn’t differentiate them.
I just offered an example that’s within my own niche. For example, I haven’t danced Nurali (Fountain of Bakchisarei), first of all it’s a technically demanding role. I’d like to dance it but it’s likely not for me. We can rehearse a new role and the pedagogue will inform the director, so that they come to look at you. Then they decide. That’s happened to me more than once. For example, we prepared Vizir from “The Legend of Love”. We did it at the end of the season and the head of the ballet couldn’t come. And we recorded it on video, and sent it to him. He watched and said he liked it but still wanted to see it done live. So we had another viewing of it in the studio. And between a double-run of “Shurale” one day, I showed him and he gave me the role.
Have you experienced any unusual situations on stage?
From the most recent: I stepped on Zhenya Savkina’s skirt, she was dancing Mercedes in “Don Quixote”, and her skirt tore along its length, there was a piece of material that flew around behind her as she danced, like a tail. It was quite a long piece of material and I stepped on it. Thankfully everything happened without any injuries and in the end it was fine.
Then there was the “love” scene, when I performed the role of Hans (“Hilarion”) in “Giselle” with Katya Osmolkina and Maxim Zuizin, when Hans mimes “I love you” and he’s supposed to take off his hat. But when I was supposed to take it off, my thumb got stuck and the hat fell behind me, and I was trying to catch it behind my back. And according to Zuizin, “We turn around and you’re juggling your hat behind your back.” In the end I didn’t catch it, and it fell. That was a funny situation. At the end of the season the company collects funny videos from incidents on stage and we put them into 1 clip and laugh at ourselves.
Do you have any superstitions or a process before going on stage?
Yes, I have one. I sit on my knees or just on the floor on the stage, I breathe and focus on the performance. I also wash my hands before going on stage.
What do you do in your free time?
I love to take walks with my wife, read fiction, and we cook for each other, when she’s at work I cook and she cooks when I’m at work. This year, I will submit my application to receive a Master’s degree. I don’t know if they’ll accept me or not. But right now, since I have more free time, I can dedicate it to more studies.
Would you ever teach character dance?
Yes, I’m interested in what I’ve danced myself, what I’ve mastered and what I could teach others. But it would be even more interesting for me to work with adult dancers because I can’t imagine how to work with children, I presume you have to be a good psychologist and find a special approach with children. For me that would probably be difficult although I haven’t tried it. It’s much easier to explain something in your own words to adults, it seems.
Is there a role you’d like to dance?
Jose in “Carmen Suite”, Abderakhman in “Raymonda” and the Northerner in “The Stone Flower”. And Rothbart in “Swan Lake” – that’s of course a huge dream for me. Also Coppelius in the new “Coppelia” here. There are so many interesting roles in our theatre that I’d like to dance.
Do you eat?
When we have a lot of work, I eat in the theatre (cafeteria). Or my wife cooks for me when our schedules don’t coincide. We love to spend time in the kitchen together and cook together, that’s our hobby.
You’ve seen two leadership teams at the Vaganova Academy (Asylmuratova and Tsiskaridze) and two in the Mariinsky (Fateev and now Fadeev). Is there a difference between how people danced 11 years ago and how they dance now?
When I joined the Academy, the pedagogues and director gave comments and the pedagogues had authority, any correction needed to be accepted from the first try. That’s what I witnessed in my class. That was the discipline present. And I didn’t see a difference when I was in the Academy because we graduated under the same pedagogues we began under. But later in the theatre I noticed that the pedagogues had to shout at dancers. Because children didn’t accept what was told when they were simply spoken to. We arrived and learned the order of steps in the ballets and in the repertoire. Now the young dancers join unprepared. There were special rehearsals simply for them to learn this or that dance.
Despite technology, will ballet survive in the future?
Today, with all of these tendencies, everything will be fine with ballet, because there’s interest in it, and the young people come and dance and the viewers attend, and our profession is becoming more popular. At least it seems that way. If ballet used to be an elite art form, now it’s available to the masses and people like it.
Previously not everyone could attend, but now there are so many programs that a viewer can find what they like and attend. Moreover with the quantity that the Mariinsky Theatre offers.
What is your advice for younger people?
Believe in yourself and your strengths, try, don’t be afraid. And work on yourself. There was a funny moment – and my mom might get offended here – but when she sent me to Petersburg she thought “They won’t accept him, and he’ll come back home.” It turned out that they accepted me and I graduated and they also accepted me into the Mariinsky Theatre. And she’s proud of it. My parents travel here and come to my performances. Thank God.
Do you have a dream?
You have to have dreams. Of course, I want family happiness. To achieve what I can as a person, an individual, and to be an example.
All photos (с) Mariinsky Theatre. From the top: Enikeev in “Don Quixote” by Alexander Neff (2025), Natasha Razina (2024); in “Romeo and Juliet” (in the role of Tybalt) photo by Natasha Razina (2023); in “The Legend of Love” by Natasha Razina (2024).