Makarova Natalia, ballerina: biography, creativity, achievements, personal life

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

Outstanding ballerina Natalya Makarova, whose biography is overgrown with various legends, has left a noticeable mark on the world of contemporary choreography. Her path is the path of strength and creativity, she continues to work, and the fruits of her inspiration continue to delight thousands of people.

Childhood

In Leningrad, on November 21, 1940, a girl, Natalia Makarova, was born, a ballerina whose family had nothing to do with dancing. Moreover, my mother had a negative attitude towards the profession of a ballet actress, she seemed to her frivolous and unreliable. She dreamed of seeing her daughter as a doctor or engineer. The girl's father, an architect, died in the war, and her mother, who raised her daughter alone, wanted to give the child a good start in life. Natalya studied well at school, and she had every chance to get a stable profession. But the girl at the same time had amazing natural data: flexibility, hearing, plasticity. Since childhood, she has been doing gymnastics, and the coaches were surprised at her abilities, they said about Natalya that she seemed to have no bones, and they advised her to take up dancing. Moreover, Natalya really liked ballet, as a child she reviewed the entire repertoire of the Opera and Ballet Theater. S. Kirova.

Study

Young Makarova Natalya, a ballerina from God, went to the choreographic studio of the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers, where she immediately stood out from the crowd of students. Her amazing data did not go unnoticed, and the teachers recommended that she go to the qualifying tests at the Vaganova ballet school. This year, an experimental class was recruited at the choreographic school, in which children were admitted from the age of 12-13, in contrast to the usual admission from the age of 9. Thus, Makarova had to go through a program designed for 9 years, in just 6. But she successfully coped with this task. Her teacher was Elena Vasilievna Shiripina, a student of A. Vaganova and a devoted keeper of her method of training ballerinas. Already in the years of study, the young dancer attracted the attention of not only teachers, but also directors. Her outstanding data and talent foreshadowed significant success as a ballerina. Already at the school, she mastered the classical repertoire, in particular, she danced the adagio in Swan Lake. There she happened to work with the great choreographer, who was forbidden to work in the USSR, Kasyan Goleizovsky, and found a like-minded partner - Nikita Dolgushin.

Soviet ballerina's career

Immediately after graduating from the Makarov School, Natalia is a ballerina from one of the best theaters in the world, she is enrolled in the troupe of the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre, andfour years later she was the prima of this theatre. At first she works in the corps de ballet, but thanks to her high-class technique, she quickly advances to the first positions. At that time, the main productions in the theater were carried out by K. Sergeev, he was an excellent dancer in his time, but as a director he was very mediocre. He could not fully use the romantic potential of Natalia Makarova, she had difficulty mastering the role of Odette-Odile in Swan Lake.

It was a great success for her to meet the nonconformist choreographer Leonid Yakobson, who notices the young dancer and invites her to the performance Choreographic Miniatures. He was able to discern the character of the ballerina, her talent for dramatic and lyrical roles, and this allowed her to gradually get her stellar repertoire. For 11 years of work at the Makarova Theater, Natalya, an extra-class ballerina, danced the entire classical repertoire: Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Chopiniana, Bakhchisarai Fountain, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella ". She was also lucky to perform roles in L. Jacobson's innovative productions of The Bedbug, Novels of Love and Wonderland. She also has to participate in the performances of K. Sergeev: "The Distant Planet", "Sleeping Beauty", "Swan Lake".

In the late 1960s, Natalia Makarova, the No. 1 ballerina of the Kirov Theatre, was injured and doctors advised her to stop her career. But she showed considerable courage and willpower and returned to the stage.

By 1970, Makarova becomes the undisputed prima of the Kirovtheater, she tours a lot around the country, she is reluctant to be released abroad. At that time, a difficult atmosphere developed in the theater: envy, competition, the dominance of ideology, pressure from party leaders on dancers and directors, lack of freedom - all this did not allow the ballet star to develop. A large number of bright and interesting performances did not pass censorship, for example, the viewer did not see Igor Chernyshov's Romeo and Julia, Yakobson's ballets The Jewish Wedding and The Twelve. Foreign tours were perceived as incredible happiness, although during them the dancers were carefully monitored by representatives of the special services, they tried to ensure that the artists did not intersect with the apostates who remained abroad. So, Makarova was carefully protected from meeting with Rudolf Nureyev, who had fled abroad.

