.................Natalia Igorevna Bessmertnova

.......................19 July 1941 – 19 February 2008

Октавия, спасибо. На «Культуре» показали документальный фильм о Наталье Игоревне, и хотя я его видела и раньше, вчера все воспринималось обостренно и печально. Самый чудесный кадр фильма, «схвативший» самую суть неповторимой балерины, «запечатлил» ее в гримерке, когда она в романтическом балетном платье, юная и прекрасная, сидит перед зеркалом.
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Светлая память.....

Natalia Bessmertnova

20/02/2008



Natalia Bessmertnova, who died yesterday aged 66, was for almost 30 years the leading ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and her flawless grace won her a worldwide recognition independent of the fact that she was the company director's wife.

Throughout the Cold War, as the Bolshoi Ballet toured the West, its iron director and sole choreographer Yuri Grigorovich created an impression with his aggressive ballets that seemed almost entirely palatable when Natalia Bessmertnova was dancing the female lead.

An extraordinarily beautiful woman with Byzantine features, who kept her long dark hair until her death, she spoke and moved softly, yet under her gentle exterior was a matchless technical strength that enabled her to conquer an unusually wide range of ballets, from classics to contemporary.

Her career inside Grigorovich's Bolshoi Ballet somewhat resembled that of Margot Fonteyn in the Royal Ballet, in that the choreographer made her his dominant muse for decades, at the cost of many other ballerinas' advance.

However, as with Fonteyn, and despite the complex politics of the Bolshoi, there was little doubt in the company that Bessmertnova was a star by right, at least in the 1960s and early 1970s, and the bitterness and enmity that Grigorovich inspired in the established stars he sidelined -such as Maya Plisetskaya - was never transferred to the dancer herself.

Natalia Bessmertnova was unexpectedly rewarding to watch in that she had a lyrical, even mournful appearance, with a long-limbed, pliable body and exceptionally eloquent neck, and yet a deceptive transformative ability.

Her delicate, somewhat ageless look was belied by her fearlessness, as she committed herself wholeheartedly to the spectacularly acrobatic overhead lifts which became Grigorovich's trademark, particularly noted in Spartacus, in which at one point the heroine Phrygia resembles a starfish balancing on Spartacus's outstretched hand.

It was a mark of Natalia Bessmertnova's grace and integrity that she rescued such feats from any suggestion of the circus. She was unusually gifted as a theatre artist, with musical and velvety phrasing and an aura of profundity that suggested depth even in Grigorovich's more tokenist female roles.

Despite being the emblematic ballerina of the flagship Soviet ballet, she performed Giselle with an exquisite sense of being removed from this world that made her one of the handful of iconic performers of the role in dance history.

Natalia Igorevna Bessmertnova was born in Moscow on July 19 1941, the elder of two daughters of a doctor, both of whom would join the Bolshoi Ballet.

She started full-time ballet training aged 12, and on graduation from the Bolshoi's ballet school in 1961 made an immediate international impact when she performed The Dying Swan at the Parma ballet festival, delighting Italian critics.

She joined the Bolshoi Ballet in the same year, under its veteran director Leonid Lavrovksy, and at once danced leads in a wide range of classics such as Swan Lake, Don Quixote, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai and Chopiniana. She was chosen for the title parts of Lavrovsky's new 1963 production of Giselle and Goleizovsky's 1964 Leili and Medjnun.

When, in 1965, Lavrovsky was supplanted by the younger, more contemporary Yuri Grigorovich, the latter at once made Bessmertnova his leading ballerina for the new style of ballets he intended to create. They married soon after.

The leading English critic Clement Crisp recalled how Grigorovich told him: "I married my first wife [the Kirov ballerina Alla Shelest] for her intelligence, and my second [Bessmertnova] for her beauty."

Bessmertnova starred in Grigorovich's first Moscow staging of his recent Kirov creation The Legend of Love (1965), then originated the ballerina roles of his entire subsequent oeuvre: Spartacus (1968), Ivan the Terrible (1975), Angara (1976) and The Golden Age (1982), and his new versions of Romeo and Juliet (1979) and Raymonda (1984), as well as his restagings of classics such as Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.

In all, her repertory encompassed some 30 roles, an exceptionally large number inside Russia, which was very short of new choreography.

For British balletomanes she acquired added interest on tours in the 1980s by virtue of her virile and much younger partner, Irek Mukhamedov, the spectacular new Bolshoi star who revitalised her career in her mid-forties, in the same way as the young Russian Rudolf Nureyev had revitalised Margot Fonteyn's.

