Outstanding Ballerina Natalia Dudinskaya Died

Outstanding ballerina Natalia Dudinskaya, 91, died in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, said the press service of the Mariinsky Theatre.

Natalia Dudindskaya, a student of Agrippina Vaganova, graduated from the Leningrad Choreography School in 1931 and was admitted to the company of the Kirov (Mariinsky) Opera and Ballet Theatre. Her creative activity was inseparably linked with the famous Petersburg theatre. Dudinskaya danced all the leading ballet parts on its stage: Odette-Odile ("The Swan Lake"), Aurora ("The Sleeping Beauty"), Snowmaiden ("The Spring Tale"), Sari ("The Path of Thunder") and many others. Natalia Dudinskaya was awarded with the State Prize for the part of Raymonda (ballet "Raymonda").

Since 1951 Natalia Dudinskaya conducted the advanced training class of ballerinas and primas. She was a professor of the Vaganova Russian Ballet Academy and shared her knowledge and experience with students. Such famous ballerinas, as Ulyana Lopatkina, Margarita Kullik, Veronika Ivanova and Polina Rassadina, are among her students.

In 1994 and 1996 the US National Biography Institute named the great dancer "The Woman of the Year". In 1997 the Russian Personality Chamber, attached to the Russian President, entitled her a Russian Princess. In April 1997, Natalia Dudinskaya became a laureate of the Gold Mask national theatre award in the category "For Honour and Dignity".

One of asteroids, discovered in 1989, was named after this unique woman.