Galina Ulanova

Galina Ulanova (1910-1998), Russian dancer, whose lyrical, direct, musically sensitive style influenced Soviet ballet; she was the first Soviet prima ballerina assoluta. The child of two dancers, she was born and trained in St Petersburg and danced with the Kirov Ballet (1928-1943) and then transferred to the Bolshoi Ballet (1944-1962; becoming ballet mistress and coach after 1959). The performance that she created in the Soviet ballet The Fountain of Bakchisarai (1934) remains unsurpassed, as does her Juliet in Lavrovsky’s Romeo and Juliet to the Prokofiev score in 1940. She also excelled in classical works such as Swan Lake. Her first appearance abroad was in Vienna in 1945, and her radiantly passionate performances were instrumental to the success of the Bolshoi Ballet on its first appearances in London in 1956 and in the United States in 1959. She became an internationally recognized figurehead for Russian ballet. Ulanova retired from the stage in 1962; she died in 1998.