Igor Kolb was born June 6, 1977 in Pinsk (Belorussia) and trained at the Belorussia State Ballet School in Minsk with Vera Shveitsova, Jansen and Alexander Kolidenko. Even before graduation Kolb already started dancing with the Minsk Ballet. Under the guidance of Kolidenko he prepared for the Vaganova Prix, the annual international competition in St. Petersburg for young dancers. When he took third prize in 1996, he decided to stay and work in St. Petersburg. He auditioned several times, unsuccessfully, for the Mariinsky Theatre, yet it was only after his graduation in 1996 from the Belorussia State Ballet School that he was able to join the Kirov Ballet.

At the Mariinsky Igor Kolb started working with Yuri Fateyev who proved not only a welcome support for the young and isolated dancer during his first and difficult years in St. Petersburg, but also was able to polish Kolb's rather provincial training to the level of the Mariinsky. However, by a management's decision he was later transferred to work with the reputed Gennadi Selyutski, who remains to this day his coach.

Kolb soon became one of the company's most prominent male dancers, appearing as the frequent partner of the Mariinsky's leading ladies Zhanna Ayupova, Diana Vishneva, Svetlana Zakharova, Daria Pavlenko and Sofia Gumerova. In June 1997 he made his debut as Prince Desire for Vishneva's Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty. In October of that same year Kolb danced with Svetlana Ivanova in the Sleeping Beauty performance especially dedicated to the legendary ballerina Mathilde Kshessinskaya. In May 2000 Kolb danced his first Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake.

By his splendid mastery of the classical dance, his elegant, virile manners, and his introspective nature Igor Kolb became one of the Mariinsky's most acclaimed performers of the lyrical-romantic repertoire, excelling as the poet in Chopiniana, Albrecht in Giselle or the Prince in the traditional Vainonen Nutcracker. Recently he was also cast in the bravura role of the exotic slave Ali in Le Corsaire, a role which suits him less well by temperament and emotion. In May 2002 Kolb was selected to dance Solor at the premiere of Sergei Vikharev's reconstruction of Petipa's La Bayadere, partnering Daria Pavlenko and Elvira Tarassova. In the beginning of 2003 he was promoted to principal dancer.

On 22 February 2002 Igor Kolb made his debut with the Rome Opera Ballet, dancing Prince Siegfried with Svetlana Zakharova in Paul Chalmer's version of The Sleeping Beauty. In 2006, Igor Kolb debuted at the Wiener Staatsoper in Rudolf Nureyev's Swan Lake.

Marc Haegeman