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Alexandra Balashova

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Alexandra Balashova
Alexandra Balashova, from a 1912 publication
Born3 May 1887
Moscow, Russian Empire
Died5 January 1979(1979-01-05) (aged 91)
Paris, France
SpouseAlexei K. Ushkov

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

Early life

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

Career

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Alexandra Balashova by F. Malyavin (1924)

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

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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

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  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.comOpen access icon
  4. ^ Horst Koegler (1998). Dizionario della danza e del balletto (in French). Gremese Editore. p. 41. ISBN 9788877422620.
  5. ^ Jacqueline Robinson (2013). Modern Dance in France (1920-1970): An Adventure. Routledge. p. 369. ISBN 9781134396856.
  6. ^ J. P. Wearing (2014). The London Stage 1940-1949: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 384. ISBN 9780810893061.
  7. ^ Filipp Andreevich Maliavin, Portrait of the Ballerina Alexandra Balashova (1923), at The Athenaeum.
  8. ^ Carmen Paris (1997). Diccionario biográfico de la danza (in French). Lib Deportivas Esteban Sanz. p. 38. ISBN 9788485977628.
  9. ^ "Obituaries in the News: Alexandra Balachova" Sheboygan Press (January 12, 1979): 10. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  10. ^ Aleksandra Balashova Papers 1912-1975, Amherst Center for Russian Culture.
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