The world of arts
The curtain falls on Natalia Bessmertnova
Gwen HERAT
Just, last month the spectacular Natalia Bessmertnova passed away but
not without creating history by refusing to perform along with her
fellow dancers for a night. This historic move was a virtual strike that
stunned the world of ballet and caused the company’s first cancellation
in more than two centuries.
The delicate and fragile Bessmertnova was the prima ballerina of the
Bolshoi Ballet for thirty two years and mesmerised audience with her
boundless energy and an intensity that was all poetic, style on
classical and contemporary ballet.
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Bessmertnova |
The reason for her action was the fact that her equally famous
husband, Yuri Grigorvich who was the artistic director of the Bolshoi,
quit the company because of a dispute with the management over plans to
replace him. They were the dancer-choreographer combination that turned
Bolshoi Ballet around to what it is today.
Natalia Igorievna Bessmertnova was born in Moscow on July 19, 1941.
She was sixty six when she passed away and reportedly had kidney trouble
but danced to the end. Studied at Moscow Bolshoi School from 1952 to 61
and joined the Bolshoi Ballet after graduation.
Considered as an ideal interpreter of the ballerina roles of
classical repertory due to her lyrical, soft, eminently feminine
quality, she carried this signature through life. The outstanding roles
for which she gave life were for Kitri and Juliet. She also moved her
audiences as Sherine in The Legend of Love, as Maria in Fountain of
Bakhchisaray and as Phyrgia in Spartacus.
She also danced as Leila in Goleisovsky’s Leila and Medshun in 1964.
She was brilliant as Anaesthesia in Ivan the Terrible mounted by her
husband Grigoroviah in 1975, She also danced in Angara in 1976
choreographed by her husband that was a great success with the Bolshoi.
Her virtuosity was unlimited which made Bessmertnova a favourites
among all Russian choreographers. In 1965 she won the Gold Medal (Varna)
and was awarded the Prix A. Pavlova in Paris in 1970.
Husband Yuri Nikolaivich Grigovich was born in Leningrad on January 2
1927, is one of Bolshoi’s brilliant choreographer/ dancer/Ballet
director.
He is such an iconic classicist and tremendously gifted producer
under whose brilliant manipulating, the Bolshoi Ballet was able to
transform itself from its original athletic muscularity and become the
elegant and feminine Ballet as it is today.
This Ballet Company has been able to take on the guise of The Royal
Ballet because of Grigovich’s soft and gentle touch. After graduating
from the Leningrad Choreographic School in 1946, he joined the Kirov
Ballet in 1957.
After gaining experience with a few ballet excerpts, he got his big
break to choreograph Prokofiev’s Stone Flower for the Kirov which became
an instant hit. So great was the response had to remake it for the
Bolshoi Ballet in 1959. This was followed with Melikov’s Legend of Love
in 1961 after which he was appointed as Ballet Master in 1962. So, began
his career with the Bolshoi.
In 1964 he became the Chief Ballet Master and Choreographer to the
Bolshoi Ballet. This wizard wasted no time and with his first production
for the Bolshoi Ballet, he proved his class. The year was 1965, he saw
his dream materialising in the form of Natalia Bessmetnova when he
choreographed Sleeping Beauty.
This was followed by Nutcracker in 1966 and Khacturian’s Spartacus in
1968. Swan Lake in 1969 and a new version of the Sleeping Beauty in
1973, Iwan The Terrible in 1975, Angara in 1976, Romeo and Juliet in
1979 while in all these ballets he fond that wife, Bessmertnova was able
to rise to his expectations. They were the perfect couple somewhat like
the Nureyev/Fonteyn combination. Bessmertnova immortalised all these
roles. |