In 1990 Mukhamedov would move to London and join the Royal Ballet. Their performances in Raymonda exist on film, as do several other performances by Bessmertnova, including Juliet and Swan Lake.

Natalia Bessmertnova retired from dancing in 1988, aged 47, having performed some 1,500 times at the Bolshoi and around the world.

She became a Bolshoi coach until 1995, when Grigorovich was dismissed. When he then moved to revitalise the Krasnodar Ballet, the unfailingly supportive Bessmertnova went with him.

She became a People's Artist of the USSR in 1976 and was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1986. She became a representative on the Supreme Soviet in 1979.

Natalia Bessmertnova was first married to a Moscow engineer, divorcing him in 1965 to marry Yuri Grigorovich, who survives her. There were no children.

Natalia Bessmertnova, ballerina for the Bolshoi Ballet, dead at 66

By Jack Anderson. Published: February 20, 2008

Natalia Bessmertnova, 66, a ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet known for her lightness, delicacy and Romantic style, died on Tuesday in Moscow.

Yekaterina Novikova, a spokeswoman for the Bolshoi, announced her death to The Associated Press. She did not give a cause beyond saying that Bessmertnova had been "suffering from a grave illness." The Russian media reported that Bessmertnova had kidney trouble.

The Bolshoi's general director, Anatoly Iksanov, said her death was "a huge loss for the Bolshoi Theater and to our whole culture," and declared her "the pride and glory of the company to which she devoted her entire life."

A slight, pale dancer with large eyes, Bessmertnova was known for an innate lyricism that gave her dancing a mysterious, almost unearthly beauty. These qualities made her especially notable in the title role of "Giselle."

Reviewing the Bolshoi's London season in 1969 for The New York Times, Clive Barnes called Bessmertnova "the kind of dancer born to dance Giselle."

"She is as fragile as a bird, has a frail, waif-like innocence, and dances with a fey sense of doom," he continued.

Bessmertnova frequently appeared with the Bolshoi in its New York seasons. When she starred at the New York State Theater in "Swan Lake" in 1979 in the dual role of Odette, the innocent maiden transformed into a swan, and Odile, the villainous enchantress, Anna Kisselgoff wrote in The Times that Bessmertnova "had only to step on stage to establish her great sense of style and authority." She continued, "Regality was everywhere - from her first high leap to the velvety tone of her unfolding leg extensions."

Bessmertnova, whose mother was a homemaker and whose father was a doctor, was born in Moscow and received early dance training in the children's classes of the Moscow Young Pioneers Palace. Encouraged by her teachers to become a professional dancer, she continued her studies at the Bolshoi's school and entered the company in 1961, making her debut in "Chopiniana," a ballet known in the West as "Les Sylphides," and one in which she could display her sense of Romantic style.

Galina Ulanova, the Bolshoi's foremost interpreter of "Giselle," coached her in that ballet, and her repertory also included 19th-century classics and contemporary works, especially those choreographed by her husband, Yuri Grigorovich.

Bessmertnova and Grigorovich, who had become the Bolshoi Ballet's artistic director, left the Bolshoi organization in 1995 during a dispute with the theater's management that prompted the first strike in the Bolshoi's history. Bessmertnova received many top Russian honors, including a People's Artist of the U.S.S.R. title in 1976 and a Lenin Prize in 1986.

Natalia Bessmertnova

By Chris Pasles, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer. February 20, 2008

Natalia Bessmertnova, a legendary prima ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet for more than three decades, has died. She was 66.

Bessmertnova died Tuesday at a Moscow hospital after suffering from a long illness, company spokeswoman Yekaterina Novikova said. Russian media reported that Bessmertnova had kidney trouble.

Bolshoi director Anatoly Iksanov called her death "a huge loss for the Bolshoi Theater and to our whole culture," the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

The dancer was "the pride and glory of the company to which she devoted her entire life," he was quoted as saying.

Bessmertnova danced with the Bolshoi from 1961 until 1995, when she and other performers staged a one-night strike after Yuri Grigorovich, her husband and the company's artistic director, quit after 30 years at the helm during a dispute with management amid plans for his replacement.

Their refusal to dance "Romeo and Juliet" reportedly caused the first cancellation in the company's history of more than two centuries.

Grigorovich, a former Kirov Ballet character dancer, had become notorious for promoting the careers of his wife and other favorites, some said to the detriment of other dancers. But in Bessmertnova's case, at least, her formidable talents justified her special position.

Critics noted how her sylph-like figure, long arms and legs and poetic expressivity made her ideal for such romantic roles as Giselle. At the same time, she possessed a nervous energy, impulsiveness and mercurial emotions that could be exploited in more contemporary works.

