IN pre-revolutionary Russia the ballet was very popular. Despite the fact that after the revolution many dancers of the imperial theater left the country and began performing on the stages of foreign theaters, there were many artists left in Russia who were able to revive the art of ballet in the country and found the Soviet ballet. And the first one helped them with this people's commissar by education Anatoly Lunacharsky, who made a lot of efforts to preserve and develop this type of art in a dilapidated state. In the 30s of the 20th century, the first stars of Soviet ballet began to appear. Many of them received the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR and the USSR:
- Ekaterina Geltser;
- Agrippina Vaganova;
- Galina Ulanovna;
- Olga Lepeshinskaya;
- Vasily Tikhomirov;
- Mikhail Gabovich;
- Alexey Ermolaev;
- Rostislav Zakharov;
- Asaf Messerer;
- Konstantin Sergeev and others.
40s - 50s
During these years, the Imperial Theater of St. Petersburg was renamed the Ballet. Kirov (now the Mariinsky Theatre), and artistic director This theater became the honored ballerina Agrippina Vaganova, a student of Petipa and Cecchetti. She was forced to transform the storylines, subordinating them to Soviet ideological principles. For example, the ending of the ballet “Swan Lake” was changed from tragic to sublime. And the Imperial Ballet School became known as the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute. Future stars of Soviet ballet studied here. After the death of the outstanding ballerina in 1957, this educational institution was renamed the Agrippina Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. That's what it's called to this day. The most popular ballet theaters in the country are Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and the theater named after. Kirov (Mariinsky Theater) in Leningrad. The theaters' repertoire included works by both foreign, Russian and Soviet composers. The ballets “Cinderella” and “Romeo and Juliet” and others were especially popular. The ballet did not stop performing during the Patriotic War. However, it reached its peak in the middle of the century. Hungry for cultural events during the war years soviet people flooded theater halls, and each new performance was sold out. Ballet dancers were very popular. During these years, new stars of Soviet ballet appeared: Tatyana Zimina, Maya Plisetskaya, Yuri Grigorovich, Maris Liepa, Raisa Struchkova, Boris Bregvadze, Vera Dubrovina, Inna Zubkovskaya, Askold Makarov, Tamara Seifert, Nadezhda Nadezhdina, Vera Orlova, Violetta Bovt and others.
60s - 70s
In subsequent years, Soviet ballet became business card USSR. The troupes of the Bolshoi and Kirov Theaters successfully toured all over the world, even traveling behind the Iron Curtain. Some stars of the Soviet ballet, finding themselves “over the hill” and weighing all the pros and cons, decided to stay there and asked political asylum. They were considered traitors in their homeland, and the media wrote about famous “defectors.” Alexander Godunov, Natalya Markova, Valery Panov, Rudolf Nuriev - they all had great success and were in demand at ballet scenes the most prestigious theaters in the world. However, the Soviet ballet dancer the Great Rudolf Nureyev gained the greatest popularity in the world. He became a legend in the history of world culture. Since 1961, he has not returned from the Parisian tour and became the premier at Covent Garden, and from the 1980s he became the director of the Grand Opera in Paris.
Conclusion
Today, Russian ballet does not lose its popularity, and young artists raised by Soviet choreographers are in demand all over the world. Russian ballet artists in the 21st century are free in their actions. They can freely enter into contracts and perform on the stages of foreign theaters and with their brilliant performances prove to everyone that Russian ballet is the best in the whole world.
On March 17, the great Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev would have turned 78 years old. Ballet classic Roland Petit called Nuriev dangerous, the press called him a frantic Tatar, and rock stars and royalty confessed their love to him. ELLE - about the “ballet Russians” who have achieved success in the West.
Sarah Bernhardt believed Nijinsky greatest actor the world, the press - no less than the eighth wonder of the world. A native of Kyiv, a dancer at the Mariinsky Theater, Nijinsky made his debut in Paris, where he amazed audiences and critics with his phenomenal technique, plasticity and taste. And the most amazing thing is that his career as a dancer lasted only ten years. In 1917 he last time took the stage, and until his death in 1950, he struggled with schizophrenia, moving around psychiatric clinics. Nijinsky’s influence on world ballet is difficult to overestimate, and his diaries are still deciphered and interpreted differently by specialists.
