Olga Vasiliyevna Lepeshinskaya

Olga Vasiliyevna Lepeshinskaya ( _ru. Ольга Васильевна Лепешинская, born OldStyleDate|28 September|1916|15 September in Kiev) [http://www.tonnel.ru/?l=gzl&uid=471&op=bio Lepeshinskaya, Olga Vasiliyevna] article in Krugosvet encyclopedia ru icon ] is a Russian ballerina, People's Artist of the USSR (1951) [http://www.peoples.ru/art/theatre/ballet/lepeshinskaya/ Lepeshinskaya, Olga Vasiliyevna] article in Peoples.ru encyclopedia [http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.peoples.ru/art/theatre/ballet/lepeshinskaya/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=4&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522Olga%2BLepeshinskaya%2522%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dcom.google:en-US:official%26sa%3DG English translation] ] .

Childhood

Olga Lepeshinskaya was born to an old Polish [ [http://rus.postimees.ee/100908/dopolnitelno/persona/6074_1.php Ольга Лепешинская: Счастье — быть нужным] Postimees 6 October 2006 ] noble family in Kiev, Russian Empire (now the capital of Ukraine). Her grandfather, Vasily Pavlovich Lepeshinsky was arrested as a member of the revolutionary organization Narodnaya Volya. Her father, Vasily Vasilievich Lepeshinsky was a railway engineer, one of the builders of the Chinese Eastern Railway.

From the early years Olga showed her talents in dancing and in the 1925 she was admitted to the Bolshoi Choreographic School. She appeared for the first time on the scene of Bolshoi Theatre at the age of ten as one of the little birds in the ballet The Daughter of the Snows. In 1932 she played the "Sugar Plum Fairy" in The Nutcracker ballet.

Prima ballerina

Olga Lepeshinskay graduated from Bolshoi Choreographic School and started to work in Bolshoi Theatre. She started as Rosina in a ballet on The Barber of Seville (Тщетная предосторожность) performed by the second stage of the theater. In 1935 she performed the main role in the "Three fatmen"' ballet by Yury Olesha fairytale. The ballet became very popular and the 18-year old ballerina became famous.

Lepeshinskaya performed in the private concerts in Moscow Kremlin since when she was 17 years old. Lepeshinskaya was very close to Polina Zhemchuzhina, wife of Vyacheslav Molotov. It was a great shock for her then Zhemchuzhina was imprisoned in Gulag camps [ [http://www.rg.ru/2006/09/29/lepeshinskaya.html Балерина-дворянка] interview with Lepeshinskaya. Rosiyskaya Gazeta 29 September 2006 ru icon ] Lepeshinskaya was known as "the favourite ballerina of Joseph Stalin" and even rumoured to be his mistress [ [http://www.flb.ru/info/36898.html Женщины Сталина] by Olga Kuchkina ru icon] [ [http://palm.newsru.com/russia/12apr2006/stalin.html Сталин изживал в себе грузина с помощью статных русских любовниц ] NEWSru.com ru icon ] .

Lepeshinskaya married a Soviet intelligence general Leonid Roykhman (known as the curator of Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov). He was arrested in the early 1950s and died in the camps [ [http://www.world-war.ru/article_680.html Если ты в прошлое выстрелишь из пистолета, то будущее в тебя выстрелит из пушки] by Olga Lepeshinskaya ru icon ]

In February 1940 Kirov Ballet in Leningrad first performed their Don Quixote ballet with Lepeshinskaya as Kitry. The ballet was a great success. In 1941, when the Stalin Prize was established, Olga Lepeshinskaya was among the first laureates of the prize for her performance in Don Quixote. All together Lepesinskaya received four Stalin Prizes.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War Lepeshinskaya became a member of the "Front brigade" of the Bolshoi Theater. The brigade performed near the front lines, in hospitals, in Moscow and in Saratov there Bolshoi was evacuated. Lepeshinskaya was a member of the brigade until the end of the World War II. Her performances near the battlefields were filmed in the 1941 Soviet Documentary "Kontsert - Frontu" (Concerto to the Front) [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0177891/ Kontsert - Frontu] on IMDb ] .

In 1942 "Soviet youth anti-fascist committee" was organized. Lepeshinskaya was its Deputy Chairperson.

In 1943 she starred as Assol in the Bolshoi première Scarlet Sails. On the May 9 she was with her Bolshoi brigade with Soviet troops in Warsaw. The next day she received her invitation to perform in Cinderella ballet of Bolshoi. The ballet first performed on 21 November 1945 was the first after war show of Bolshoi. Lepeshinskaya got the her secon Stalin prize for that performance. She received her third Stalin prize for her performance in the Flames of Paris and the fourth prize for the Tao-Hoa role in The Red Poppy. In 1951 she together with Galina Ulanova received the People's Artist of the USSR title.

Teacher

In 1956 she married Soviet General Aleksei Antonov. In 1962 her husband died. The nervous shock was so strong that she became temporarily blind. When after a year of treatment her vision returned she found herself unneeded by the Bolshoi Theater or the Bolshoi School. Fortunately, she found a place at the Komische Oper Berlin where she worked as a ballet mistresses for ten years. .

After this she worked as a trainer in many different companies throughout the world. The last thirty years she was the Chairperson of Ballet competitions in Moscow. She is the president of Russian Choreographic Association (since 1992) and the Chairperson for the Choreography Entrance Exams in Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (for the last fifty years).

She helped painter Ilya Glazunov during his beginning (she even was reprimanded for organizing his first exhibition), so he declared Lepeshinskaya to be his godmother in the art.

References

External links

*Imdb name|0503270
* [http://www.bolshoi.ru/ru/theatre/people/detail.php?act26=info&id26=844 Lpeshinskaya page on Bolshoi Theater webpage] ru icon