Reviewing a performance of Grigorovich's "Spartacus" at the Shrine Auditorium in 1979, Los Angeles Times dance critic Lewis Segal wrote of Bessmertnova: "Only Maya Plisetskaya, in films of a previous version of 'Spartacus,' has shown us such interpretive individuality wedded to such technical power.

"No detail in her dancing seemed to be emphasized for mere effect, yet spectators all evening long found themselves applauding her shimmering bourrees, serene balances and brilliant leaps. With reason."

Even Bessmertnova's dancing in later years mesmerized audiences and critics.

Reviewing her performance in Mikhail Fokine's "The Dying Swan" in 1993, Washington Post critic Alan M. Kriegsman wrote: "Bessmertnova, without mannerism or histrionics of any sort, danced it as a somberly reflective elegy, a song of the pain of morality. You were afraid to blink, to miss any of its nuance or telling simplicity."

Bessmertnova was born July 19, 1941, in Moscow to a doctor and a homemaker.

She showed an early interest in dance and soon displayed talent to match, joining the Bolshoi immediately after graduating from the theater's school in 1961, one of the highest achievers in the school's history.

Two years later, she made her solo debut as Giselle, creating the title role in Mikhail Lavrovsky's production and launching herself as a truly romantic dancer.

She went on to dance all of the leading roles in the Russian classical repertoire -- "Swan Lake," "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai," "Don Quixote" and "Romeo and Juliet," in particular. But she was equally adept in the more robust theatrical works choreographed for her by her husband, including "Legend of Love," "Spartacus," "Ivan the Terrible" and "The Golden Age."

Bessmertnova was a gold medalist at the prestigious Varna International Ballet Competition in 1965 and was awarded France's Pavlova Prize in 1970.

She was named a People's Artist of the U.S.S.R. in 1976 and was a laureate of the Soviet Union's Lenin Prize and Stage Prize. She was put on a company pension in 1989 and left the Bolshoi in 1995.

In recent years, she had worked with Grigorovich on such projects as the Benois de la Danse Prize, for which he served as chairman of the jury.

In addition to her husband, Bessmertnova is survived by a sister, Tatania, and a nephew, Mikhail, who also were dancers.

A public funeral will be held Friday at the Bolshoi, the theater said.

Bessmertnova, star of Bolshoi

The Associated Press. Article Launched: 02/19/2008 07:35:44 PM PST

MOSCOW - Natalia Bessmertnova, a Soviet-era prima ballerina who danced with the Bolshoi Ballet for decades, died Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the ballet said. She was 66.

Bessmertnova died at a Moscow hospital after suffering from a grave illness, Yekaterina Novikova said, but she would not specify the cause of death. Russian media reported that Bessmertnova had kidney trouble.

Bessmertnova was a top dancer at the Bolshoi from 1961 until 1995, the year she and other performers staged a one-night strike after the ballet's longtime artistic director Yuri Grigorovich, her husband, quit during a dispute with management amid plans for his replacement.

Their refusal to perform "Romeo and Juliet" prompted the first cancellation in the ballet's history of more than two centuries.

In addition to Juliet, Bessmertnova also danced leading female roles in "Giselle," "Ivan the Terrible," "The Angara" and "The Golden Age."

Bolshoi director Anatoly Iksanov called Bessmertnova's death "a huge loss for the Bolshoi Theater and to our whole culture," the ITAR-Tass news agency said.

The dancer was "the pride and glory of the company to which she devoted her entire life," he was quoted as saying.

"The Bolshoi Theater mourns the death of the outstanding ballerina, one of the world's most celebrated Giselles," the theater said on its Web site.

Bessmertnova was born in Moscow to a doctor and a homemaker. She showed an early

interest in dance and soon displayed talent to match, joining the Bolshoi immediately after graduating from the theater's developmental school.

She was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1976 and was a laureate of the Soviet Union's Lenin Prize and State Prize.

She was a gold medalist at the prestigious Varna International Ballet Competition in 1965 and was awarded France's Pavlova Prize in 1970.

In recent years, Bessmertnova had worked with Grigorovich on projects such as the Benois de la Danse Prize, for which he served as chairman of the jury.

A funeral service, open to the public, will be held Friday at the Bolshoi, the theater said.

presstelegram.com

Bolshoi's Natalia Bessmertnova dies at age 66 in Moscow; cause of death not specified

Associated Press Last update: February 19, 2008 - 8:23 AM

MOSCOW - Natalia Bessmertnova, a Soviet-era prima ballerina who danced with the Bolshoi Ballet for decades, died Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the ballet said. She was 66.