One of the main stars of Russian ballet in the world, Nureyev was a real pop star, bright and scandalous. A difficult, quarrelsome character, arrogance, stormy personal life and a tendency to shocking did not obscure the main thing - the incredible talent of Nuriev, who managed to combine together the traditions of ballet and current, as they say now, trends. A native of Ufa, the long-awaited son, who did not live up to the hopes of his military father, who contemptuously called Rudolf “ballerina,” made his most famous jump not on stage, but in the control zone of the Paris airport. In 1961, the Soviet dancer Nureyev suddenly took off with 30 francs in his pocket, asking for political asylum. Thus began Nuriev’s ascent to the world ballet Olympus. Fame, money, luxury, parties at Studio 54, gold, brocade, rumors of affairs with Freddie Mercury, Yves Saint Laurent, Elton John - and best roles at the London Royal Ballet, director of the ballet group of the Paris Grand Opera. A completely ill Nuriev spent the last hundred days of his life in his beloved Paris. He is buried there.
Another famous representative of ballet, who can safely be called a pop star, is in many ways similar to Nuriev: childhood in the Soviet province (if we consider Riga as a province - still not Moscow or Leningrad), complete misunderstanding on the part of his father and a real artistic rise outside USSR. Remaining in the West in 1974, Baryshnikov quickly gained a foothold at the top: first he headed the legendary New York City Ballet, then for nine years, from 1980 to 1989, he directed the no less famous American Ballet Theater. He also actively and quite successfully, although unevenly, acted in films, became a socialite, and met with Hollywood beauties Jessica Lange and Liza Minnelli. And to a new public, far from ballet (and, by the way, from Joseph Brodsky, with whom Baryshnikov had a real friendship), this incredible person became known thanks to a small but noticeable role in the series “Sex in big city" Sarah Jessica Parker is his biggest fan. called Mikhail Baryshnikov a tough boy - “ cool guy" Who would argue.
Vladimir Vasiliev is a symbol of the Bolshoi Theater and all Russian ballet of the second half of the 20th century. Due to the fact that Vasiliev lived in the Soviet Union, his popularity in the West is much inferior to the glory of the same Baryshnikov, although art connoisseurs, of course, know and appreciate him. Vasiliev worked mainly in Europe, gradually changing his profession to choreographer. Kazan and Paris, Rome and Perm, Vilnius and Rio - the geography of Vasiliev’s creative movements affirms and confirms his cosmopolitanism.
The blond giant, Bolshoi star, Godunov, in August 1979, while on tour in the States, decided not to return home. A terrible drama unfolded, in which not only the artist himself and his wife, ballerina Lyudmila Vlasova, were involved, but also Joseph Brodsky, the FBI, and even the leaders of the United States and Soviet Union. Remaining in the States, Godunov became part of the famous American ballet theater, who eventually left after a quarrel with his best friend Mikhail Baryshnikov. Then there was work within the framework of his own project “Godunov and Friends”, success, an affair with actress Jacqueline Bisset and an abrupt departure from the profession. Bisset persuaded Alexander to start a film career, and he partially succeeded: “Witness” with Harrison Ford and especially “Die Hard” made yesterday’s ballet dancer a Hollywood star. However, Godunov himself did not like being on the sidelines, although those who had not even been interested in ballet had now learned about “this Russian.”
He never returned to dancing, and in 1995 he died at the age of 45. “I believe that he did not take root and died of loneliness,” said Joseph Brodsky, who took an active part in his fate as a “defector.”
The art of dance is a unique form of expression that uses a universal body language that everyone can understand. From ballet to modern dance, from hip-hop to salsa and from oriental dances to flamenco - dance in lately has become a pleasure which is a kind of rebirth.
But if we talk about individual dancers, which of them has best moves? The best posture, strength and sharpness? Below are ten of the greatest dancers of the twentieth century - chosen by their fame, popularity and influence on world art dance.
10. Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky was one of the most talented ballet dancers in history, perhaps even the greatest. Unfortunately, there is no clear footage of his incredible talent in motion, which is the main reason why he only ranks tenth on this list.
