Founder and Executive Director | Vasile Petrutiu

Born in Transylvania, Romania, Mr. Petrutiu graduated at the top of his class with the highest degree in the field of dance from the Romanian Academy of Fine Arts. Following graduation, he immediately joined the Romanian National Opera and Ballet in Bucharest and later accepted an invitation to join The Classical and Contemporary Ballet of Romania as principal dancer and toured extensively throughout Europe, Canada and the United States. In 1982 he defected while on tour in USA. In 1984 Mr. Petrutiu established his residency in the United States and later got his US citizenship. His distinguished career includes the title of principal dancer with noted companies Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Cleveland-San Jose Ballet, Dallas Ballet, Tulsa Ballet Theatre, Nevada Dance Theatre, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Alberta Ballet, and encompasses an extensive repertoire of leading roles in classical ballets and contemporary pieces. Mr. Petrutiu has also acted as artistic director, master teacher, school director, and choreographer for several companies, most recently Southern Ballet Theater (SBT), now Orlando Ballet. Under his direction SBT successfully eliminated its trailing deficit of over 400K, tripled season subscriptions, and earned a surplus of 125K by his third year of leadership. In 2000, Mr. Petrutiu founded and incorporated The Ballet Academy of Central Florida and the Central Florida Ballet (CFB), guiding the two organizations to great success. The Academy reached an enrollment of over 300 students in just four months and in 2003, Mr. Petrutiu’s Nutcracker production received international recognition being featured in USA Today and CNN Headline News as “one of the five outstanding productions in the nation”. In 2007, Central Florida Ballet was recognized for its original production of “9/11 An American Moment” by The House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. as ”the only company in the nation to have created a ballet on 9/11 this fateful day in American history”. In 2007, Mr. Petrutiu inaugurated the World Ballet Competition, which became the first ballet competition to be entirely broadcast on the internet. The WBC has since generated more than 30 million internet views worldwide and has been featured in numerous magazines internationally, including multiple page layouts in Dance for You Magazine (based in Europe) and Danca Brasil Magazine (based in South America). Mr. Petrutiu is excited to continue working with professional dancers and students throughout the world as well as to bring quality in dance to Central Florida and abroad.

Artistic Director | Vladmir Bykov

Mr. Bykov graduated from the Kiev State Ballet Academy (Ukraine) in 1988 and joined the Malyi Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Kiev as a principal dancer. In 1995, he received a Master's Degree from the Kiev National Institute of the Arts. Vladimir has performed in leading roles including The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Harlequinade, Romeo and Juliet, and the Rite of Spring. Vladimir toured throughout Europe and came to the U.S. in 1996 where he danced with El Paso Ballet, New Mexico Ballet, Albuquerque and Dallas Metropolitan Ballet. He has been a ballet instructor at the University of Texas and was awarded Outstanding Male Newcomer by the El Paso Association for the Performing Arts in 1998. Before joining Central Florida Ballet as Ballet master, Mr. Bykov danced with Southern Ballet Theatre (now Orlando Ballet) and also served as a teacher and coach for the company. In year 2004 Mr. Bykov was appointed and accepted the Artistic Director’s position with Central Florida Ballet. In 2007, Mr. Bykov accepted the Artistic Director position with the World Ballet Competition.

Our Team