Nina Kaptsova, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater: biography, creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Kaptsova Nina Alexandrovna is a famous Russian ballerina, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre.

General Biography

Nina Kaptsova was born on October 16, 1978 in the city of Rostov-on-Don. Since childhood, the girl dreamed of becoming a ballerina and shining in a halo of glory on the stage of one of the largest theaters in Russia. Already at the age of 5, being a little girl, Nina set herself the goal of becoming a professional ballerina and in the future to perform the part of the Black Swan in P. I. Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake".

First steps in ballet

Getting into the ballet club was not a big deal. Nina Kaptsova, whose height, weight always corresponded to the parameters necessary for ballet, was immediately accepted into it. From early childhood, she was graceful and plastic, loved to dance and be the center of attention. Perhaps that is why she was able to perform difficult ballet positions and pirouettes with amazing ease.

Gradually moving towards her dream, the girl began ballet classes in a circle, and then in 1988 her fate fell into the hands of Lyudmila Alekseevna Kolenchenko, a choreographer at the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, who became her first teacher. Getting older and gaining skills, Nina Kaptsovamoved to the class of a more serious teacher - Larisa Valentinovna Dobrozhan. And, finally, when the young ballerina was already ready to enter the stage of a real ballet production, her last teacher was the rector of the Moscow State Academy of Arts, People's Artist of the USSR S. N. Golovkina.

Family

At the moment Nina Aleksandrovna Kaptsova is a happy wife and mother. She is married to pianist-accompanist of the Bolshoi Theater Alexei Melentiev. And in 2014, the famous ballerina gave birth to a daughter and gave her the name Elizabeth.

First successes

The girl's life changed dramatically from 1991 to 1992: she became a student of a new program, which made it possible for new talents to realize themselves - "New Names". The young Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Dmitry Belogolovtsev were among the same lucky ones. After this event, luck began to favor the future prima ballerina. In 1994-1995, the girl became the youngest laureate of the New Names, and then her long-awaited career in the Bolshoi Ballet began.

In 1996, Kaptsova was already a scholarship holder of the OK of Russia, and only this alone spoke of how rapidly her level of professionalism was rising. Becoming not just a student, but a student, Nina increasingly tried herself on the big stage in such famous ballet productions as A. Gorsky's "Vain Precaution", V. Vainonen's "The Nutcracker", A. Gorsky's "Coppelia" and others. Her partners were Denis Medvedev, Sergey Vasyuchenko, Andrey Bolotin - people, some of whom were the same graduates and young talents of the Moscow State Academy of Arts, like her, but wereand those who by that time had already proved themselves enough at the Higher School of Classical Ballet.

The beginning of a career at the Bolshoi Theater

Thanks to her diligence and ability to give herself without reserve to the art of dance, Nina Kaptsova graduated from the academy with excellent marks in 1996, after which she was invited to join the Bolshoi Theater troupe. An amazing breakthrough at such a young age helped her immediately establish herself as a responsible and hard-working student. And, of course, patience and the first failures that invariably befell every great person, and the way the girl easily experienced them, made her notice her. As a result, she began to work under the guidance of the chief teacher of the Bolshoi Theater, People's Artist of the USSR Marina Kondratieva. Thanks to the attention and instructions of his teacher, the talent of the young ballerina began to unfold more and more.

New productions - new experience

And in November 1997, Nina Kaptsova first danced a variation in the ballet "Raymonda". A beautiful chivalric love story, combined with the talent of a young ballerina, was a huge success. In December of the same 1997, Nina made her debut as Cupid in a ballet production called Don Quixote. In the spring of the following year, in the ballet Paganini, Nina Kaptsova played the character of Muse, while her friend and fellow student at the academy Dmitry Gudanov made his debut.

Slowly improving her skills, the girl got closer and closer to her cherished dream - to go down in history as one of the best ballerinas of our time.

The Nutcracker Ballet

The ballerina's efforts and constant work on herself lead to new achievements. So is Nina Kaptsova, a ballerina who, sparing no effort and time to rehearse and perfect ballet steps, got to the main role in one of the most famous ballet productions of the composer P. I. Tchaikovsky, The Nutcracker. Playing the role of Marie, the girl once again proved her professionalism to teachers, spectators and, above all, to herself. The event took place on January 14, 1999 and was dedicated to the 90th birthday of Simon Virsaladze. The ballerina's partner was Nikolai Tsiskaridze, who already knew the girl from the New Names program, where they both became well-deserved laureates.

The performance was broadcast on Central Television and gathered a lot of admiring reviews, not to mention the applause of the audience of the live performance. For this role, Nina Kaptsova was nominated for the Benois de la dance prize, but this time the young ballerina was not lucky, which, however, did not upset her much, since it was much more important for the girl herself to develop her talent.

New dance season in BT

April 1999 was the season of new premieres: George Balanchine's ballets Agon and Symphony in C inspired new ideas in the art of ballet. Nina Kaptsova was also a participant in this production - she was part of a dance trio. In general, 1999 was the heyday of Kaptsova as a ballerina. She participated in such spectacular productions as "Chopiniana", "Fantasy on a Theme of Casanova", "Anyuta", "Don Quixote" and much more.

At the end of 1999, a competition was held at the Bolshoi Theater to select new soloists for the main troupe. That time became the moment of truth, which showed that all the efforts made were not in vain - Nina Kaptsova became the soloist of the Bolshoi Theater. Ballet really was her whole life, so winning the competition was not so surprising.

Prima ballerina

In 2000, new perspectives opened up before the ballerina. Now she constantly took part in a wide variety of projects: she performed a solo role in Mozartiana, for the first time participated as a dancer in the opera Ivan Susanin, and a little later she performed with her part of The Nutcracker at a concert held in honor of the anniversary of her former mentor, teacher of the Moscow State Academy of Arts S. Golovkina. In the fall of 2000, the girl began work in the ballet Sleeping Beauty, where she received the main role of Princess Aurora. Konstantin Ivanov in that production became her partner, with whom she did not stop communicating even after the dance season.

Subsequently, it was for this role that the famous ballet dancer, and then the main director of the dance troupe of the Bolshoi Theater, Sergei Filin announced that now Nina Kaptsova is the new prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater. It happened on November 19, 2011.

Ballet "Romeo and Juliet"

Returning a little back, one cannot fail to note one more role, thanks to which the name of Nina Kaptsova became famous not only throughout Russia, but also went beyond its borders. The ballet "Romeo and Juliet" by Sergei Prokofiev has become moreone serious job in the career of a prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre.

Debut as Juliet took place in 2010. The dancer's partner was Artem Ovcharenko. And in the future, it was this ballet production that became one of the most striking projects in Kaptsova's life.

Ballerina's preferences in ballet

As the prima ballerina herself said, she prefers to play, or rather live, the role of negative or complex antagonistic characters. Delicate and fragile by nature, Nina Kaptsova from the age of 5 wanted to perform the part of Odile, the Black Swan in the ball of P. I. Tchaikovsky.

The power, strength and characteristic charisma of this character has always attracted a ballerina. And although in her career she did not have so many opportunities to play a “dark” character on stage, each time she took on the performance of the received role with all her enthusiasm. By the way, the dream of dancing Swan Lake came true, but not on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre.