Natalia Igorevna Bessmertnova (Russian: Наталья Игоревна Бессмертнова; – ) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet and a People's Artist of the USSR (1976).

Life

Natalia Bessmertnova was born in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

in 1941 and trained at the

Moscow State Academy of Choreography The Moscow State Academy of Choreography (russian: Московская государственная академия хореографии), commonly known as The Bolshoi Ballet Academy, is one of the oldest and most prestigious schools of ball ...

from 1953-61. Among her teachers were

Sofia Golovkina Sofia Nikolayevna Golovkina (alternate, Sophia; Russian, Головкина, Софья Николаевна; 13 October 1915 - 17 February 2004) was a Soviet and Russian ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher. A graduate of the Moscow State Acade ...

and Marina Semyonova. She graduated in 1961 as the first student in the school's history receiving A+ in the final examinations. In 1963, she joined the Bolshoi Ballet and was its ''prima ballerina'' for three decades. She was married to Yury Grigorovich, former Director and Chief choreographer of the Bolshoi. When he was forced to leave the Bolshoi in 1995, she took part in a historic strike which led to cancellations of scheduled performances. Bessmertnova died in Moscow on 19 February 2008, aged 66, from cancer. Her sister Tatyana (born 1947) was also a ballet dancer.

Title roles

* Giselle in Lavrovsky's 1963 '' Giselle'' production * Leyli in Goleizovsky's 1964 * Anastasia in Grigorovich's '' Ivan the Terrible'' 1975 * Valentina in Grigorovich's 1976 * Juliet in Grigorovich's new '' Romeo and Juliet'' 1979 * Rita in Grigorovich's '' The Golden Age'' in 1982 * Raymonda in Grigorovich's new '' Raymonda'' production 1984 * Giselle in Grigorovich's '' Giselle'' in 1991

Other important roles

* Phrygia in ''

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 ...

'' * Odette-Odile in '' Swan Lake'' * Shirin in '' Legend of Love'' * Kitri 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 ...

'' * Maria in '' The Fountain of Bakhchisarai'' * The girl in '' Le Spectre de la rose''

Awards

* Gold Medal at Varna International Ballet Competition in 1965. * The Anna Pavlova Prize in Paris 1970. *

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...

(1977) and Lenin Prize (1986). * People's Artist of the USSR in 1976.

References

External links