Nikolay Maximovich Tsiskaridze PAR (; , Nik'oloz Cisk'aridze) is a Georgian-Russian ballet dancer who had been a member of the Bolshoi Ballet for 21 years (1992–2013). Biography Early years Nikolay Tsiskaridze was born in Tbilisi, Soviet Georgia in 1973. He was a late firstborn child to Lamara Nikolayevna Tsiskaridze, then 42 years old, and grew up not knowing his father. His mother was a physicist, and she worked at Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant, then as a teacher at Tbilisi public school №162. Five years after his mother's death an aunt revealed Tsiskaridze's father was a brother of their neighbor, a violinist, who lived next door for almost 20 years, a fact he was unaware of. Career in Ballet Tsiskaridze began his dance studies at the Tbilisi Ballet School in 1984. His mother supported his pursuit of ballet career, and she saved money to take him to Moscow to auditions. In 1987, he joined the Moscow Ballet School and studied under the guidance of Pyotr Pestov. After graduating in 1992, Tsiskaridze joined the ballet company of the Bolshoi Theatre, then under the direction of Yury Grigorovich. In Bolshoi, Tsiskaridze was coached by Galina Ulanova and Marina Semyonova. He was promoted to the position of principal dancer in 1995. Since then, Tsiskaridze has performed internationally with a number of ballet companies across the world, including the Mariinsky Ballet and Paris Opera Ballet. He also participated in most of the foreign tours of the Bolshoi Ballet, "Kings of the Dance" international project, Les Saisons Russes du XXI Siecle. Over the course of his dance career, he performed over seventy roles in major classical works as well as ballets by renowned modern choreographers. While dancing, Tsiskaridze studied at the Pedagogical faculty of the Institute of Choreography in 1996. Since 2003, he has taught a daily ballet class at the Bolshoi Theatre, and began also teaching at the Moscow Ballet Academy in 2004. In October 2003, Tsiskaridze faced a major injury which threatened to end his career. During the rehearsal at Opera de Paris he tore the cruciate ligament. An operation on the knee was followed by a major staphylococci infection. After 9 more operations, he achieved complete recovery and returned to the stage after a nine-month intermission. As a dancer, Tsiskaridze possessed the purity of Russian dance training and the regality and mystery of royalty. His extremely long legs moved with masculine power, yet