Oleg Glushkov

Oleg Igorevich Glushkov (; December 10, 1978, Omsk) is a Russian theatre director, choreographer and theatre art teacher. Received several awards and nominations (both Russian and international) in theatre and choreography, including the Russian Federation Government Prize, the Golden Mask National Theatre Award, the Hedda Award and others.
==Early life and education:==
Oleg Glushkov was born on 10 December 1978 in Omsk. Both of his parents were archeologists. In school Oleg was interested in botanics and classical ballet. Also, he was involved in his parents’ summer expeditions. In 1995, Oleg entered Omsk Regional College of Culture And Arts’ choreographic department. At the same time, he was practicing in Omsk State Music Theatre ballet studio. Soon Oleg was invited to join the troupe and started to take part in theatre’s performances, but in 1998 he developed meningitis and had to abandon his dancing career. Oleg moved to Surgut, where he found a new theatre just preparing to open. Glushkov offered his services and was hired as a choreographer. The troupe had strong connections with Russian Institute of Theatre Arts in Moscow. Oleg decided to enter its choreographic department. During his studies, Glushkov continued to work on choreography at Surgut Music and Drama Theatre, where he created his first professional works.
==Teaching activities:==
Shortly after his own graduation in 2002, Oleg Glushkov was invited to the directing department of Russian Institute of Theatre Arts as a teacher of acting. Oleg Kudryashov, one of the faculty’s most advanced teachers, was interested in Glushkov’s works. Together they created a new subject, focused on dramatic action in choreography. The first training performance involving the technique, was very successful. Sergey Zhenovach, Leonid Heifetz, Evgeny Kamenkovich & Dmitry Krymov invited Gluskov to teach in their classes. Viktor Ryzhakov also engaged Oleg to teach in his class at Moscow Art Theatre School. In 2011, Glushkov was in charge of an international workshop with students of California Institute of the Arts, where he staged a plastic performance called “Old Boyfriends”. 
Every year since he started teaching, Oleg created at least one training performance per year in Russian Institute of Theatre Arts. Most notable of them are “War and peace” (based on Leo Tolstoy’s novel) and “Hypnos” (based on H.P. Lovecraft’s short story). In 2019, both of them appeared in the Golden Mask Festival’s special programme “Russian Case”, where “Hypnos” got 4 award nominations. Also, in 2019 Glushkov started his own class at musical theatre department of Russian Institute of Theatre Arts . Its first (and only) students received their degrees in 2022.
==Dramatic theatre productions:==
Glushkov’s outstanding works at Russian Institute of Theatre Arts bolstered his chorographer’s career. Oleg collaborated with Andrei Konchalovsky, Ivan Vyrypaev and Viktor Ryzhakov. In 2011, Mark Zakharov invited Glushkov to join his «Per Gynt» production at Lenkom Theatre as a choreographer and co-director. The performance was awarded the Russian Federation Government Prize. 
In 2009, Gluskov created choreography for Sigrid Strøm Reibo’s "The Cat that Walked by Himself" production at Russian Academic Youth Theatre. It was awarded the Golden Mask National Theatre Award in 2011. This performance was the first one in a series of successful coproductions. In 2012 Glushkov was a Hedda Award nominee for Best Choreography, presenting two of them, “The misanthrope” (Rogaland Teater) and “Black Rider” (Hålogaland Teater).
During the work on Reibo’s “Cat…”, Glushkov met Alexander Manotskov. In 2011, Oleg, acting both as director and choreographer, staged his opera “Gvidon” at School of Dramatic Art (Moscow). In 2012, the performance won the Golden Mask National Theatre Award in the Experiment category. This year, Glushkov and Manotskov produced one more experimental performance at Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center – “Four Quartets”, based on a set of poems by T. S. Eliot. Their last joint project was the “The Felix Bird”, opera, staged in 2022 at Sovremennik Theatre.
In 2012, Glushkov directed and choreographed “Sailors and Whores” at Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre. His next work with the troupe was “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, staged by Ivan Popovski in 2016. The performance won the Golden Mask Award, Oleg was in charge for dance composition. Glushkov’s last major choreography works on Russian stage were directed by Dmitry Krymov: “Mu-Mu” at Theatre of Nations (2018), “Seryozha” at Moscow Art Theatre (2018), “We are all here” at School of Modern Drama (Moscow). 
Now, Oleg is more focused on experimental works (like “Ah Tuzenbach” at National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, staged in 2019) and musical theatre. 
==Musical theatre productions:==
In 2014, Oleg Glushkov, Vadim Volya and Olga-Maria Tumakova formed an independent creative team, called “Moscow Royal Theatre”, where Oleg appeared as director/choreographer, and his partners were in charge of stage and costume design. The team’s first production, “All about Cinderella” at Moscow Musical Theatre, earned 4 Golden Mask nominations and 1 award. “Blue Blue Bird”, staged in 2017 at Theatre of Nations, won Moskovskij Komsomolets' award. The team’s last show, “The Will of Charles Adams”, presented in 2018 at Pyotr Fomenko Workshop Theatre, brought them the "Star of the theatregoer" award. It is also worth mentioning in 2016 Oleg was invited to choreograph the “Hipsters” musical by Margo Lion Ltd., but in 2020 the show was postponed due to COVID-19.
