Among his teachers during this time were Jean-Antoine Petipa, Alexandr Pimenov, Pierre Frédéric Malavergne and Emile Gredlu (Эмиль Гредлю).

While some contemporary and modern accounts dispute this, Ivanov is still mentioned in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition with choreographing at least the majority of the ballet as Petipa had reportedly not progressed very far in his work.

[1] Regardless of the amount of work he actually did, Petipa's was the only name listed for choreography on posters for the first production in St.

[1] Ivanov worked with Petipa on a new restaging of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet in 1895.

On the strength of his 50 years' service he petitioned the Imperial Theatres for financial assistance.