List of Russian ballet dancers

Mathilde Kschessinskaya and Pavel Gerdt in La Bayadère ballet by the ballet master Marius Petipa and the composer Ludwig Minkus, 1900.

This a list of ballet dancers from the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Russian Federation, including both ethnic Russians and people of other ethnicities. This list includes as well those who were born in the these three states but later emigrated, and those who were born elsewhere but immigrated to the country and performed there for a significant portion of their careers.

The original purpose of the ballet in Russia was to entertain the royal court. The first ballet company was the Imperial School of Ballet in St. Petersburg in the 1740s. The Ballets Russes was a ballet company founded in the 1909 by Sergey Diaghilev, an enormously important figure in the Russian ballet scene. Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes’ travels abroad profoundly influenced the development of dance worldwide. The headquarters of his ballet company was located in Paris, France. A protégé of Diaghilev, George Balanchine, founded the New York City Ballet Company.

During the early 20th century, many Russian ballet dancers rose to fame. Soviet ballet preserved the perfected 19th century traditions, and the Soviet Union's choreography schools produced one internationally famous star after another. The Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and the Mariinsky in Saint Petersburg remain famous throughout the world.

For the full plain list of Russian ballet dancers on Wikipedia see the Category:Russian ballet dancers.

Alphabetical list

B

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	George Balanchine (1904–1983) Russian Empire Soviet Union France United States (Georgian descent) Choreographer, balletmaster	Balanchine was one of the 20th century’s foremost choreographers, a balletmaster of the Ballets Russes in France, founding balletmaster (and co-founder) of New York City Ballet: his work created modern ballet, based on his deep knowledge of classical forms and techniques.	The New York State Theater, designed to the specifications of Balanchine.
	Irina Baronova (1919–2008) Soviet Union Romania France United States Switzerland Russian Federation Australia Ballerina, ballet mistress	She was one of the Baby Ballerinas of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, discovered by George Balanchine in Paris in the 1930s. She created roles in Léonide Massine's Le Beau Danube (1924), Jeux d'enfants (1932), and Les Présages (1933); and in Bronislava Nijinska's Les Cent Baisers (1935). Between 1940 and 1951 Baronova appeared in several films, and worked as ballet mistress for the 1980 film Nijinsky.	A photo with Baronova's autograph
	Mikhail Baryshnikov (born 1948) Soviet Union United States Danseur		Mikhail Baryshnikov with Patricia McBride in Le baiser de la fée
	Natalia Bessmertnova (1941–2008) Soviet Union Russian Federation Prima ballerina		A scene from Giselle. Natalia Bessmertnova as Giselle.

C

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Catherine Chislova (1846–1889) Russian Empire Ballerina

D

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Alexandra Danilova (1903–1997) Russian Empire Soviet Union France United States Prima ballerina		Danilova as Fanny Cerrito in Pas de Quatre, 1948
	Natalia Dudinskaya (1912–2003) Russian Empire Soviet Union Russian Federation Prima ballerina		Natalia M. Dudinskaya as Söyembikä in the Jakobson/Yarullin Shuraleh, Saint Petersburg, circa 1935

E

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Olga Esina (born 1986) Soviet Union Russian Federation Ballerina	Olga Esina (in Russian Ольга Есина) is a Russian ballerina who was educated at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in St. Petersburg. In 2010 she became First Solo Dancer at the Vienna State Ballet.	Olga Esina and Roman Lazik, "Donauwalzer" Belvedere, Vienna, January 1, 2012

F

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Michel Fokine (1880–1942) Russian Empire United States Danseur		Michel Fokine as the hussar in Halte de Cavelerie, Saint Petersburg, circa 1900

G

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Yekaterina Geltzer (1876–1962) Russian Empire Soviet Union Prima ballerina
	Elizaveta Gerdt (1891–1975) Russian Empire Soviet Union Ballerina		Elizaveta Gerdt, Elsa Vill, and Pierre Vladimirov in the "Paquita" Pas de Trois, 1905
	Pavel Gerdt (1844–1917) Russian Empire Premier Danseur Noble		Pavel Gerdt as Pepito in the The King's Command or The Pupils of Dupré
	Alexander Godunov (1949–1995) Soviet Union United States Danseur

I

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Avdotia Istomina (1799–1848) Russian Empire Prima ballerina

K

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Vera Karalli (1889–1972) Russian Empire Ballerina
	Tamara Karsavina (1885–1978) Russian Empire United Kingdom Prima ballerina
	Irina Kolpakova Russian Empire Ballerina
	Theodore Kosloff (1882–1956) Russian Empire United States Danseur		Theodore Kosloff in Fokine's 1913 production of Scheherazade
	Mathilde Kschessinska (1872–1971) Russian Empire France Prima ballerina assoluta