Nijinsky was well known for his amazing ability to defy gravity with his magnificent leaps, as well as his ability to fully inhabit the role he was playing. He is also known for dancing in pointe shoes, a skill not often seen in dancers. Nijinsky danced in the lead roles paired with the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova. Then Tamara Karsavina, founder of London's Royal Academy of Dancing, became his partner. They were described with Karsavina as “the most exemplary artists of that time.”
Nijinsky left the stage in 1919, at the relatively young age of twenty-nine. His retirement is believed to have been caused by a nervous breakdown, and he was also diagnosed with schizophrenia. Nijinsky held recent years their lives in psychiatric hospitals and asylums. The last time he danced in public was last days World War II, impressing a group of Russian soldiers with his complex dance moves. Nijinsky died in London on April 8, 1950.
9. Martha Graham
Martha Graham is considered the mother of modern dance. She created the only fully codified technique of modern dance, produced over one hundred and fifty works during her life as a choreographer, and had a huge influence on all areas of modern dance.
Her technique's departure from classical ballet, and her use of specific body movements such as contraction, release and spirals, had a profound influence on the world dance art. Graham even went so far as to create a “language” of movement based on the expressive capabilities of the human body.
She danced and choreographed for over seventy years. During this time, she became the first dancer to perform at the White House; the first dancer to travel overseas as a cultural ambassador and the first dancer to receive the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As the mother of modern dance, she will be immortalized in the memory of people for her incredibly emotional performances, her unique choreography, and especially for her homegrown dance technique.
8. Josephine Baker
Although Josephine Baker's name is primarily associated with the Jazz Age, her fiery dances still have an impact on dance world, almost one hundred and ten years after her birth, as it was before.
Many decades before Madonna, Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez, there was Josephine Baker, one of the world's first celebrities of African descent. Josephine went to Paris in 1925 to dance in La Revue Nègre. She made a lasting impression on French audiences with her perfect combination of exotic charm and talent.
The following year she performed at the Folies Bergère, and this was the true beginning of her career. She appeared in a banana skirt and wowed the crowd with her dancing style. She later added singing to her performances, and remained popular in France for many years. Josephine Baker responded to the adoration of the French people by becoming a French citizen herself in 1937.
In France, she did not feel the same level of racial prejudice that was present in the United States at the time. Toward the end of her life, Josephine Baker hoped to create a "world village" on her estate in France, but these plans were dashed by financial difficulties. To raise funds, she returned to the stage. Her return was short, but it was a triumph on Broadway in the 1970s, and in 1975 she opened a retrospective show in Paris. She died that year from a cerebral hemorrhage, a week after the show opened.
7. Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly was one of the biggest stars and greatest innovators during the golden age of musicals in Hollywood. Kelly considered his own style, something of a hybrid of different approaches to dance, he took his movements from modern dance, ballet, and tap.
Kelly brought dance to the theater, using every inch of his set, every surface, and every wide camera angle to break out of the two-dimensional confines of film. And in doing so, he changed the way filmmakers looked at their cameras. Thanks to Kelly, the camera became a living instrument, and even the dancer it was filming.
Kelly's legacy permeates the music video industry. Photographer Mike Salisbury photographed Michael Jackson for the cover of "Off The Wall" wearing "white socks and lightweight leather Gene Kelly loafers" - which have become the movie star's trademark. It was this image that after some time became his own recognizable brands singer
Paula Abdul, originally known for her dancing and choreography, referenced Kelly's famous dance with Jerry the Mouse in her kitschy video for "Opposites Attract," which ends with a tap dance. Usher was another top-selling artist who paid tribute to Kelly's legacy. There will never be another dancer like Kelly, and his influence continues to resonate through generations of American dancers.
6. Sylvie Guillem
At forty-eight years old, Sylvie Guillem continues to defy the laws of ballet and gravity. Guillem changed the face of ballet with her uncanny talents, which she always used with intelligence, integrity and sensitivity. Her natural curiosity and courage led her to the most daring paths, beyond the usual boundaries of classical ballet.
