Petar Lukanov was born on October 22, 1931, in the village of Brusartsi. He attended the Lom Boys’ High School, played the violin, accordion, and trombone, and was a member of the school’s brass band and dance troupe. After nationalization, the family moved to Sofia. As the son of a kulak, Petar Lukanov was denied the opportunity to continue his education and served his military service in the Labour Corps, where he also performed with the Labour Corps Ensemble. A meeting after a concert in Stara Zagora with the ballet master of the Ruse Opera forever sealed the young dancer’s fate. “Asen Manolov is the man who introduced me to ballet and who made me fall in love with this art,” Prof. Petar Lukanov would write years later in his autobiography. (Lukanov, P. 'Dance in My Life'. 2015).
From 1955 to 1963, he was appointed as a ballet dancer at the Ruse Opera. His first appearance on the opera stage was during a ballet evening held at the Military Club. Lukanov recalls that choreographer Asen Manolov staged, for him, Tanya Popova and the ballet company the waltz “On the Blue Danube” to music by Strauss. His first appearances in ballet performances, choreographed by Asen Manolov, were in the ensemble scenes of “Scheherazade” by N. Rimsky-Korsakov (1953), conducted by Lyuben Pintev, with set design by Tsanko Voynov, and “The Rivals“ by Peter Ludwig (1954), conducted by Romeo Raichev, with set design by Tsvyatko Voynov. Under the guidance of the experienced teacher Patsi Bogatinova, the young ballet dancer quickly mastered the dances in the entire repertoire: “La Traviata“ by Verdi, “The Bartered Bride“ by Smetana, “Keto and Kote” by Dolidze, “Mademoiselle Nitouche” by Hervé, “The Queen of the Csárdás” by Kalman, and others.
In 1957, Lukanov appeared in two productions choreographed and directed by Mercedes Pavelic, the ballet master at the Timisoara Opera: “Till Eulenspiegel” - a ballet by Richard Strauss—and “The Enchanted Forest” to music by Hermann Klee, conducted by Ruslan Raichev, with set design by Tsvyatko Voynov. The following year, Asen Manolov staged his own original production and choreography of one of the most challenging works in the world of ballet - “Giselle“ by Adolphe Adam, conducted by Boris Hinchev. This was followed by his first solo roles - as the Jester in “Swan Lake“ (1961) - and critical acclaim: “Petar Lukanov creates a very lively and charming portrayal of the Jester. In his performance, everything speaks to the life-affirming spirit of the Renaissance…” Lili Draguleva was his partner in *The Nutcracker* (1962), Tchaikovsky’s fairy-tale ballet; they had been married since 1964. His ballet repertoire was further enriched by his participation in the contemporary ballet “New Odyssey“, set to music by Viktor Bruns (1963). Lukanov’s first dance performance on a professional stage was the original brainchild of Alexander Vladigerov, the newly appointed conductor of the Ruse Philharmonic. Vladigerov, who at the time had formed a jazz ensemble, had the exceptionally bold idea of creating a dance to Gershwin’s “The Man I Love” to be performed during concerts.
Even today, Prof. Boyanka Arnaudova and Prof. Lily Draguleva recall those unforgettable evenings when, in the refined atmosphere of the home of Dr. Panayot Hitov (Otto Hitov), Alexander Vladigerov would play his favourite jazz pieces on the piano of the host (the grandson of the revolutionary leader P. Hitov), who were disliked by the communist authorities.
In 1963, the director of the Opera, Georgi Chendov, and the city’s leadership supported the young, talented ballet dancer, and despite his “kulak” background, he was accepted to study ballet choreography at the State Institute of Theater Arts in Moscow. The following year, again with the assistance of Georgi Chendov, Lili Draguleva left for a two-year specialization program in Moscow, while Petar Lukanov received a tempting offer - to create a ballet production for the 1965 “March Music Days” (MMD) International Festival. And the second-year student at the Moscow Theater Institute chose something new, unexpected, and never before staged in Bulgaria - three one-act musical works, each distinct in style and character: Tchaikovsky’s “Francesca da Rimini“, Béla Bartók’s “The Miraculous Mandarin“, and George Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture“ - the favorite composer of conductor Alexander Vladigerov. The set designer was Natasha Khrennikova. The program for that same edition of the festival also included the Bulgarian premiere of “Katerina Izmailova” by Dmitri Shostakovich. In 2022, when Prof. P. Lukanov was in Ruse for the last time to restage the ballet “The Goat’s Horn,” he shared that back then, in January 1965, when he travelled from Moscow to Ruse for rehearsals of the three ballets, he had also brought the scores for the opera “Katerina Izmailova”; he also spoke of the excitement surrounding his first premiere as a ballet master during the March Music Days and of the audience’s enthusiastic applause. Among the guests were composers Pancho Vladigerov, Tikhon Khrennikov, Dmitri Shostakovich, and others.
