Galina Sergeevna
Ulanova
1909-1998
Galina Sergeevna Ulanova was a Soviet ballet dancer and teacher, who was the prima ballerina of both the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theatre named after S.M. Kirov from 1928 to 1944 and the Bolshoi Theatre of the USSR from 1944 to 1960. She was twice awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labour, in 1974 and 1980, and was also a People’s Artist of the USSR, a winner of the Lenin Prize, and a four-time Stalin Prize winner. She received numerous awards from the President of Russia, including the Order of Lenin, four times. Ulanova was the most decorated ballerina in Soviet history. She was born into a family of dancers at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. Her personal life is not well-documented, but she was known for her graceful and elegant performances on stage. She performed in various roles, including Odette in Swan Lake and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Her performances were highly acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. Ulanova’s legacy lives on through her performances and her contributions to the world of ballet. She is remembered as one of the greatest ballerinas of all time. Her father, Sergei Nikolaevich Ulanov, was a ballet dancer who worked with the chief choreographer of the theatre, M. I. Petipa. Later, he became the ballet director of the theatre. Her mother, Maria Fedorovna Romanova, became a ballet teacher at a choreographic school and then a teacher-tutor at the Kirov Theatre. Galina Ulanova started her ballet training at Petrograd Theatre School in 1919, when she was nine years old. Her mother, Maria Romanova, was her first teacher, and later Agrippina Vaganova was her teacher for the last three years of her training. She graduated in 1928 and performed at her graduation performance on May 16. She danced in “Chopiniana”, “Harlequinade”, and “The Nutcracker”. In the same year, she was accepted into the ballet troupe of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theatre (now the Mariinsky Theatre), where she made her debut as Florine in the ballet “Sleeping Beauty”, based on the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky. In 1942, due to the war, the Mariinsky Theatre was evacuated from Leningrad and moved to Tashkent. Ulanova followed the troupe and moved to Moscow in 1944. From 1944 to 1959, she was a soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre and since 1951, she became a leading prima ballerina there. Already her first performances on the theatre’s stage attracted the attention of critics. In 1929, she danced her first leading role as Odette in “Swan Lake” by Tchaikovsky. Throughout the 1930s and 40s, she performed with Konstantin Sergeyev. She worked with outstanding choreographers such as F.V. Lopukhov, V.I. Vainonnen, L.V. Yakobson, R.V. Zakharov, and L.M. Lavrovsky. During this time, Ulanova danced in performances such as “Raymonda” by Glazunov (“Raymond”), “The Ice Maiden”, and others. Grieg (Solveig) performed “Chopiniana”, to the music of F. Chopin, “Hunchback Horse”, by Ts. Puni, “Sleeping Beauty”, and “The Nutcracker”, by P.I. Tchaikovsky. She also danced Giselle in A. Adan’s ballet of the same name (1932). During the siege in 1941, she was evacuated to Molotov. With the permission of the theatre, she travelled to Alma-Ata for a year, but returned to the Urals in the autumn of 1943. During her time there, she worked at the Kazakh Opera and Ballet Theatre, dancing Maria and Giselle and performing in concerts. In 1943, she received the honorary title “People’s Artist of Kazakh SSR”. She also performed for wounded soldiers during the war. She received many letters from soldiers before and after the war. Many soldiers and nurses wrote heartwarming letters to her, expressing gratitude for the fact that her art gave them strength to survive and saved them from the horrors of war. Towards the end of the war in 1944, she was transferred to the Bolshoi Theatre to work. She later said that she would never have moved to Moscow if the authorities had not ordered it, as they virtually made a decision on this matter by the Central Committee. She remained the leading ballerina at the Bolshoi until 1960, where she performed main roles in ballets such as “Giselle,” “Swan Lake,” “Bakhchisarai Fountain,” (1944), “Cinderella,” (1945), “Romeo and Juliet,” (1947) and “Red Poppy,” (1949). After the war, in July 1945, she made her first appearance in Vienna performing “Swan,” by C. Saint-Saëns, “Waltz,” by A. Rubinstein, and the Seventh Waltz from “Chopiniana,” partnering with V. Preobrazhensky. She participated in the first foreign tours of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1956, in London, which brought her world-wide fame. She danced Giselle and Juliet, and had a triumphal success, equal to which, according to foreign experts, had not been seen since the days of Anna Pavlova. In 1957, due to health reasons, she retired from performing, but continued to teach at a choreography school and give masterclasses. She performed on the stage of the Bolshoi for the last time on December 28, 1960, in the miniature “The Swan”.
Address: Moscow, Kotelnicheskaya nab., 1/15, k. B.