Instead of spending her entire career on "safe" performances, she made bold decisions, equally capable of performing the role of "Raymonda" at the Paris Opera, or being part of an innovative dance performance based on the work of Forsythe. In The Middle Something Elevated.” Almost no other dancer has such range, so it is not at all surprising that she has become the standard for most dancers around the world. Like Maria Callas in opera world, Guillem was able to change the popular image of the ballerina.
5. Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson was exactly the man who could do music videos trend and he is, without a doubt, the one who made dancing an important element of modern pop music. Jackson's moves have already become standard vocabulary in pop and hip-hop dances. Most of today's pop icons such as Justin Bieber, Usher, Justin Timberlake admit that Michael Jackson's style had a strong influence on them.
His contribution to the art of dance was original and unusual. Jackson was an innovator who was primarily self-taught, designing new dance moves without the often encountered effects of formal training that limit the flight of imagination. His natural grace, flexibility and amazing rhythm contributed to the creation of the “Jackson style.” His employees called him a "sponge." This nickname was given to him for his ability to absorb ideas and techniques wherever he found them.
Jackson's biggest inspirations were James Brown, Marcel Marceau, Gene Kelly, and perhaps this will surprise many people, various classical ballet dancers. What many of his fans don't know is that he initially tried to "pirouette like Baryshnikov" and "tap dance like Fred Astaire" but failed miserably. However, his dedication to his own unique style brought him the fame he sought, and today his name stands alongside other giants of popular music such as Elvis and the Beatles, and he is considered one of the greatest pop icons of all time.
4. Joaquin Cortés
Joaquin Cortez is the youngest dancer on this list, but despite the fact that he is still in the process of shaping his legacy, he is one of the few dancers in history who managed to become phenomenal sex symbols, beloved by both women and men. and men. Elle Macpherson described it as "walking sex"; Madonna and Jennifer Lopez have publicly expressed their adoration for him, while Naomi Campbell and Mira Sorvino are among the women whose hearts he has (rumored) broken.
It is safe to say that Cortez is not only one of greatest dancers flamenco throughout history, but also precisely those who secured flamenco’s place in popular culture. His male admirers include Tarantino, Armani, Bertolucci, Al Pacino, Antonio Banderas, and Sting. Many of his fans call him the Flamenco God or simply the Sex God and if you get a chance to watch one of his shows, you will understand why. However, at the age of forty-four, Cortez remains a bachelor, declaring that "dance is my wife, my only woman."
3. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Astaire and Rogers, of course, were a unique pair of dancers. They say that “he gave her charm, and she gave him sex appeal.” They made dancing much more appealing to the masses in a rather prudish time. This was partly due to Rogers using her acting skills in dancing, and created the impression that dancing with Astaire were the happiest moments of her life.
The era also contributed to the rise of their popularity; during the Great Depression, many Americans were trying to make ends meet - and these two dancers gave people a chance to forget about the depressing reality for a while and have fun.
2. Mikhail Baryshnikov 
Mikhail Baryshnikov is one of the greatest ballet dancers of all time, considered by many critics to be the greatest. Born in Latvia, Baryshnikov studied ballet at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad) before he began performing at the Mariinsky Theater in 1967. Since then, he has performed leading roles in dozens of ballets. He played a key role in bringing ballet into popular culture back in the late 1970s and early 80s, and he was the face of the art form for over two decades. Baryshnikov is perhaps the most influential dancer of our time.
1. Rudolf Nureyev
Baryshnikov won the hearts of critics and fellow dancers, and Rudolf Nureyev was able to charm millions ordinary people all over the world. The Russian-born dancer became a soloist at the Mariinsky Theater at the age of 20. In 1961, when his personal life made him the subject close attention by the Soviet authorities, he asked for political asylum in Paris, and then toured with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas ( Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas).
In the 1970s, he broke into the film industry. Most critics argue that he was not as good technically as Baryshnikov, but Nureyev still managed to captivate the crowds with his amazing charisma and emotional performances. The ballet of the couple Nureyev and Fonteyn “Romeo and Juliet” remains to this day one of the most powerful and emotional duet performances in the history of ballet.
Unfortunately, Nureyev was one of the first victims of HIV infection, and died of AIDS in 1993. Twenty years later, we can still see the incredible legacy he left behind.
