Vasiliev was named "God of the dance"[6][7] and is regarded as a classical dancer on the same level as Rudolf Nureyev, Erik Bruhn and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

[citation needed] New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff described the excitement of one of Vasiliev's United States performances with the Bolshoi Ballet: "Yekaterina Maksimova and Vladimir Vasiliev burst upon New York City in 1959, the greatest of the passionate young dancers who, with Moscow's more established stars, made the Bolshoi Ballet's American debut a total triumph.

"[10] The Bolshoi tour to London in 1969 was dominated by the sensational impact of Aram Khachaturian's ballet Spartacus as choreographed by Yury Grigorovich, in which, wrote the leading critic Richard Buckle, "Maximova would melt any tyrant's heart".

paid tribute to the couple, saying Maximova, with her "elegant build, beauty, virtuosity and even more so her spontaneity and sincerity", was treated like a "rare treasure" by the indomitable Vasiliev.

[citation needed] Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maximova gleaned wide exposure for their appearances in Franco Zeffirelli's filmed version of Giuseppe Verdi's opera La traviata of 1983.

[8] Mathias Heymann, who was promoted to principal dancer with the Paris Opera Ballet in 2009 at only 22 years old, told in an interview that he takes inspiration from watching videos of Rudolf Nureyev, whom he regards as his role model, along with Vasiliev and Baryshnikov.

Russia's influential ballet critic and choreographer Fyodor Lopukhov called Vasiliev "God of the dance" and "A miracle in art, perfection".

Among the most notable were those created by Yury Grigorovich, who gave him the principal roles in his original productions of The Tale of the Stone Flower, Spartacus, The Nutcracker, the ballet version of Ivan the Terrible, Valery Gavrilin's Anyuta (1982), and Yakov Eshpai's Angara (1976).

Besides Maximova, Vasiliev's famous partners included Galina Ulanova, Maya Plisetskaya, Alicia Alonso, Carla Fracci, Rita Poelvoorde and Ambra Vallo.