Natalya Dudinskaya

Natalia Dudinskaya was a leading ballerina of the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Russia. She was born Natalia Mikhailovna Dudinskaya on August 21, 1912, in Kharkov, Russian Empire (now Kharkiv, Ukraine). Her mother was Natalia Alexandovna Tagliori, a notable Russian ballerina of Italian heritage. Her father was a musician. Young Dudinskaya studied ballet under her mother in Kharkov.

In 1923 she entered the Petrograd Ballet School and studied under Agrippina Vaganova, graduating in 1931 from the Vaganov's school as a ballerina.

From 1931 - 1951 Dudinskaya was the prima-ballerina at the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, USSR. There she danced all the classical leads, having such stage partners as Asaf Messerer, Vakhtang Chabukiani, Konstantin Sergeyev, and Rudolf Nureyev among others. Dudinskaya was regarded for her beauty and technical finesse. Her best remembered parts were as Odette-Odile in the 'Swan Lake', as Masha in the 'Nutcracker', both were the legendary ballet productions of the classics by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Dudinskaya starred at the Kirov until her early retirement in 1951. Then she was a principal ballet mistress at the Kirov Ballet and also led her class at the Vaganova's Ballet School in Leningrad. Her students were such ballet stars as Tamara Vecheslova, Irina Kolpakova, Ninel Kurgapkina, Alla Osipenko, Uliana Lopatkina, and Anastasiya Volochkova among others.

In 1962, after the defection of her partner Rudolf Nureyev in the West, Dudinskaya fell under suspicion during the rule of Leonid Brezhnev in the Soviet Union. However, her reputation was so high that she remained the leading ballet teacher in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Dudinskaya was designated People's Artist of the USSR, and was four times awarded the State Prize of the USSR. She was named the Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg.