In honour of Ninel Petrova’s jubilee

In honour of the outstanding ballerina and teacher, on 18 April at the historic Mariinsky Theatre there will be a performance of the ballet Giselle

Ninel Petrova was the first performer of the miniature Eternal Spring in Leonid Yakobson’s Rodin-inspired series. The choreographer – as always with an intuitive sense of his dancers’ individual personalities – selected an unusually precise image for the ballerina. With her beautiful and soft lines, in all her roles at the Kirov Theatre she embodied tenderness and delicate femininity and her dance was imbued with watercolour and vernal tones.

Having been brilliantly trained (she graduated from the class of Agrippina Vaganova at the Leningrad School of Dance), Ninel Petrova was not a dancer who strove to demonstrate her virtuoso qualities. At the core of her art lay dance that revealed the inner world of sensitive, loving and suffering characters. Ninel Petrova received her first lessons in acting expressiveness while still at school – at her graduation performance in 1944 she performed the role of Juliet in Leonid Yakobson’s dance version of Romeo and Juliet to music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, staged especially for her. The choreographer did not retell the tragedy, instead focussing on the emotions of the protagonists. This first experience, demanding emotional intensity and heartfelt passion from the young dancer, was followed by creations of numerous images in Kirov Theatre productions. Giselle, Phrygia in Yakobson’s Spartacus, Nina in Fenster’s Masquerade, Juliet in Lavrovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, Desdemona in Chabukiani’s Otello, Maria in Zakharov’s The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Katerina in Grigorovich’s The Stone Flower – all images brought to life with impeccable taste on the musical stage, inspired by the dancer and remembered by audiences, leaving no doubt as to the truth of the stories being told. “I was always delighted by her intelligence, sincerity, mind and modesty,” said Tatiana Vecheslova of her pupil, having rehearsed various roles with Petrova.

Once she reached the end of her own performing career, Ninel Petrova demanded sincerity from her students – for many years she was the principal ballet-mistress and coach of the Choreographic Miniatures theatre. Moreover, since 1971 Ninel Petrova has taught at the faculty of ballet directing at the Leningrad (St Petersburg) Conservatoire, and the example of her love and respect for her profession as well as her rich stage experience form a guarantee of the continuity of the traditions of the St Petersburg school of dance.

 
Photo:
• Ninel Petrova as Juliet (Romeo and Juliet, 1950)
• Ninel Petrova as Nina (Masquerade, 1961)
• Ninel Petrova as Phrygia (Spartacus)