Bessmertnova died at a Moscow hospital after suffering from a grave illness, Yekaterina Novikova said, but she would not specify the cause of death. Russian media reported that Bessmertnova had kidney trouble.

Bessmertnova was a top dancer at the Bolshoi from 1961 until 1995, the year she and other performers staged a one-night strike after the ballet's longtime artistic director Yuri Grigorovich, her husband, quit during a dispute with management amid plans for his replacement.

Their refusal to perform "Romeo and Juliet" prompted the first cancellation in the ballet's history of more than two centuries.

In addition to Juliet, Bessmertnova also danced the leading female roles "Giselle," "Ivan the Terrible," "The Angara" and "The Golden Age."

Bolshoi director Anatoly Iksanov called Bessmertnova's death "a huge loss for the Bolshoi Theater and to our whole culture," the ITAR-Tass news agency said.

The dancer was "the pride and glory of the company to which she devoted her entire life," he was quoted as saying.

"The Bolshoi Theater mourns the death of the outstanding ballerina, one of the world's most celebrated Giselles," the theater said on its Web site.

Bessmertnova was born in Moscow to a doctor and a homemaker. She showed an early interest in dance and soon displayed talent to match, joining the Bolshoi immediately after graduating from the theater's developmental school.

She was named a People's Artist of the U.S.S.R. in 1976 and was a laureate of the Soviet Union's Lenin Prize and State Prize.

She was a gold medalist at the prestigious Varna International Ballet Competition in 1965 and was awarded France's Pavlova Prize in 1970.

In recent years, Bessmertnova had worked with Grigorovich on projects such as the Benois de la Danse Prize, for which he served as chairman of the jury.

A funeral service, open to the public, will be held Friday at the Bolshoi, the theater said.

Natalia Bessmertnova, Ballerina of Innate Lyricism, Dies

By JACK ANDERSON Published: February 20, 2008

Yekaterina Novikova, a spokeswoman for the Bolshoi, announced her death to The Associated Press, but did not give a cause beyond saying that Ms. Bessmertnova had been “suffering from a grave illness.” The Russian media reported that Ms. Bessmertnova had kidney trouble.

The Bolshoi’s general director, Anatoly Iksanov, said her death was “a huge loss for the Bolshoi Theater and to our whole culture,” and declared her “the pride and glory of the company to which she devoted her entire life.”

A slight, pale dancer with large eyes, Ms. Bessmertnova was known for an innate lyricism that gave her dancing a mysterious, almost unearthly beauty. These qualities made her especially notable in the title role of “Giselle.”

Reviewing the Bolshoi’s London season in 1969 for The New York Times, Clive Barnes called Ms. Bessmertnova “the kind of dancer born to dance Giselle.”

“She is as fragile as a bird, has a frail, waif-like innocence, and dances with a fey sense of doom,” he continued.

Ms. Bessmertnova frequently appeared with the Bolshoi in its New York seasons. When she starred at the New York State Theater in “Swan Lake” in 1979 in the dual role of Odette, the innocent maiden transformed into a swan, and Odile, the villainous enchantress, Anna Kisselgoff wrote in The Times that Ms. Bessmertnova “had only to step on stage to establish her great sense of style and authority.” She continued, “Regality was everywhere — from her first high leap to the velvety tone of her unfolding leg extensions.”

Ms. Bessmertnova, whose mother was a homemaker and whose father was a doctor, was born in Moscow and received early dance training in the children’s classes of the Moscow Young Pioneers Palace. Encouraged by her teachers to become a professional dancer, she continued her studies at the Bolshoi’s school and entered the company in 1961, making her debut in “Chopiniana,” a ballet known in the West as “Les Sylphides,” and one in which she could display her sense of Romantic style.

Galina Ulanova, the Bolshoi’s foremost interpreter of “Giselle,” coached her in that ballet, and her repertory also included 19th-century classics and contemporary works, especially those choreographed by her husband, Yuri Grigorovich. She made particularly strong impressions as Phrygia, the poignant wife of a rebellious slave in “Spartacus”; Shirien, a fragile woman stricken with a mysterious disease in “Legend of Love,” for which Mr. Grigorovich based much of his choreography on Persian miniature paintings; and Rita, a variety-show dancer seeking to escape the world of the stage in “The Golden Age.”

Ms. Bessmertnova and Mr. Grigorovich, who had become the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director, left the Bolshoi organization in 1995 during a dispute with the theater’s management that prompted the first strike in the Bolshoi’s history.

The couple frequently served on the juries of international ballet competitions. Ms. Bessmertnova received many top Russian honors, including a People’s Artist of the U.S.S.R. title in 1976 and a Lenin Prize in 1986.