January 8, 1910
She was born in St. Petersburg Galina Ulanova — ballerina. "The genius of Russian ballet."
I didn't want to dance. It's not easy to love what is difficult.
Talent torments a person from within like hunger or thirst
A ballerina's life is half "must" and half "mustn't"
The parents worked at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre: the father was the troupe’s director, the mother was a ballerina and teacher.
I had this image of my mother as someone who never rested or slept. Hearing talk of me studying and becoming a ballerina, I despairingly thought: will I really have to work so much and never sleep?
At 9, she entered the Petrograd Theatre School. She graduated at 18 and began dancing at the Mariinsky Theatre. In the late 20s, she made her debut in Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake."
I didn't get any pleasure from the performance.
No thoughts, no other feeling except fear and the desire to do everything just the way you were taught.
In 1932, she performed the legendary scene of Giselle's madness in the ballet of the same name. She is remembered for her leading roles in "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai" and "Romeo and Juliet."
It was more difficult for her to dance Prokofiev's ballets than Tchaikovsky's.
"There is no sadder story in the world than Prokofiev's music in ballet," — she confessed to the author.
But for her role in his "Cinderella" she received the Stalin Prize.
She spent the years of the Leningrad siege in evacuation Ural and Kazakhstan, performed in hospitals for the wounded.
In 1944, a directive came from the Central Committee: either a ballerina dances on the country's main stage or not at all. For the next 15 years, she performed at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater. She brought a "weightlessness" to ballet: her movements didn't stop, but gradually faded, dissolving into thin air.
I've never seen anything like this in my life! It's definitely the spirit of God!
(Alexander Vertinsky)
An ordinary goddess!
(Alexey Tolstoy)
Among the admirers of her work were Faina Ranevskaya, Boris Pasternak, Sergei Prokofiev, Irakli Andronnikov.
In 1956, she participated in the Bolshoi's first international tour in London. The roles of Giselle and Juliet brought the 46-year-old prima ballerina worldwide success, and she toured the United States, Europe, and China.
There are no decorations on the stage, but the ballerina seems to have brought with her into the hall the autumn coolness of a quiet lake, the light of a cold moon, in which the shadow of a lonely swan is reflected
(Beijing Opera actor Mei Lan Fan)
She retired from the stage in 1962, at the age of 52. She taught all over the world. Her students are Vladimir Vasiliev, Ekaterina Maksimova, Nikolai Tsiskaridze.
In recent years, she lived with a journalist from Komsomolskaya Pravda Tatyana Agafonova, called her "adopted daughter" (the ballerina had no children of her own).
Horse-drawn trams used to run in St. Petersburg. The horses wore blinders so nothing would distract them. I wore these blinders almost my entire life. So nothing would interfere with my work and my thoughts about my profession.
Until the end of her life she remained graceful and weighed her unchanged 49 kg.
We had rehearsals scheduled at very inconvenient times. But she still showed up. My God, she was 88! But running and jumping around the room with me was a young, fit woman in very high heels. She looked like that until her last day.
(Nikolai Tsiskaridze)
She died in 1998, at 88, after two strokes.