L

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Olga Lepeshinskaya (1916–2008) Russian Empire Soviet Union Russian Federation Prima ballerina
	Serge Lifar (1905–1986) Russian Empire France Danseur
	Lydia Lopokova (1892–1981) Russian Empire United Kingdom Ballerina

M

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Léonide Massine (1896–1979) Russian Empire Danseur, choreographer
	Asaf Messerer (1903–1992) Russian Empire Soviet Union Danseur
	Sulamith Messerer (1908–2004) Russian Empire Soviet Union United Kingdom Japan Ballerina,choreographer
	Victoria Mironova

N

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Anastasia Nabokina
	Bronislava Nijinska (1891–1972) Russian Empire United States Prima Ballerina,choreographer
	Vaslav Nijinsky (1890–1950) Russian Empire Danseur,choreographer		Nijinsky in Le Spectre de la Rose
	Rudolf Nureyev (1938–1993) Soviet Union France Danseur,choreographer

O

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Natalia Osipova (born 1986) Russian Federation Prima ballerina		Natalia Osipova in an extract from Flames of Paris, at the October 2011 reopening gala of the Bolshoi Theatre

P

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Valery Panov
	Anna Pavlova (1881–1931) Russian Empire Prima ballerina		Anna Pavlova in the Fokine/Saint-Saëns The Dying Swan, Saint Petersburg, 1905
	Marie Petipa (1857–1930) Russian Empire France Ballerina
	Marius Petipa (1818–1910) France Russian Empire Danseur, choreographer, ballet master
	Maya Plisetskaya (born 1925) Soviet Union Russian Federation Lithuania Spain Prima ballerina assoluta
	Olga Preobrajenska

R

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Tatiana Riabouchinska
	Ida Rubinstein

S

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Galina Samsova
	Marina Semyonova
	Daniil Simkin Russian Federation Danseur			Yuri Soloviev Soviet Union Danseur
	Olga Spessivtseva
	Mariia Surovshchikova-Petipa (1836–1882) Russian Empire Prima ballerina

T

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Vasily Tikhomirov
	Tamara Toumanova (1919–1996) Russian SFSR France United States (Georgian descent) Prima ballerina choreographer,	Trained in Paris by Preobrajenska, Toumanova was one of Balanchine's Baby Ballerinas and a close colleague of Léonide Massine. She made her debut in the children's ballet L'Éventail de Jeanne. Nicknamed The Black Pearl of the Russian Ballet, she performed in Balanchine's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Le Palais de Cristal. She appeared in Hollywood films, including The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Tonight We Sing (playing Anna Pavlova), Deep in My Heart, Days of Glory, and Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain.	Toumanova and Serge Lifar in Swan Lake

U

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Galina Ulanova (1910–1998) Russian Empire Soviet Union Russian Federation Prima ballerina assoluta	Trained under Agrippina Vaganova and her own mother, a ballerina of the Imperial Russian Ballet, Ulanova joined the Mariinsky Theatre in 1928. After 1944 she became a prima ballerina assoluta in Bolshoi Theatre. In 1945 she danced the title role in the world premiere of Prokofiev's Cinderella. On her first international tour in 1956 she achieved enormous success. Having retired from the stage in 1960, Ulanova coached many generations of the Russian dancers

V

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Agrippina Vaganova
	Ivan Vasiliev (born 1989) Russian Federation Danseur		Ivan Vasiliev in an extract from Spartacus, at the October 2011 re-opening gala of the Bolshoi Theatre
	Vladimir Vasiliev
	Ekaterina Vazem
	Diana Vishneva (born 1976) Soviet Union Russian Federation Prima ballerina	Vishneva is one of the 21st century's leading dancers; she is a prima ballerina at the Mariinsky Ballet since 1995 and performs as a guest in ABT since 2005, as well as on other world scenes. Her repertoire includes Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, La Bayadère, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Giselle. She also performs in George Balanchine's Jewels and Kenneth MacMillan's Manon.
	Pierre Vladimiroff (1893–1970) Russian Empire France United States Danseur
	Anastasia Volochkova

Z

Portrait	Person	Details	Stage Image
	Svetlana Zakharova (born 1979) Russian Federation Prima ballerina		Svetlana Zakharova and Andrei Merkuriev in 2006

See also

• Ballets Russes
• Bolshoi Theater
• Mariinsky Theater
• New York City Ballet
• Russian ballet
• Russian composers
• Russian culture
• Russian opera singers
• Sergei Diaghilev