Makarova was looking for self-realization, she did not want to follow the beaten paths, she rebelled against the academic theater system, her artistic talent, eroticism did not fit into the canons of the then Soviet theater. The ballerina dreamed of more, and all this formed the internal motivation of her future unexpected act.

Jump into the unknown

In 1970, on a tour of the Kirov Theater in London, Natalia makes an unexpected decision - she asks for political asylum in the UK and cuts off her path to her homeland. Her relatives, who remained in the USSR, were subjected to severe pressure, the authorities wanted to return the fugitive. But Makarova was able to withstand everything and after a short period of time she found a way to providefinancial support to relatives.

Career of a dancer in the West

Natalya Makarova, a 163 cm ballerina, has been able to make a dizzying career, especially when you consider that she was already 28 years old during emigration. She was able to fully realize herself in the theater, having received the desired freedom. After the escape, she moved to New York, where she began her ascent to the Olympus of world ballet. She was able to dance the entire classical repertoire, as well as take part in modern productions of the most outstanding choreographers. For many years she was the prima ballerina of the American Ballet Theatre, worked in the London Royal Ballet, and also collaborated with the troupes of Paris, Hamburg, Marseilles, Swedish, Canadian and many other theaters of the world. She happened to work with the greatest stage directors of the 20th century: Balanchine, Lifar, Chernyshov, Petit, Bejart, Ashton, Normayer, who made performances just for her.

In addition, she realized herself as a dramatic actress, playing in the play “On Pointe” on Broadway and receiving several prestigious awards for this role, as well as in the play “Comrade” by J. Duval and the production of R. Viktyuk “Two on seesaw. She also records audio versions of fairy tales for children in Russian and English.

In 1989, Makarova was invited to Russia, where she gave a brilliant benefit performance on the stage of her native theater, and since that time she has regularly collaborated with the Russian ballet.

Choreographer Makarova Natalia Romanovna

In 1974 NataliaMakarova makes her debut as a choreographer, she stages scenes from La Bayadère at the American Ballet Theatre. Subsequently, leaving her career as a dancer, Natalia Makarova focused on the work of the director, she has successfully staged performances all over the world to this day. Her most outstanding works were the productions of Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère, Giselle, Paquita.

Best performances

Natalia Makarova's repertoire has a huge number of outstanding productions, this is almost the entire classical repertoire in various editions: "Swan Lake", "Giselle", "Sleeping Beauty", "Don Quixote", "The Firebird", " The Nutcracker, Cinderella. As well as a huge number of modern productions: "Onegin" by D. Cranko, "Phenomena" and "A Month in the Country" by F. Ashton, "Carmen" and "Proust, or Interruptions of the Heart" by R. Petit, "Epilogue" by D. Normeier and others.

Great partners

Natalya Makarova was lucky with her partners, even at the Kirov Theater she dances with many stars: N. Dolgushin, K. Sergeev, M. Baryshnikov. And after moving to the West, many of the greatest dancers got up with her. She performs her first part in the West together with Rudolf Nureyev. It is with her that Mikhail Baryshnikov and Alexander Godunov dance after leaving the USSR. Also among her partners were such stars as Ivan Nachev, Anthony Dowell, Eric Brun, Derek Dean, John Prince.

Private life

Dancers often sacrifice family life and personal happiness for the sake of their career, but there are also lucky ones who are able to combine everything,one of those is Natalya Makarova. The ballerina, whose personal life was quite successful, was married twice. The first marriage with director Leonid Kvinikhidze broke up, and she still lives with her second husband, American businessman, millionaire Edward Karkar. The dancer in 1978 gave birth to her son Andrey and was able to quickly return to her ballet form, saying that after the birth of the child she had a “second creative breath”. Ballerina Makarova Natalya and her house saw many outstanding people, she was friends with Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis, communicated with all the outstanding choreographers and dancers of our time. She received an award from the hands of US President Barack Obama for her contribution to the development of American culture.