Career My teachers

Professor. Natalia Mikhailovna Dudinskaya (1912–2003) was a Soviet and Russian ballerina and teacher. She was honored as People’s Artist of the USSR in 1957. From 1923 to 1931, she studied at the Leningrad Choreographic School (now the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet) under Agrippina Vaganova. Upon graduation in 1931, she joined the troupe of the Kirov Theatre (now the Mariinsky Theatre), where she danced leading roles until 1962. Dudinskaya’s dance is immortalized in the film «Masters of Russian Ballet» (Lenfilm Studio, 1953), where she performed the role of Odile in an excerpt from the ballet «Swan Lake» (with Prince Siegfried played by Konstantin Sergeyev). During the Great Patriotic War, Natalia Mikhailovna continued her artistic career, performing in theaters, at frontline concerts, hospitals, factories, and orphanages. She, along with her colleagues, also performed in besieged Leningrad. It was during the war years that the creative duet of the great ballet artists Natalia Dudinskaya and Konstantin Sergeyev was formed. From the 1950s, Dudinskaya engaged in teaching: from 1951, she was a teacher of advanced ballet classes, and from 1963 to 1978, she was a pedagogue-repetiteur at the Kirov Theatre. Since 1964, she taught at the Leningrad Choreographic School named after A. Vaganova (professor since 1995). Among her students were V. Ganibalova, E. Yevdokimova, E. Alkanova, A. Sigalova, L. Sychova, G. Rakhmanova, M. Kullik, U. Lopatkina, and A. Volochkova. She also taught at choreographic schools in the USA, Japan, Poland, and Finland. Dudinskaya made significant contributions to the development of contemporary ballet art and theatrical repertoire, being the first performer of many domestic premieres. She also contributed to the preservation of traditions by reviving several classical productions at the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theatres. Natalia Mikhailovna Dudinskaya actively participated as a jury member in international ballet competitions.