Natalia Chernova and her role in the history of ballet

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

Theatrical critic is a rare profession in our time. Usually it is chosen by independent individuals, sometimes dooming themselves to a difficult life in a theatrical society. To express your opinion, which can radically diverge from the public, you need to be a person of strong character and a certain temperament, confident in his rightness and unwilling to give up his word under any circumstances.

One of the varieties of this profession is a ballet critic. He must have extensive knowledge of dance theory and its poetics. Ballet studies, like theater criticism, appeared in Russia in the second half of the 18th century. Then ballet as an art was just beginning to develop, and from the same time the first publications began to appear, even a "Dance Dictionary" was published so that readers were aware of the complex names of dance elements. It was very fashionable and relevant.

Getting Started in the Profession

To the profession of a ballet expert and theater critic Natalya Chernovawent on for many years. Since childhood, she was attracted to ballet. She was born in 1937, during the heyday of this art. The extraordinary nobility and elegance of the dance fascinated her. After studying at school, she decided to devote her life to the study of theatrical choreography and dramaturgy. In 1960, she successfully graduated from GITIS with a degree in Theater Studies, where it was mandatory to study the history of literature, music and cinema, theater.

Choosing a narrow specialization, Natalya Chernova did not count on high fees. Literary and theatrical publications have never had a special we alth. Therefore, a theater critic is, first of all, an enthusiast of his work, who loves it infinitely. Who Chernova Natalya Yuryevna was, this became her vocation and profession for life. After all, writing a review of a performance, analyzing each of its episodes, is a rather delicate matter. Natalya Yuryevna had the gift of paying attention to those little things, the description of which would be useful and interesting for every reader.

Teaching at school

Another direction in the biography of Natalia Chernova is teaching and research activities. In 1976, she began work at the Moscow Choreographic School. This is one of the oldest educational institutions in the capital, founded by Catherine II. The first dance and fine arts class was opened here. By decree of the Empress, a rescript was signed on the creation of a theater management committee.

In 1806 the classes became the Moscow Theater School. Throughout the existence of the educational institution, eminent teachers conducted classes, and among them Natalya Chernova. They taught girls and boys the art of choreography and ballet studies.

History of ballet at the Moscow School

Wonderful, sophisticated art. Here the content of each role is revealed in dance images. Natalya Chernova told in her lessons how art originated, how it developed in the Middle Ages, about the first Italian teachers, about famous ballerinas from different times.

Students listened with bated breath about Ekaterina Maksimova, Maya Plisetskaya - famous ballerinas - graduates of the Moscow school. After all, dance is such an art of communicating with the audience, where the only tool for transmitting information is the body, its plasticity. Natalya Yuryevna taught her students to understand and speak the language of dance, because for this it was necessary to know the history of the subject.

Drama lessons

In 1988, Chernova Natalya Yurievna comes as a teacher to GITIS, where she herself received her profession. She begins lecturing on the scenario dramaturgy of the ballet. The script is a literary model of any performance, where all episodes of the action are painted.

Education and experience gained within the walls of the All-Russian Research Institute of Art History and as a researcher at the Museum. A. A Bakhrushina helps her to convey to the students the basic concepts of dramaturgy. Teach them with a tool like danceexplain to the viewer the meaning of any work.

Books, essays, reviews

She began writing works on art history back in 1960, at the same time her first essays and articles were published. She was the author of works popular among balletomanes about great artists, their talent, and the development of dance. In 1984, a book about the great Russian choreographer Kasyan Goleizovsky was published. He lived a long, fruitful life, which he devoted to ballet. Even before the revolution, he created his own studio and staged aesthetic programs with inspiration. Natalia Chernova's book about him touched on rather serious aspects of ballet art, because Kasyan Goleizovsky tried to look at dance in a new way, using the plasticity of the human body in new interpretations.

This work became interesting to ballet lovers, it was read. She also wrote about the great ballerinas, about the history of their formation. Reviews of performances in which Ekaterina Maksimova, Maya Plisetskaya and other great artists took part were frequent. For regular readers who wanted to keep abreast of the events of ballet art, books were published already with a photo of Natalya Yuryevna Chernova on the title page. She wrote about the masters of the stage, about the activities of the Bolshoi ballet troupes and its tours, reviews of staged performances.

STD and Golden Mask

Natalia Chernova has put a lot of effort into the development of ballet art in Russia. Her seminars at the STD RF were popular among colleagues and students, they were one of the most popular. She isattracted young people with her reviews of various performances, noting the choreographic style of each of them. She was also a member of the jury of the festival and the national award "Golden Mask" as an eminent ballet and theater critic. Natalya Yuryevna became one of the first organizers of modern dance video festivals in Russia.

Died in 1997 in Moscow. She was 60 years old.