Bolshoi Theatre remembers “Ballet Queen”

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Published: 14 January, 2010, 15:08
Edited: 26 January, 2010, 20:17

Galina Ulanova as Juliet in Sergey Prokofiev's ballet "Romeo And Juliet" (RIA Novosti)

TAGS: Art, Celebrity, Theater, Thrills&Spills, Prime Time Russia

Beginning on January 14, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre will celebrate the centenary of Galina Ulanova’s birth.

A festival dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Galina Ulanova, the world-renowned ballerina who was known as the Ballet Queen, opens on Thursday at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The festival kicks off with the well known ballet, “Swan Lake,” with parts being performed by Nadezhda Gracheva (awarded Peoples’ Artist of Russia) and Nikolay Tsiskaridze, both former students of Ulanova.

“I was lucky I had a chance to work with Galina Ulanova,” recalls Gracheva. “She was quite laconic and used to speak in a low voice so I had to strain my ears in order not to miss a thing.”

Gracheva then commented that having such a teacher was a source of envy for some people.

“I remember everyone was jealous the great ballerina taught me,” she said.

The festival will continue for three days: On Friday, audiences will see the ballet “Giselle,” and on Saturday the festival will wrap up with a gala-night organized in association with the Saint Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre, which is where Ulanova began her “life in ballet.”

Galina Ulanova joined the Mariinsky Theatre in 1928, and the media poured attention on her style, grace and exceptional flexibility. In 1944, when word of her fame spread all the way to Stalin, he had her personally transferred to the Bolshoi Theatre. There, she would be the “prima ballerina assoluta” for 16 years.

Ulanova died on March 21, 1998 in Moscow at the age of 88. She is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.