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Donnie Burns 
Donnie Burns is a Scottish professional performer ballroom dancing, who specializes in Latin dances. He and his former dance partner Gaynor Fairweather were World Professional Latin Dance Champions a record sixteen times. On at the moment he is the President of the World Dance Council, and also appeared on the twelfth season of Dancing with the Stars.
He is considered the greatest ballroom dancer of all time, and his championship dances with his partner are now considered classics. But things didn't always go so well for Burns. During an interview with the Daily Sun, he admitted: "I never thought that little boy from Hamilton will be able to experience at least some of what I have experienced in my life. I was teased relentlessly at school and often got into fights because I wanted to prove that I was not a “dancing queen.”
It is safe to say that today he would not object to such an epithet, since Donnie Burns is currently considered the “King of Dance”.
On April 18, the famous dancer, choreographer, choreographer, theater director and actor, teacher and People's Artist USSR Vladimir Vasiliev will celebrate his 75th anniversary. The role of Spartacus, created by Yuri Grigorovich specifically for Vasiliev, became a symbol of the national ballet of the Bolshoi Theater in the second half of the 20th century. “At the age of 28, he made a role that immediately stood in that select series of general cultural and timeless significance, where Anna Pavlova’s Swan, Galina Ulanova’s Juliet, Maya Plisetskaya’s Carmen,” wrote Asaf Messerer, ballet dancer, choreographer and uncle of the unsurpassed Maya Plisetskaya .
Even at the chreographic school, a unique duet of Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maksimova formed -
his wife and constant partner, a ballerina, for whom he created ballets, concert performances and films. This duet has been repeatedly recognized as “golden”, “the best in the world”, and called “a legend of the 20th century”. But does everyone remember that, in addition to television recordings of ballet performances in which Vasiliev participated, such as “Spartacus”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “The Nutcracker”, “The Stone Flower”, “Cinderella”, there were also art paintings, films-ballets? These are “The Tale of the Little Humpbacked Horse”, “Spartacus”, “Gigolo and Gigoletta”. Since 1971, Vasiliev acted as a choreographer, staged a number of ballets on the Soviet and foreign stage, as well as the television ballets “Anyuta” and “House by the Road” to the music of V. A. Gavrilin. In the film “Fouette,” Vladimir Vasiliev acted both as a choreographer and as a co-director. Well, the great Franco Zeffirelli himself invited Vasiliev and Maksimova to the film version of La Traviata!
Mikhail Baryshnikov
But to another famous dancer, one of the most famous representatives of male dance in the 20th century, born in the USSR - Mikhail Baryshnikov - Joseph Brodsky himself dedicated several poems: “ Classical ballet there is a castle of beauty..." and "We used to water the lawn with a watering can...". Baryshnikov’s name is even mentioned in the book “Needful Things” by Stephen King.
In cinema, Mikhail Nikolaevich had the opportunity to play several roles. But in his biography there is interesting story, associated with the teleplay “Fiesta”, staged by Sergei Yuryevich Yursky, based on the novel “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway. When Baryshnikov made his debut on the stage of the Kirov Theater,
It turned out that the stage had not seen such a dancer for a long time. There was talk in the city that this young student was perhaps equal in talent to Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev. And Sergei Yursky took an unexpected step - he invited ballet dancer for the dramatic role of Matador in his play “Fiesta”. How can a dramatic artist prove that he is a bullfighter? Of course, the issue here is primarily one of plastic. A ballet actor was what was needed. It was Baryshnikov who could best play real Spain. But in 1974, Mikhail Baryshnikov did not return from a tour in Canada and became a defector. As was then expected, everything connected with his name had to be destroyed. In particular, there was a film with a recording of the play “Fiesta”, but on Leningrad television, editor Elena Nisimova hid the film, thanks to which the recording was preserved in the archive.
And abroad, Mikhail Baryshnikov played in several films, such as “White Nights”, “Jack Ryan: Chaos Theory”. He was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role in The Turning Point. The film was submitted to eleven award nominations, but received none. In one of the scenes of this film, Mikhail Baryshnikov performs Vladimir Vysotsky’s song “The Crystal House.” The dancer also starred in the last episodes of the last season of the series “Sex and the City” in the role of another lover of Carrie Bradshaw - Russian artist Alexander Petrovsky. Immediately after their meeting in the story, Petrovsky invites the journalist to the Russian Samovar restaurant in New York, which, by the way, is owned by Baryshnikov.
