Natalia Dudinskaya
Encyclopedia
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
— 29 January 2003, Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n prima ballerina who dominated the Kirov Ballet in the 1930s and 1940s.
Dudinskaya's mother was Natalia Tagliori, a ballerina coached by Enrico Cecchetti
Enrico Cecchetti
Enrico Cecchetti was an Italian ballet dancer, mime, and founder of the Cecchetti method. The son of two dancers from Civitanova Marche, he was born in the costuming room of the Teatro Tordinona in Rome. After an illustrious career as a dancer in Europe, he went to dance for the Imperial Ballet in...
. Trained by Agrippina Vaganova
Agrippina Vaganova
Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova was an outstanding Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova method - the technique which derived from the teaching methods of the old Imperial Ballet School under the Premier Maître de Ballet Marius Petipa throughout the mid to late 19th century, though...
, Dudinskaya matriculated from her school in 1931. She danced all the classical leads at the Kirov Theatre before her frail health forced her to retire in 1951. During her career, she received the total of four Stalin Prizes. In 1957, she was named a People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...
.
Upon her retirement, Dudinskaya became the ballet mistress of the Vaganova School and Kirov Ballet. After Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...
, their disciple, defected to the West, she and her husband, Konstantin Sergeyev, were subjected to reprimands from Soviet officials. Anastasia Volochkova
Anastasia Volochkova
-Background:Volochkova was born into a middle class family in Saint Petersburg. Her father was a table tennis champion and coach, and her mother was a tour guide. Volochkova has been married once, and she has a daughter, Ariadna, born in 2005...
and Ulyana Lopatkina
Ulyana Lopatkina
Ulyana Vyacheslavovna Lopatkina is a principal dancer at the Kirov Ballet/Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. She studied at the Vaganova Academy with Natalia Dudinskaya. Upon graduation Lopatkina joined the Kirov/Mariinsky Theatre Ballet in 1991, and was promoted to principal dancer in 1995...
were among the last ballerinas coached by her.