Dudinskaya, Natalya (1912–2003)

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Dudinskaya, Natalya (1912–2003)

Russian ballet dancer and choreographer. Name variations: Natalia. Born Natalya Mikhailovna Dudinskaya in Kharkov, Ukraine, Aug 21, 1912; died Jan 29, 2003, in St. Petersburg, Russia; dau. of Natalya Tagliori (ballet dancer and musician); studied dance under mother's tutelage, early 1920s and under ballerina Agrippina Vaganova; attended Leningrad School of Choreography, 1923–31; m. Konstantin Sergeyev (choreographer at the Kirov), c. 1945.

Prima ballerina, choreographer, and instructor at Russia's famed Kirov Ballet (now St. Petersburg Ballet), made debut while still in school as Princess Florine in Sleeping Beauty; joined the Kirov (1931); appeared in title role of husband's version of Prokofiev's Cinderella (1946); began teaching at the Kirov (1951); retired from dancing (1961); appeared as Carabosse in film version of Cinderella (1964); with husband, choreographed Hamlet (1970), Le Corsaire (1973), and Beethoven's Appassionata (1977), among others. Created such roles as the title role in Laurencia (1936), Mireille de Poitiers in Flames of Paris, Corali in Lost Illusions, Pannochka in Taras Bulba, title role in Gayané, Paragna in Bronze Horseman (1949), and Sarie in Path of Thunder (1957). Also appeared in Les Sylphides, Cinderella (1946), Raymonda, Don Quixote, La Bayadére, Esmeralda, and as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

See also Women in World History.