The art of choreographer Zakharov made up an entire epoch in the history of the Soviet and world ballet and opera theater.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the ballet theater began to move away from romanticism and get closer to the great world classical literature.
In 1927, while working in the theater, he organized a ballet studio in Kiev, where he taught the basics of classical, duet and folk dance.
Kirov Saint Petersburg (now the Mariinsky Theater), where in 1934 he staged his most famous ballet The Fountain of Bakhchisarai to the music of Boris Asafiev based on the poem by Alexander Pushkin.
Kirov he staged ballets Lost Illusions by Boris Asafiev (1936), The Red Poppy and The Bronze Horseman (1949) by Reinhold Glière, dances in the operas Khovanshchina by Modest Mussorgsky (1933) and Huguenots to Giacomo Meyerbeer’s music (1935).
In 1936–1956 he became the chief choreographer and opera director of the Bolshoi Theater, where he staged ballets: The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (new version 1936), Prisoner of the Caucasus (1938) and The Lady-Peasant (1946) by B. Asafiev, Cinderella (1945) by S. Prokofiev, Don Quixote (1940) by L. Minkus, Taras Bulba (1940) by V. Soloviev-Sedoy.
The legendary dance "Gopak", which has been performed with great success on stages of the world's best theaters for over 80 years, is a variation of Ostap from the ballet Taras Bulba.
He became a permanent head of the choreography department of the State Institute of Theater Arts GITIS (Moscow), in 1951 he received a title of professor.
Among his students were figures from the Soviet and foreign ballet theater: Igor Smirnov, Alexander Lapauri, Natalia Konyus, Mikhail Lavrovsky, Andrey Petrov, Dmitry Bryantsev, Anatoly Borzov, Jiri Blazek and Marilena Totova (Czechoslovakia), Nadezhda Kiradzhieva (Bulgaria), Vera Bokkadoro (France), etc.
Since 1947, he regularly participated in the Worldwide Festivals of Youth and Students as chief ballet master and was one of the leaders of the Soviet delegation.