Natalya Bolshakova

Born Nov 25, 1943 · Leningrad, Russian SFSR, USSR [now St. Petersburg, Russia]

Graduated from the Leningrad Choreographic Institute (now Vaganova Ballet Academy), Lydia Tyuntina’s class. In 1963 she joined the Kirov (Mariinsky) Theatre where she appeared as Giselle, Odette/Odile, Kitri, Aurora, Masha, Gamzatti, Esmeralda, Laurencia, La Sylphide (choreography by August Bournonville). Raymonda, Shireen (A Legend of Love), the Mistress of the Copper Mountain (The Tale of the Stone Flower), Eve (The Creation of the World), and many others. She took part in new ballets by Oleg Vinogradov, Igor Belsky and Leonid Yakobson and performed miniatures by Kasiyan Goleizovsky, Dmitri Bryantsev and Leonid Lebedev. In 1987, she appeared in Maurice Béjart’s ballet Bhakti when his Ballet of the 20th Century was on a tour.