Andrey Berezin

Born in 1976, Andrey Berezin grew up in Perm, close to the Ural Mountains. He joined a children’s dance troupe and started performing from a young age. This experience helped him when he auditioned to get into a boarding school specialising in dance and choreography. For eight years, until he graduated in 1986, he went to school in the mornings and trained in the afternoons. He then got a job as a dancer in northern Russia, joining the municipal theatre in Syktyvkar. It was a repertoire theatre where he danced something different every day, including operettas. After three and a half years he moved to Moscow to join the newly founded Kremlin Ballet, where he danced from 1989 to 1993. In 1993, the Tanztheater Wuppertal and Folkwang Tanzstudio came to perform in Moscow. Andrey Berezin saw two general rehearsals and after auditioning, was invited to join the company. He moved to Wuppertal in 1994, but had no idea at the time that he would stay so long. His first piece was The Rite of Spring: “It wasn’t in my body yet – that took several years. I had to find myself anew, and re-learn everything I knew.” He took over some of Jan Minařík’s roles, among others in The Window Washer and Viktor. His first new creation with Pina Bausch was Danzón. “It was the first time that I really felt we dancers were included in the artistic process – we are creative. We are looking for movements and offer ideas. Pina immediately accepted every colour.” That is why he has remained faithful to the Tanztheater Wuppertal to this day.