Alexandra Balashova

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.

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

Early life

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

Career
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

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 (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.com
  10. Aleksandra Balashova Papers 1912-1975, Amherst Center for Russian Culture.
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