In 2012, Glushkov made his first appearance as an opera chorographer. Bolshoi Theatre invited him to work on “The Enchantress” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and “Francis” by Sergej Newski (the last production won Golden Mask Musical Theatre Jury`s Special Award in 2014). In 2016, Oleg was engaged by the Mariinsky Theatre to create dance composition in Dargomyzhsky’s “Rusalka”, directed by Vasily Barkhatov. Also, he choreographed “Boris Godunov” by Modest Mussorgsky, an Ivan Vyrypaev’s production at Grand Theatre, Poznań. Next, Glushkov produced a number of opera collaborations with Sigrid Strøm Reibo, including “Peer Gynt” (2014) and “Norma” (2018) at Norwegian National Opera and “Dido and Aeneas” (2018) at National Theatre (Oslo) . Furthermore, in 2020 «Metropolitan Opera» announced a new staging of Verdi’s “Aida” directed by Michael Mayer and choreographed by Oleg Glushkov. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, performance was rescheduled to 2024.
==Movie and TV productions:==
In 2008, Glushkov debuted in film industry. He composed dances for Valery Todorovsky’s “Hipsters” (the picture won 8 Golden Eagle and Nika Awards in total). Then Todorovsky entrusted Oleg to choreograph his TV series called “The Thaw” (2013), and a ballet-themed feature film called “Bolshoy” (2017). Glushkov made several joint projects with his close friend Аndrey Pershin (comedy director, known as Zhora Kryzhovnikov), including “The Very Best Day” (2015). Oleg also arranged dance sequences (excluding figure skating scenes) for "Ice" (2018) by Oleg Trofim. 
Since 2008, Oleg worked on TV and was in charge of choreography in a number of Russian talent shows. In 2016, he collaborated with “Sila Sveta” to create a media performance called “The Pygmalion” for “America’s got talent”. 
==Business events and shows:==
In 2014 Sila Sveta hired Oleg as an art director for BMW X4 presentation in Shanghai. In 2015 the studio teamed up with the Departáment event agency in Moscow to hold BMW X7 presentation, where Glushkov staged dance performances. In 2016 Marina Glukhova and Laboratory ABC invited Oleg to create a special mixed media installation called “The Forest” for Natalia Vodianova’s Love Ball in Paris. In 2017 Glushkov choreographed the Lexus Dome grand opening show created in Moscow by Sila Sveta.
==Installations and performance art:==
In 2014, Glushkov used all the media design skills he had obtained in business event production to create an interactive exhibition called “Experiences” at Troyka Multispace (Moscow). The project produced by Marina Glukhova was a massive collaboration with Interactive Lab studio, involving VR and other digital media along with traditional arts. The space was arranged in a sequence of rooms, where visitors (one person at a time) stayed alone to experience a set of emotional experiments on themselves. For example, the final room was hiding a typical soviet flat interior (inspired by Glushkov’s childhood) with a “family” of performers, who treated the visitor as a close sibling returned from a long absence.
In 2018, Oleg got into techno and modular synthesizers. He teamed up with composer Vasilii Miroliubov, who scored Glushkov’s “Hypnos” at Praktika theatre, to create electronic live duo “Glushkov & Miroliubov” and produce a series of art performances bringing theatre and choreography to the dancefloor, including: “The Moment” at Funkhouse (Berlin), celebrating 10 years of ARMA17 club; “The Lesson” at Mutabor opening night (Moscow); Adidas Originals 2019 presentation (Moscow). In 2019 Oleg helped Nina Kraviz to create her “Dream machine” dance performance for Coachella festival. Soon “Glushkov & Miroliubov” appeared on big festival stages themselves – they’ve performed at Signal festival in Nikola-Lenivets (2020, 2021) and at Sensor festival in Yerevan (2022, with Andrei Oid as "GMO").
==Music videos and concerts:==
Glushkov’s connections with the industry spread far beyond the electronic music stage – since 2013 he composed dances in popular music videos and concert shows for different Russian artists, including Musya Totibadze, “SBP4” (also known as “Samoe Bolshoe Prostoe Chislo”, lit. “The Largest Prime Number”) and others. Furthermore, Kirill Ivanov of “SBP4” invited Oleg to direct a set of band’s special projects: theatre performances for the unique 24-hour concert at Red Bull Music Festival (Moscow, 2019), experimental album based on the “Story of the lost mirror” by Pavel Pepperstein (2021) etc. 
 
==Artistic language:==
In the end of 90s, when Oleg entered Russian Institute of Theatre Arts chorographic department, Moscow experienced a boom of contemporary dance studies – the city hosted American Dance Festival (ADF) for 3 times (1997, 1999, 2000), European Dance Festival (EDF) for 2 times (1999, 2001), etc. Young Glushkov embraced a variety of techniques, developed by world’s leading choreographers: Oleg learned Min Tanaka’s approach based on “growing” performer’s plastic expression from his body features without forcing him to adopt foreign gestures; from Pina Bausch he learned to use choreography as a narrative language, designed to be read without any “dictionary of symbols”; from Steve Paxton – to consider even routine daily life motions as a kind of dance composition, to redefine the expected look of the dance itself. Later, Glushkov developed his artistic language as a tool to connect drama and choreography in a kind of «collective dream» for his performers, their characters and all the audience. Also, Oleg is known for using associative connections (instead of plot-based logic) as a “glue” for his performances’ structure.
==Private life:==
Oleg Glushkov has a wife (Alena) and a daughter (Sacha). When he has time, he enjoys electronic music and mountain climbing.
Category:1978 births
Category:People from Omsk
Category:Russian people
Category:Russian theatre directors
Category:Choreographers
Category:Theatre