Alexandra Balashova

Alexandra Balashova, from a 1912 publication.
Alexandra Balashova by F. Malyavin (1924)

Alexandra Balashova (May 3, 1887 — January 5, 1979; in Cyrillic, Александра Балашова), also seen as Aleksandra Balashova or Alexandra Balachova, was a Russian ballet dancer, and later a dance teacher and choreographer.

Early life

Alexandra Mikhailovna Balashova was born in Moscow. She was educated at the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet School.

Career

Balashova was a principal dancer at the Bolshoi Theatre starting in 1905. She often danced with Mikhail Mordkin,[1] and was known for such roles as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty and Odette/Odille in Swan Lake. She performed in London in 1911, replacing Yekaterina Geltzer;[2] for publicity, London bootmakers were challenged to fit "her marvelous instep" from their stock.[3] She left Russia in 1921 and danced for about ten more years in Western Europe, then taught, while living in France.[4] Among her students was dance notation expert Jacqueline Challet-Haas.[5] In 1946 Balashova was credited as choreographer on a production of La fille mal gardée in London.[6]

Russian artist Filipp Malyavin painted her portrait in 1924, when they were both living in Paris.[7]

Personal life

Balashova married Alexei K. Ushkov as his second wife. They left Russia in 1921, taking a residence in Isadora Duncan's former apartment in Paris. Balashova died in 1979, aged 91, in a rest home near Paris.[8][9] There is a box of her papers, mostly correspondence and photographs, at Amherst University.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Mikhail Mordkin Photographs, New York Public Library Archives and Manuscripts.
  2. ↑ Jane Pritchard, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43281369 "Archives of the Dance (24): The Alhambra Moul Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum" Dance Research: The Journal of the Society for Dance Research 32(2)(2014): 247. via JStor.
  3. ↑ "Russian Danseuse Captivates Peers" Washington Herald (August 20, 1911): 9. via Newspapers.com
  4. ↑ Horst Koegler, Dizionario della danza e del balletto (Gremese Editore 1998): 41. ISBN 9788877422620
  5. ↑ Jacqueline Robinson, Modern Dance in France (1920-1970): An Adventure (Routledge 2013): 369. ISBN 9781134396856
  6. ↑ J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1940-1949: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Rowman & Littlefield 2014): 384. ISBN 9780810893061
  7. ↑ Filipp Andreevich Maliavin, Portrait of the Ballerina Alexandra Balashova (1923), at The Athenaeum.
  8. ↑ Carmen Paris, Diccionario biográfico de la danza (Lib Deportivas Esteban Sanz 1997): 38. ISBN 9788485977628
  9. ↑ "Obituaries in the News: Alexandra Balachova" Sheboygan Press (January 12, 1979): 10. via Newspapers.com
  10. ↑ Aleksandra Balashova Papers 1912-1975, Amherst Center for Russian Culture.
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