Alla Yakovlevna Shelest (russian: Алла Яковлевна Шелест; 26 February 1919 – 7 December 1998) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

ballerina A ballet dancer ( it, ballerina fem.; ''ballerino'' masc.) is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet; however, dancers have a strict hierarchy and strict gender roles. They rely on ye ...

, choreographer and dance director, "a star of the Kirov Ballet during the Forties and Fifties".

Life and work

Shelest was born in

Smolensk Smolensk ( rus, Смоленск, p=smɐˈlʲensk, a=smolensk_ru.ogg) is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River, west-southwest of Moscow. First mentioned in 863, it is one of the oldest ...

, Russia and accepted to the Leningrad Choreographic Institute (now known as the

Vaganova Academy The Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet is a school of classical ballet in St Petersburg, Russia. Established in 1738 during the reign of Empress Anna, the academy was known as the Imperial Ballet School until the Soviet era, when, after a brief hi ...

). Her early training was by

Elizaveta Gerdt Elizaveta Pavlovna Gerdt (russian: Елизавета Павловна Гердт; – 6 November 1975) was a Russian dancer and teacher whose career links the Russian imperial and Soviet schools of classical dance. A daughter of celebrated ...

but when she was older, she studied with

Agrippina Vaganova Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova (russian: Агриппина Яковлевна Ваганова; 26 June 1879 – 5 November 1951) was a Soviet and Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova method – the technique which derived from the t ...

. After her graduation in 1937 (where she made a huge impact dancing in the ballet ''Katerina'' by

Leonid Lavrovsky Leonid Mikhailovich Lavrovsky (1905–1967) was a Russian ballet choreographer, most famous for choreographing the first full version of Sergei Prokofiev's ''Romeo and Juliet''. Early life Lavrovsky was born in 1905 in St. Petersburg, the son ...

), she was accepted into the

Kirov Ballet The Mariinsky Ballet (russian: Балет Мариинского театра) is the resident classical ballet company of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russ ...

and started dancing lead soloist roles almost immediately. She became known as a consummate dramatic ballerina. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, to escape the Nazi siege of Leningrad, much of the Kirov Ballet, including Shelest, left for

Perm Perm or PERM may refer to: Places *Perm, Russia, a city in Russia ** Permsky District, the district **Perm Krai, a federal subject of Russia since 2005 **Perm Oblast, a former federal subject of Russia 1938–2005 **Perm Governorate, an administra ...

in 1942. There she danced many of her leading roles for the first time, including her first Aurora in '' The Sleeping Beauty'', Street Dancer in ''

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...

'', and one of her greatest roles, the fiery Zarema in ''

The Fountain of Bakhchisarai ''The Fountain of Bakhchisaray'' (russian: «Бахчисарайский фонтан», ''Bakhchisaraiskiy fontan'') is a poem by Alexander Pushkin, written during the years 1821 to 1823. Pushkin began writing ''The Fountain of Bakhchisa ...

''. In all these roles, she was greatly influenced by the dramatic theories of Stanislasky and acclaimed for introducing a form of realistic acting to the ballet stage. After the war, Shelest was also at the forefront of the developments in Russian dance. She performed in the new works by

Zakharov Zakharov (russian: Захаров), or Zakharova (feminine; Захарова) is a Russian surname. Notable people with the surname include: People * Aleksandr Zakharov, multiple people *Alexander V. Zakharov (born 1941), Soviet and Russian scienti ...

, Bourmeister, Sergeyev, and Yakobson, having an incredible success in 1956 as Aegina in Yakobson's ''

Spartacus Spartacus ( el, Σπάρτακος '; la, Spartacus; c. 103–71 BC) was a Thracian gladiator who, along with Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprisin ...

'' due her innate sense of drama and character development. Her first Giselle in the same year broke new ground in offering a more realistic approach to the drama and was considered a revelation at the time. In the 1950s, she married choreographer

Yuri Grigorovich Yury Nikolayevich Grigorovich (russian: Ю́рий Никола́евич Григоро́вич; born 2 January 1927 in Leningrad) is a Soviet and Russian dancer and choreographer The Stone Flower "The Stone Flower" ( rus, Каменный цветок, Kamennyj tsvetok, p=ˈkamʲɪnːɨj tsvʲɪˈtok), also known as "The Flower of Stone", is a folk tale (also known as ''skaz'') of the Ural region of Russia collected and reworked by Pave ...

'', and also Mekhmene Banu in , which was later to be her farewell performance, 26 years to the day after her graduation. They later divorced and Grigorovich went on to marry Bolshoi ballerina

Natalia Bessmertnova Natalia Igorevna Bessmertnova (Russian: Наталья Игоревна Бессмертнова; – ) was a Soviet prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet and a People's Artist of the USSR (1976). Life Natalia Bessmertnova was born in Moscow ...

. Shelest made relatively few foreign tours but, in 1953, she was allowed to perform in England with a small troupe of dancers. She created a sensation during her five-week stay, but didn't leave the Iron Curtain countries for the rest of her career. She was, however, allowed to visit Finland, and direct Swan Lake for the Finnish National Opera in spring 1976. Shelest was often described as having a "stage feud" with Kirov star ballerina,

Natalia Dudinskaya Natalia Mikhailovna Dudinskaya (russian: Ната́лия Миха́йловна Дуди́нская; , in Kharkiv – 29 January 2003, in Saint Petersburg) was a Soviet prima ballerina who dominated the Kirov Ballet from the 1930s to the 1950 ...

which often impacted her standing in the company especially when Dudinskaya's husband,

Konstantin Sergeyev Konstantin Mikhaylovich Sergeyev (russian: Константин Михайлович Сергеев; 5 March 1910 (20 February Old Style) – 1 April 1992) was a Russian danseur, artistic director and choreographer for the Kirov Theatre. When th ...

, was the Artistic Director. Shelest had a profound impact on many Soviet ballerinas of the 1950s-70s including

Maya Plisetskaya Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya (russian: link=no, Майя Михайловна Плисецкая; 20 November 1925 – 2 May 2015) was a Soviet and Russian ballet dancer, choreographer, ballet director, and actress. In post-Soviet times, she he ...

, who considered her the greatest dancer she had ever seen. In 1953 she became an Honored Artist of the USSR and, in 1957, a Peoples' Artist. After a retirement and a post-dancing career as a choreographer, regional company director and instructor at the Vaganova Academy, Shelest died in Saint Petersburg on 7 December 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelest, Alla 1919 births 1998 deaths Russian ballerinas Russian choreographers Russian women choreographers People from Smolensk 20th-century Russian ballet dancers Vaganova graduates Mariinsky Ballet dancers People's Artists of the RSFSR Recipients of the Stalin Prize Soviet ballerinas Soviet choreographers