Natalia Dudinskaya.

Natalia Dudinskaya, one of Russia's most outstanding ballerinas, died January 29, 2003, in St. Petersburg. She was 90. Her dancing was imbued with poetic expressiveness, impeccable musicality, purity of line, and dynamic vitality. She later taught these qualities to future Kirov ballerinas.

Born in Kharkov, Ukraine, Dudinskaya took her first ballet lessons from her mother, ballerina Natalia Tagliori, before being accepted in 1923 at the Leningrad Choreographic School. A prize pupil of Agrippina Vaganova, within six months of joining the State Academic Theatre for Opera and Ballet (Kirov Ballet) in 1931, she was given the dual role of Odette/Odile. During her thirty-one years performing with the company, she danced all the classical heroines and created roles in several Soviet works. She invited the young Nureyev to partner her, marking his Kirov debut as a full member.

Dudinskaya married her regular partner, Konstantin Sergeyev, who became the company's artistic director in 1951. The couple worked hard, performing and coaching, to bring acclaim to the company at home and abroad. But the defections of first Nureyev, then Natalia Makarova, brought both under attack, and in 1970 they were forced to resign. However, Dudinskaya continued to teach master classes for the top ballerinas and in the 1980s and `90s, the couple staged Sergeyev's classical productions for companies outside Russia, including Boston Ballet.

Dudinskaya received many awards, including the State Prize of the U.S.S.R., the Order of the Red Banner, and the American Biography Institute's Woman of the Year; she also had an asteroid named after her.