The following year, again as part of the MMD program, on March 12, 1966, three more one-act ballets by the same creative team - choreographer Petar Lukanov, conductor Alexander Vladigerov, and set designer Natasha Khrennikova - premiered: “The Fairy’s Kiss” by Igor Stravinsky, “The Prodigal Son” by Sergei Prokofiev, and “An American in Paris” by George Gershwin. Among the guests were Tikhon Khrennikov and Lina Prokofieva, wife of composer Sergei Prokofiev, who remarked that “Lukanov's production is original, distinctive, and full of fresh ideas."In 1967, Lukanov served as the choreographer for the dances in the opera “Mother“ by T. Khrennikov, directed by Emil Passenkov, conducted by Romeo Raichev, and with set design by Albin Morozov.
In 1968, Petar Lukanov graduated with honors in “Ballet Direction” from the State Institute of Theater Arts (GITIS) in Moscow, where he studied under Prof. Leonid Lavrovsky, principal ballet master and director of the Bolshoi Theater’s ballet company.
During the second half of the 1970s, choreographer Petar Lukanov was a prominent figure in the repertoire of the Ruse ballet company. On January 23, 1975, the production “An Evening of Contemporary Ballet” premiered, featuring three ballet miniatures: “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Paul Dukas, “Love Magic” by Manuel de Falla, and “Boléro” by M. Ravel, conducted by Ivan Filev, with set design by Ventsislav Trifonov; Petar Lukanov even danced in place of an ailing ballet dancer. In June, the next ballet premiere featured the miniatures “The Lonely One” by Manuel Rodrigo, “Christmas and the Crucifixion” by Vasil Kazandzhiev, “Spring Mood” by Krasimir Kyurkchiyiski, and “Immortality” by Ivan Marinov - who also conducted the performance - with set design by Ventsislav Trifonov. After seventeen years, the romantic ballet “Giselle” (1975), choreographed by Lukanov, returns to the Ruse stage, with Ivan Filev as conductor and Natasha Khrennikova as set designer. The 1998 production was also choreographed by Petar Lukanov, with Evgeni Dimitrov as conductor and Ivan Popov as set designer. “I worked with the Ruse Opera Ballet with love and pleasure” – writes P. Lukanov in his autobiography. “It was in this opera that I grew as a dancer and choreographer; even as generations change, the traditions remain… The Ruse production of “Don Quixote” is not a simple ballet in terms of its vocabulary… the complexity of the choreography is a true training ground for future artists…”. He also participated in the program of the 45th anniversary season of the “March Music Days” International Festival with a choreography of “Ballet Music in Memory of Stravinsky,” in memory of Simeon Pironkov (2005), conducted by Simeon Pironkov Jr., with set design by Ivan Savov.
The most significant part of Prof. Lukanov’s creative legacy consists of productions based entirely on Bulgarian music and plots. With the ballet “Haidushka Song” by Alexander Raichev, libretto by Alexander Hadzhikhristov based on Hristo Botev’s poem “Haiduti,” conducted by Romeo Raichev, with set design by Petar Popov and costumes by Violeta Radkova, the Ruse Opera participated in the 16th edition of the March Music Days (1976). In a review of the performance in the magazine “Musical Horizons”, Violeta Konsulova writes: “While preserving, on the one hand, the reality of the historical play and framing it within classical dance forms, the choreographer subjects it to a subtle aestheticization… The associative nature of the choreography hints at the essence of the facts without turning it into an end in itself…”. Lukanov was the choreographer for both productions of the ballet “Nestinarka” by Marin Goleminov (1978) staged in Ruse, with Kamen Goleminov as conductor and Ivan Savov as set designer. The new stage version of “Nestinarka” (1998) - conducted by Tsanko Delibozov, with set design by Radostin Chomakov and costumes by Boyana Chomakova - marked the composer’s 90th birthday. He also choreographed the dances for the operas “La Traviata” (1996), “Rigoletto” (1997), and “Un ballo in maschera” (1997).
The program for the 37th International March Music Days included the premiere of the ballet “The Goat’s Horn“ by Krasimir Kyurkchiyiski on March 26, 1997, conducted by Tsanko Delibozov, with choreography by P. Lukanov and set and costume design by Ivan Popov.
A quarter of a century after its premiere on the Ruse stage, on October 23, 2022, the choreographer presented his final version of “The Goat’s Horn,” with set design and costumes by Gabriela Kardzhilova. On the very same stage where the young ballet dancer’s professional career began, the 90-year-old Prof. Lukanov presented his final performance in his long creative career. A challenge for the choreographer was to help the international cast of the Ruse ballet company - which had primarily performed in classical productions - to feel the spirit of Bulgarian music and dance: Italians, Brazilians, the role of Kara Ivan was performed by a Japanese ballet dancer, and the cast included dancers with diverse sensibilities toward musical dramaturgy. In 2025, on the occasion of March 3, Bulgaria’s national holiday, and at the invitation of the Bulgarian Embassy in Montenegro, the Ruse Opera presented “The Goat’s Horn“ on national stages in the cities of Cetinje and Podgorica. The dancers admit that, under the musical and dramatic impact of the music and the tragic finale, they shed tears, forgetting for a moment that they were on stage.
Prof. Petar Lukanov, the doyen of Bulgarian ballet, passed away on May 10, 2024.
* Author: Dr. Veselina Antonova, archivist at the State Opera – Ruse
