ILYA NIKUROV

Partnering, Special Lecture

Born in Kemerovo, Russia, Ilya Nikurov is a movement artist and award winning choreographer based in California, USA. He started ballroom dance at the age of 7. He studied modern and contemporary dance at multiple schools in Kemerovo, and in 2005, was awarded by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation for his self-choreographed solo performance. From 2004-2008 he danced with folk dance company, Siberian Kaleidoscope and following this, relocated to Moscow where he worked as a principal dancer with Boroditsky Dennis Dance Company, and was a dancer with The Great Moscow Circus. Ilya performed in several musical theater productions, such as “Romeo and Juliet”, “Notre Dame de Paris” and more. In 2012 he worked with critically acclaimed Belgian choreographer Ann Van den Broek as a dancer in her work “Kamera”. In 2014, Ilya joined the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (Israel). During his time with KCDC, Ilya took part in 9 productions of the company, performing in Israel and as well as touring internationally to more than 20 countries, and served as a resident choreographer and teacher for the International Dance Journey Program. Additionally, he worked with Israeli choreographer Eyal Dadon for his two creations for KCDC. In 2018, Ilya received the Yair Shapira Award for his contribution to contemporary dance in Israel.

From 2021- present, Ilya is a choreographer and co-director of the collaborative dance project, ‘Outrun The Bear’, together with his partner Megan Doheny.