Youri Vámos was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. He trained in ballet from a young age at the State Ballet School in

. He was a soloist at the Hungarian State Opera and then later accepted a contract as a first soloist at the

Bavarian State Opera The Bavarian State Opera () is a German opera company based in Munich. Its main venue is the Nationaltheater München, and its orchestra the Bavarian State Orchestra. History The parent ensemble of the company was founded in 1653, under El ...

. After his career as a dancer Vámos began to focus on choreography and teaching. He served as ballet director in

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, and

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. His choreography focuses on full length ballets that he revises for modern audiences. For such he has been called “the last ballet narrator” by Petr Zuska, the Artistic Director of the National Theatre Ballet in Prague. He has used traditional stories like

Sleeping Beauty "Sleeping Beauty" (, or ''The Beauty Sleeping in the Wood''; , or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess curse, cursed by an evil fairy to suspended animation in fi ...

and

the Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...

as the basis for modern ballets. For example, his production of the Nutcracker uses the

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular ...

score, but changes the story to tell of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

' tale of Scrooge, combining the two beloved Christmas stories into one ballet. In each ballet Vámos is intrigued by the original music and its ability to convey character and emotional nuance to the audience. His choreography mirrors these characteristics through its idiosyncratic movements that give each dancer a particular role. Vámos created many of these ballets during his thirteen years at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where his performances were often applauded for the new life they brought to older stories. His critical acclaim continued; in 2007 he received the Order of Merit of the German state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. Since 2009 Vámos has worked as a freelance choreographer, working with companies around the world such as the

Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe The Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe is a theatre and opera house in Karlsruhe, Germany. It has existed in its present form and place at Ettlinger Tor since 1975. Achim Thorwald became the Theater manager, Intendant in summer 2002 and held that ...

and the National Theatre in Prague."Biography"
youri -vamos.com

References

External links

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Archive film of Youri Vamos and Joyce Cuoco dancing Spring Waters in 1979 at Jacob's Pillow
Hungarian choreographers Living people Hungarian male ballet dancers Ballet choreographers Year of birth missing (living people) Entertainers from Budapest {{dance-bio-stub