Vladimir Burmeister born on 2nd (15th) July of 1904 in Vitebsk.

In 1925-29 he studied at the Lunacharsky Moscow Theatre College, at the same he performed on stage Hungarian, Spanish and other character dances, also performed in productions of the "Drambalet" studio under the leadership of N. Gremina. Since 1930 he had worked in the Moscow Art Ballet, which later became the part of the Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre (since 1941 Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre). He made his debut as a choreographer in 1938 - he staged dances in productions of operettas "The Beautiful Helen" (1938) and "Pericola" (1940) and ballet "The Night Before Christmas" by B. Asafiev (in collaboration with F. Lopukhov and P. Markov).

In 1960, Burmeister became the first Soviet choreographer, who staged for the ballet company of the Paris National Opera ("Swan Lake" was staged in 1960, "Variations" – in 1962). He also staged for the London Festival Ballet ("Snow Maiden").

The main productions are: "Straussiana" (1941), "Merry Wives of Windsor" (1942, in collaboration with I. Kurilov), "Lola" (1943, in collaboration with director I. Tumanov), "Scheherazade" (1944), "Carnival" (1946), "Tatiana" (Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre in St. Petersburg), "Shore of Happiness" (1948, in collaboration with I.Kurilov), "La Esmeralda" (1950), "Swan Lake" (1953 in Moscow and in 1960 at the Paris Opera) "Joan of Arc" (1957), "The Snow Maiden" (1961 - the London Festival Ballet, 1963 - in Moscow), "Variations" (1962 - at the Paris Opera, 1964 - in Moscow), "Bolero" (1964) "Red Devils" (1967), "Appassionata" (1970).