Maya Plisetskaya
A whole era in our art, outstanding personality, brilliant ballerina, talented actress and an interesting woman - that's all about Maya Plisetskaya. She is always modern. And during its active creative life ballerinas, and now they are the standard in everything. It is Maya Mikhailovna who personifies the Russian Ballet for many. And it is difficult to find a person in the world who does not know this name. Otherwise, an asteroid would not have been named in honor of Plisetskaya, and the Moscow musical rock group “Klyuchevaya” would not have composed a song called “Maya Plisetskaya,” which became a hit and the group’s calling card for many years. And there is no more symbolic name, inextricably linked with ballet and choreography. And even with cinema.
For the first time on the silver screen famous ballerina appeared in 1951 in Vera Stroeva’s film “The Big Concert”. And then, of course, there were filmings in the ballet films “Swan Lake” and “The Tale of the Little Humpbacked Horse.” Prima of the Bolshoi Theater was invited to the film-opera “Khovanshchina”. She took an active part in the television adaptation of the ballets Bolero and Isadora, The Seagull and The Lady with the Dog. In 1974, Maya Plisetskaya and Bolshoi Theater soloist Alexander Bogatyrev starred for television in the number “Nocturne” to the music of F. Chopin, from the ballet “In the Night” by the outstanding American choreographer Jerome Robbins.
In the very famous film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina directed by Alexander Zarkhi in 1967, Maya Plisetskaya played the role of Betsy. Then Maya Plisetskaya starred as singer Desiree in the film “Tchaikovsky” directed by Igor Talankin. In 1976, director Anatoly Efros invited the ballet star to the television film “Fantasy” based on Ivan Turgenev’s story “Spring Waters”. The ballerina brilliantly played the role of Polozova. The action of the film was “commented” by choreographic duets staged by choreographer Valentin Elizariev. And director Jonas Vaitkus in 1985 invited her to his film “Zodiac”, where Maya Mikhailovna played the muse of Mikalojus-Konstantinas Čiurlionis. In addition, the Bolshoi Theater prima starred in many documentaries.
Galina Ulanova
And, of course, one cannot even remember the “goddess of dance” Galina Ulanova. Until now, the phenomenon of the ballerina's talent remains a mystery. She received almost all the awards that existed in the USSR, as well as awards from other countries. Among the unofficial awards are various titles that critics and viewers awarded her:
“the soul of Russian ballet”, “an ordinary goddess”. And composer Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev called Galina Sergeevna “the genius of Russian ballet, his elusive soul and his inspired poetry.” In her dance there was always reticence, understatement, detachment and self-absorption. Ulanova was the same in life - she rarely appeared in public and kept to herself.
After finishing her ballet career, she began working as a teacher. Over the years she worked with such famous dancers like Ekaterina Maksimova and Vladimir Vasiliev, Lyudmila Semenyaka, Nikolai Tsiskaridze and many others. During her career, she starred in six films, most of which were documentary in nature: “Ballet Soloist”, “Masters of the Russian Ballet”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Giselle” and documentaries.
Ballet is called an integral part of the art of our country. Russian ballet is considered the most authoritative in the world, the standard. This review contains the success stories of five great Russian ballerinas who are still looked up to today.
Anna Pavlova
Outstanding ballerina Anna Pavlova was born into a family far from art. She developed the desire to dance at the age of 8 after the girl saw ballet performance"Sleeping Beauty". At the age of 10, Anna Pavlova was accepted into the Imperial Theater School, and after graduation, she was accepted into the troupe of the Mariinsky Theater.
What is curious is that the aspiring ballerina was not placed in the corps de ballet, but immediately began to give her responsible roles in productions. Anna Pavlova danced under the direction of several choreographers, but the most successful and fruitful tandem, which had a fundamental influence on her performance style, was with Mikhail Fokin.
