Valery Stepanovich Lagunov was born in
Moscow,
Russian SFSR,
USSR. In 1962 he graduated from the Moscow State Choreographic Academy where his teacher was
Aleksey Yermolayev, and same year joined
Bolshoi Ballet. He first appeared in
Scriabiniana as
Garland in 1962 and next year played in
The Sleeping Beauty as Prince. In 1966 he played one of the shepherd boys in
the Nutcracker and five years later appeared as Archon in
Icarus. In 1972 he participated in the
Swan Lake where he played a role of the evil genius and the same year played a role as a dance teacher in
Cinderella. Three years later he appeared as
Albrecht in
Giselle and by 1976 had played in
Mozart and Salieri. The same year he was named
Honored Artist of the RSFSR and also appeared as
Don Juan in
Love for Love. In 1979, he graduated from the Russian University of Theatre Arts and retired as a dancer in 1983. Since 1996, he had taught future ballet dancers, such as
Mikhail Lobukhin and
Vladislav Lantratov. Lagunov died on 18 December 2023, at the age of 81. ==References==