Ballerina Marina Semenova: biography, personal life, photo

Marina Timofeevna Semenova, a ballerina from God, was born in St. Petersburg on June 12, 1908. She danced from the time she stood on her feet, first herself, then studied in a dance mug. When she was ten years old, she was accepted into a dance school, where her mother was the mother of the legend of the Soviet ballet of Galina Ulanova, MF Romanova.

Teacher-stars

Was hungry and cold in 1918. In St. Petersburg, it was very uncomfortable, but in the classroom all this was forgotten. Teacher cheerful and malleable in teaching the girl really fell in love, and Marina just loved her teacher. What was her amazement and sorrow, when the young ballerina learned that she was being transferred through the class and, therefore, she would now have to learn from the indescribably strict AY Vaganova. However, the first lesson showed that Agrippina Yakovlevna is able not only to praise the students, but also to frankly admire. Relations were established.

Galina Ulanova not only had her mother a ballerina, her whole family consisted of hereditary artists, even the beginning of this succession was lost among generations. And Marina Semenova grew up in the simplest and large family - her mother had six children. My father died early, and my mother remarried a few years later. Marina Semenova was lucky: very soft, kind and sympathetic, who saw many things in life, the sailor became for all six a close and close person, the second father.

Way to the ballet

A close friend of Marina's mother, Ekaterina Evgenievna, was an amateur ballet dancer, often performed with her own solo numbers at charity concerts, she also led a dance club, to which once came two sisters - Valeria and Marina. In the process of teaching the latter showed not only surprising plasticity and musicality, but also purposefulness, and rare in her age work capacity. Ekaterina Evgenievna, having listened to the reviews of her friend, decided that the girl should be professionally trained in ballet.

In the choreography school, however, Marina Semenova initially did not make a proper impression. She was thin, little and very shy. And then she was lucky again. Among the examiners was Viktor Semenov, one of the leading dancers of the Mariinsky Theater. Maybe he noticed a spark in the girl, but he did not object to the commission, just in a jocular manner asked me to take him to the school for his namesake.

The first performances

While studying at the choreographic school, Marina Timofeevna Semyonova first took part in small concert numbers, and she performed the main parts of ballets for the release. The "creek" of Delibes, her final exam at the Mariinsky stage, became a sensation among connoisseurs and lovers of ballet. Moreover, Marina Semyonova made this statement a great event in the theatrical season of Leningrad.

In the newspapers there were rave reviews, in which Marina was compared to Anna Pavlova, described the excited and noisy delight of the auditorium. This unanimous admiration was caused by the sixteen-year-old Marina Timofeevna Semenova, whose biography had only just begun to become legendary.

Beginning in the profession

Who would have known then that the happiness of communicating with the magnificent ballerina, who has brought up equally talented dancers, will last neither more nor less than 86 years. Marina Timofeevna Semenova, a biography whose years of life were so fruitful, so long, lived almost a hundred and two years. And then this young student Vaganova was compared at once with all the legendary ballerinas of past times. Even the "Taglioni of the 20th century" was named.

The Leningrad Theater was subjugated by a graduate of a choreographic school so that in this case all age-old ballet traditions were violated. Dance technique she was at such an level unattainable for ordinary graduates that Marina Semenova immediately after the final exams became the leading ballerina in the troupe! No one objected, everyone saw how she jumps high, how easily in one jump the distance flies in half of the stage.

Her ballets

Marina Timofeevna Semenova, a photo of which shows a variety of images created by her on stage, danced exclusively artistically. The multifaceted talent of reincarnation allowed her to penetrate and reliably fulfill any of her roles.

Masha from the "Nutcracker" - light and at the same time sad, real and at the same time fantastic; Kitri from the ballet "Don Quixote" - proud, daring, full of fire and excitement; Esmeralda, a young gypsy, mysterious, unattainable, at the same time attracting and radiant - such different characters with the most opposite roles succeeded equally well.

Giselle was also beautiful and brought Marina Semenova world fame on tour in Paris, where she made her debut in "Giselle". However, from the repertoire of Marina Giselle left.

Sinister years

By that time she had become a real fatal beauty. And of course, I knew my own worth. She was surrounded by high-ranking admirers admiring the beauty and talent that Marina Semyonova, the ballerina, was proud of. Personal life brought more and more severe trials.