Anna Pavlova supported the choreographer’s bold ideas and readily agreed to experiments. The miniature "The Dying Swan", which later became the hallmark of Russian ballet, was practically impromptu. In this production, Fokine gave the ballerina more freedom, allowing her to independently feel the mood of “The Swan” and improvise. In one of the first reviews, the critic admired what he saw: “If a ballerina on stage can imitate the movements of the noblest of birds, then this has been achieved:.”
Galina Ulanova
Galina Ulanova's fate was predetermined from the very beginning. The girl’s mother worked as a ballet teacher, so Galina, even if she really wanted to, was unable to bypass the ballet barre. Years of grueling training led to Galina Ulanova becoming the most titled artist of the Soviet Union.
After graduating from the choreographic technical school in 1928, Ulanova was accepted into ballet troupe Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater. From the very first performances, the young ballerina attracted the attention of spectators and critics. A year later, Ulanova was entrusted with performing the leading role of Odette-Odile in Swan Lake. Giselle is considered one of the ballerina’s triumphant roles. Performing the scene of the heroine's madness, Galina Ulanova did it so soulfully and selflessly that even the men in the audience could not hold back their tears.
Galina Ulanova reached . They imitated her, teachers of the leading ballet schools in the world demanded that students do steps “like Ulanova.” The famous ballerina is the only one in the world to whom monuments were erected during her lifetime.
Galina Ulanova danced on stage until she was 50 years old. She was always strict and demanding of herself. Even in old age, the ballerina began every morning with classes and weighed 49 kg.
Olga Lepeshinskaya
For passionate temperament, sparkling technique and precision of movements Olga Lepeshinskaya nicknamed "Dragonfly Jumper". The ballerina was born into a family of engineers. WITH early childhood the girl literally raved about dancing, so her parents had no choice but to send her to ballet school at the Bolshoi Theater.
Olga Lepeshinskaya easily coped with both classic ballet (“Swan Lake”, “Sleeping Beauty”) and modern productions (“Red Poppy”, “Flames of Paris”.) During the Great Patriotic War, Lepeshinskaya fearlessly performed at the front, raising the fighting soldier spirit.
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Olga Lepeshinskaya -
ballerina with a passionate temperament. | Photo: www.etoretro.ru.
Despite the fact that the ballerina was Stalin’s favorite and had many awards, she was very demanding of herself. Already at an advanced age, Olga Lepeshinskaya said that her choreography could not be called outstanding, but her “natural technique and fiery temperament” made her inimitable.
Maya Plisetskaya
Maya Plisetskaya- another outstanding ballerina, whose name is inscribed in golden letters in the history of Russian ballet. When the future artist was 12 years old, she was adopted by Aunt Shulamith Messerer. Plisetskaya’s father was shot, and her mother and little brother were sent to Kazakhstan to a camp for the wives of traitors to the Motherland.
Aunt Plisetskaya was a ballerina at the Bolshoi Theater, so Maya also began attending choreography classes. The girl achieved great success in this field and after graduating from college she was accepted into the Bolshoi Theater troupe.
Plisetskaya's innate artistry, expressive plasticity, and phenomenal jumps made her a prima ballerina. Maya Plisetskaya performed leading roles in all classical productions. She was especially good at tragic images. Also, the ballerina was not afraid of experiments in modern choreography.
After the ballerina was fired from the Bolshoi Theater in 1990, she did not despair and continued to give solo performances. The overflowing energy allowed Plisetskaya to make her debut in the production of “Ave Maya” on her 70th birthday.
Lyudmila Semenyaka
Beautiful ballerina Lyudmila Semenyaka performed on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater when she was only 12 years old. The talented talent could not go unnoticed, so after some time Lyudmila Semenyaka was invited to the Bolshoi Theater. Galina Ulanova, who became her mentor, had a significant influence on the ballerina’s work.
Semenyaka coped with any part so naturally and effortlessly that from the outside it seemed as if she was not making any effort, but was simply enjoying the dance. In 1976, Lyudmila Ivanovna was awarded the Anna Pavlova Prize from the Paris Academy of Dance.
At the end of the 1990s, Lyudmila Semenyaka announced her retirement from her ballerina career, but continued her activities as a teacher. Since 2002, Lyudmila Ivanovna has been a teacher-tutor at the Bolshoi Theater.
But he mastered the art of ballet in Russia, and spent most of his life performing in the USA.