Oleksandr Vykhrest studied classical ballet and graduated from the Ballet Academy of Ukraine in 2001. During this time until 2002, he was a soloist dancer with Classical Ballet of Kiev under the direction of Valeriy Koftun where he danced principal roles from La Bayadere, Giselle, Swan Lake, and Romeo and Juliet. In 2002, he joined Donetsk Ballet Company under the direction of Vadim Pisarev. While with the Donetsk Ballet Company, he toured Japan, The United States, China, Greece, Bulgaria, and Lebanon. His principal roles included: The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, La Bayadere, Chipolina, Per Gunt, Don Quixote, and Spartacus. In January of 2005, Mr. Vykhrest joined Sarasota Ballet of Florida and danced as a soloist until 2008 performing roles in Robert De Warren’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Carmina Burana, Catasan, La Buetic Fantastic, Diana and Acton, Firebird, Othello, The Nutcracker, and Coppelia. In 2008, he joined Columbia Classical Ballet. Under the direction of Radenko Pavlovich, Oleksandr’s repertoire includes: the Prince in The Nutcracker, the Captain in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Chief in Rick McCullough’s Rite of Spring, Aladdin and Jafar in Aladdin, and the Wizard in Oz. From 2013 to 2018, he accepted the position as Ballet Master of Columbia Classical Ballet as well as an instructor for Pavlovich Ballet School. During this period, he staged full length ballets such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadere, Le Corsaire, Aladdin, and Don Quixote, as well as numerous choreographies by Rick McCullough. He has also been a guest teacher for Kingsport Ballet in Tennessee for the last ten years.