Her husband, who worked as ambassador to Turkey, was suddenly arrested in 1937, and Marina was long under house arrest, first as the wife of the enemy of the people, and later as the wife of a traitor to the homeland. In the first case, it was possible to live, although it was not easy to work, in the second it was waiting for the status of a traveler and a suitcase with laundry.

So a secular lioness, a flower of the Soviet elite, shining at diplomatic receptions, because she spoke excellent languages, especially French, was forced to lie low and wait for the worst. However, her power in those years twice generously encouraged: Marina Semenova received the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1937, became a laureate of the Stalin Prize in 1941.

Celebrity Reviews

Ballerina Tatiana Vecheslova dedicated Marina Semyonova a lot of affectionate, warm words in her book. She wrote that the young dancer was already a professional, striking imagination, her every movement was so sharp, so harmonious it was.

"La Bayadère", "Raymonda", "Sleeping Beauty", "Pharaoh's Daughter", "Humpbacked Horse", "Coppelia" - Marina learned every game in a couple of months. She danced without tired and with ever-increasing success with the public. AV Lunacharsky told SP Diaghilev in Paris how exceptionally good is the young Semyonov in Leningrad. Stefan Zweig, seeing Marina on stage, foretold her a great future.

"Swan Lake"

The classical repertoire was practically in full scope on the shoulder of this beautiful ballerina. There was another debut in the real masterpiece of Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Semyonova danced the main part in the ballet "Swan Lake". Marina was so imbued with the role that the audience felt that a timid girl who was bewitched was listening to confessions without knowing anything about the real feeling, and a bird, strong, captivated, is striving for freedom, where white wings can be spread and fly away.

Siegfried danced the same namesake - Viktor Alexandrovich Semyonov, the premier of the theater and now the artistic director of the Leningrad School, to whom she was so indebted and who was twice her age. This difference did not prevent him from achieving the hand of a charming partner and become her first husband. Namesakes were married.

In the thirties, Marina and Victor were transferred to the Bolshoi Theater, they moved to Moscow, where the life of a young ballerina for some time shone particularly bright, and most importantly, new colors. Husband and wife, although they used to work in pairs, because the majority of the performances were danced, they toured together, but fate still did not allow them to enjoy happiness for a long time. The couple disbanded, and Marina Semyonova, without formalizing her marriage legally, became the wife of a statesman and prominent diplomat LM Karakhan.

Despite the fact that Semyonova really missed her native city, about the only favorite theater, about her best mentor, she easily mastered the role for the role. Technical difficulties for her almost did not exist, and she especially liked the new productions of modern plays. However, the most beloved, cherished memory of the heart is the role of Odette from "Swan Lake".

Pedagogy

It was also the time when I had to give myself completely to the future generation of dance. In the fifties Marina Timofeevna Semenova began her no less legendary pedagogical activity. And remembered, remembered ... And the memory returned to others. When in 1997 the Glinka Opera returned to the Bolshoi Theater, which along with the "Swan Lake" once served as the visiting card of the best theater of the country, Marina Timofeevna was seated at the most honorable place in the hall, because many remembered how brilliantly in the victorious, distant 1945 she was brilliant Danced in the opera "Ivan Susanin" this amazing waltz.

Hero of Socialist Labor, Professor RATI, People's Artist of the USSR glorified the Soviet ballet not only artistic activity, but also pedagogical. The names of her unsurpassed students testify better than any epithets. Here they, the beautiful ballet masters she raised, Marina Semenova's star class - the "Semyonovsky regiment", as the following joked: Maya Plisetskaya, Natalia Bessmertnova, Nadezhda Pavlova, Nina Timofeeva, Natalia Kasatkina, Lyudmila Semenyaka and many others from the Russian ballet .

The centenary of the ballerina in 2008, all Moscow celebrated on a grand scale. The Bolshoi Theater showed exactly those ballets in which Marina Semenova shone: Swan Lake, Raymonda, and La Bayadere. She survived all our revolutions, all our wars, but did not change classical art even in the most difficult times. She also experienced a hundred-year anniversary and celebrated. She died in the hundred and second year of her magnificent life, in 2010. They buried Marina Semenova at the Novodevichye Cemetery.