Ilya is the first and only Vaganova-certified teacher in Singapore. He completed his 8 years of professional dancer vocational training at the prestigious Vaganova Ballet Academy in Russia, in which he received intensive coaching in Classical Ballet, Character Dance, Contemporary and Dance Education in Dance History.

In 2015, Ilya was selected for the Professional Teacher’s Training Program with the Vaganova Ballet Academy. Less than 10 professional dancers are hand-picked each year after a careful and rigorous selection process for this prestigious program at the Vaganova Ballet Academy. He was coached by teachers who were the very students of A.Y. Vaganova, founder of the Academy and Vaganova method.
Ilya is a highly sought-after teacher and choreographer, having been invited to teach in various schools in Europe and Asia. One of his students, Henri Frey, was selected as the only candidate to represent Germany at the Prix de Lausanne 2020 and received scholarships from 3 prestigious institutions: Palucca Hochschule for Tanz Dresden, Royal Ballet School Antwerp and the Royal Swedish Ballet School. After completion of his scholarship year, Henri is now a dancer with Ballett Theater Kiel.

He had an illustrious ballet career, working with the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, Universal Ballet Company in Seoul and Boris Eifman Theater in Saint Petersburg. His lead roles include Prince Siegfried and Rothbart in Swan Lake, the Cavalier in the Nutcracker, the lead role in Ohad Naharin’s Minus 7 among others. He has worked with many world-renowned ballet masters and choreographers such as Mats Ek, William Forsythe, John Neumeier, Jiri Kylian, Alexei Ratmansky and Evgeniy Neff.