Ivan
Es­tegne­ev

Ivan Es­tegne­ev was born in 1980 in so­ut­hern Rus­sia and gra­du­ated from the Hu­mani­tari­an Ins­ti­tute in Sa­int Pe­ters­burg.

In 2002, to­get­her with his long­ti­me cre­ati­ve part­ner Ev­ge­ny Ku­lagin, he co-fo­un­ded Di­alo­gue Dan­ce Com­pa­ny and Scho­ol in Kost­ro­ma and be­gan to run it as an ar­tistic di­rec­tor. Sin­ce its fo­un­ding, Di­alo­gue Dan­ce has cre­ated over 30 pro­duc­ti­ons, three of which we­re awar­ded the Gol­den Mask, the hig­hest Rus­si­an na­ti­onal the­at­re award, for the best con­tempo­rary dan­ce per­forman­ce.

Es­tegne­ev and Ku­lagin are al­so the fo­un­ders and ar­tistic di­rec­tors of Stant­sia, an in­de­pen­dent ve­nue for con­tempo­rary art in Kost­ro­ma. Thro­ugh this plat­form, they ha­ve cu­rated and pro­duced nu­mero­us in­terdis­cipli­nary fes­ti­vals and in­terna­ti­onal col­la­bora­ti­ons ac­ross dan­ce, the­at­re, mu­sic, and con­tempo­rary art — inc­lu­ding the long-run­ning Di­ver­sia Fes­ti­val (2007–2022).

Sin­ce 2012, Es­tegne­ev has wor­ked as a re­sident cho­re­og­rapher at Mos­cow’s Go­gol Cen­ter, un­der the ar­tistic di­rec­ti­on of Ki­rill Se­reb­renni­kov. To­get­her with Ku­lagin, he cre­ated the pro­duc­ti­ons Sha­kes­pe­are (2017), Two Ro­oms (2018), and Ba­roc­co (2018), as well as se­veral ot­her works with Se­reb­renni­kov, inc­lu­ding pro­duc­ti­ons fe­atu­red in the ma­in prog­ram of the Fes­ti­val d’Avig­non. Sin­ce 2016 he has col­la­bora­ted with Po­lish di­rec­tor Grze­gorz Jar­zy­na (TR Wars­za­wa) in fi­ve dif­fe­rent pro­duc­ti­ons in Po­land, Rus­sia and Chi­na.

From 2015 to 2022, he ta­ught sta­ge mo­vement and ci­nema­tic dan­ce at the Mos­cow Film Scho­ol. In 2018, he co-fo­un­ded the phy­sical the­at­re work­shop Di­alog­Lab in Mos­cow, ser­ving as its ar­tistic di­rec­tor. Bet­we­en 2022 and 2024, he was cu­rator of the Con­text Fes­ti­val, fo­un­ded by world-re­now­ned pri­ma bal­le­rina Di­ana Vish­ne­va.

In 2022, Es­tegne­ev mo­ved to Ger­ma­ny, whe­re he be­came cho­re­og­rapher-in-re­siden­ce at Tha­lia The­ater in Ham­burg. The­re, he cont­ri­buted to se­veral pro­duc­ti­ons inc­lu­ding The Black Monk (Der Schwar­ze Mönch, in co-pro­duc­ti­on with Fes­ti­val d’Avig­non), Viy (Der Wij), The Bat's Re­ven­ge (Die Ra­che der Fle­der­ma­us), Ba­roc­co, No Exit (Gesc­hlos­se­ne Ge­sell­schaft), and Le­gend (Le­gen­de, in co-pro­duc­ti­on with Ruhr­tri­en­na­le).

He al­so te­ac­hes at the Con­tempo­rary Dan­ce Scho­ol Ham­burg (2023–2025), K3 – Zent­rum für Cho­re­og­raphie / Kamp­na­gel (2024), and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic and The­at­re Ham­burg (2023–2025).

In 2023, Es­tegne­ev co-cre­ated Apo­calyp­se To­mor­row with Ev­ge­ny Ku­lagin for the Ki­rill & Fri­ends com­pa­ny, which pre­mi­ered at Ham­burg’s Les­sing­ta­ge Fes­ti­val. That sa­me year, he de­velo­ped and pre­mi­ered his so­lo per­forman­ce De­mon’s Sor­row (Die Tra­uer des Dämons) in Ham­burg, cre­ated in col­la­bora­ti­on with Rus­si­an and Ger­man ar­tists and la­ter pre­sen­ted at se­veral Euro­pe­an fes­ti­vals.

In 2025, he di­rec­ted He­imat, a sta­ge prog­ram for the acc­la­imed mu­sical qu­ar­tet Sa­lut Sa­lon. That year, he al­so wor­ked as cho­re­og­rapher and per­former for two ma­jor ope­ra pro­duc­ti­ons: The Lis­te­ners at Aal­to Mu­sikt­he­ater Es­sen and Don Gi­ovan­ni / Re­qui­em at the Ko­misc­he Oper Ber­lin. In 2025, Ivan al­so wor­ked as a cho­re­og­rapher for Ki­rill Se­reb­renni­kov’s pro­duc­ti­on Der Schne­es­turm (The Bliz­zard) and  in co­ope­rati­on with Ev­ge­ny Ku­lagin la­unc­hed Di­alog­Lab, a prog­ram of­fe­ring phy­sical the­at­re work­shops in Ber­lin and ac­ross Euro­pe.

In 2026 his work for the ope­ra inc­lu­ded Das Rhe­in­gold for Os­terfest­spi­elen Salz­burg and Tu­ran­dot for Sta­at­so­per Stutt­gart.