Elsa Maria Sylvestersson (11 August 1924

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

– 9 November 1996

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

) was a Finnish ballet dancer and

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

. Sylvestersson was born to a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

mother and a

Swedish-speaking Finn The Swedish-speaking population of Finland (whose members are called by many names—see below; ; ) is a linguistic minority in Finland. They maintain a strong identity and are seen either as a separate cultural, ethnic or linguistic group or, ...

ish father. She danced as soloist in ballet at the age of 14. As a dancer, her most famous roles included Odette-Odile in ''

Swan Lake ''Swan Lake'' ( rus, Лебеди́ное о́зеро, r=Lebedínoje ózero, p=lʲɪbʲɪˈdʲinəjə ˈozʲɪrə, links=no ), Op. 20, is a ballet composed by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1875–76. Despite its initial failu ...

'', and the Firebird in ''

The Firebird ''The Firebird'' (; ) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Michel Fokine, who c ...

''. She was technically talented and thus well suited for the roles in

character dance Character dance is a specific subdivision of classical dance. It is the stylized representation of a traditional folk or national dance, mostly from European countries, and uses movements and music which have been adapted for the theater. Char ...

. As a choreographer she was very productive and had a long career (from 1954 to 1984). Her style was eclectic, and she had no trouble in combining moves from classical ballet and modern dance. She was the first one to prepare choreographies for Finnish television. In 1959 she made ''The Red Room'' based on

August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (; ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 pla ...

, and later ''Selli'' (The Cell), ''Häkki'' (The Cage) and ''Sudenmorsian'' (The Wolf's Bride).

References

External links

* https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0843262/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Sylvestersson, Elsa 1924 births 1996 deaths People from Turku Finnish female dancers Finnish choreographers Finnish women choreographers Finnish ballerinas Finnish people of Russian descent