Funeral of Natalia Dudinskaya in St. Petersburg

The funeral of the outstanding Russian ballerina Natalia Dudinskaya, who died on Wednesday at the age of 91, will take place in St. Petersburg today. Since 1931 she danced on the stage of the famous Mariinsky Theatre in Russia's "northern capital" for 20 years.

Natalia Dudinskaya was one of the brightest stars of the Russian ballet along with Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya.

Since 1951 Dudinskaya conducted the advanced training classes of ballerinas and primas of the Kirov Theatre (the Soviet name of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre). Dudinskaya was a professor of the Petersburg Academy of Russian Ballet. Many outstanding Russian ballerinas are Dudinskaya's students.

One of asteroids, discovered in 1989, was named after the great dancer. The US National Biography Institute twice named her the Woman of the Year.