Vera Mikhailovna Krasovskaya (; 11 September 1915 – 15 August 1999) was a Russian ballet historian, critic and dancer. She began her dancing career at the Leningrad Ballet School and graduated from it in 1933. Krasovskaya performed with the
Kirov Ballet
The Mariinsky Ballet (russian: Балет Мариинского театра) is the resident classical ballet company of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russ ...
at the
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre ( rus, Мариинский театр, Mariinskiy teatr, also transcribed as Maryinsky or Mariyinsky) is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music th ...
from 1933 to 1941 before stepping down to become a critic and studied at the Leningrad Ostrovsky Institute of Theatre. She published two volumes of four books on Russian ballet and went on to author a larger second volume focus on the history of ballet in Western Europe. Krasovskaya also wrote biographies on
Anna Pavlova
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20t ...
,
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav (or Vatslav) Nijinsky (; rus, Вацлав Фомич Нижинский, Vatslav Fomich Nizhinsky, p=ˈvatsləf fɐˈmʲitɕ nʲɪˈʐɨnskʲɪj; pl, Wacław Niżyński, ; 12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a ballet dancer and choreog ...
,
Natalia Dudinskaya
Natalia Mikhailovna Dudinskaya (russian: Ната́лия Миха́йловна Дуди́нская; , in Kharkiv – 29 January 2003, in Saint Petersburg) was a Soviet prima ballerina who dominated the Kirov Ballet from the 1930s to the 1950 ...
,
Irina Kolpakova
Irina Aleksandrovna Kolpakova (russian: Ирина Александровна Колпакова; born 22 May 1933)Nikita Dolgushin and
Agrippina Vaganova
Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova (russian: Агриппина Яковлевна Ваганова; 26 June 1879 – 5 November 1951) was a Soviet and Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova method – the technique which derived from the t ...
. She was awarded the Triumph Prize in December 1998 for her contribution to Russian culture.
Early life
Krasovskaya's birth was on 11 September 1915 (old style 29 August 1915) in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg), Russia. She was the daughter of the Petrograd architect Mikhail Krasovskaya and Maria Krasovskiy ( Zinovieva), and had one brother. Krasovskaya's grandfather was a pre-revolution senator and her mother was fluent in multiple languages. In 1924, she began her career studying as a dancer at the Leningrad Ballet School under
Agrippina Vaganova
Agrippina Yakovlevna Vaganova (russian: Агриппина Яковлевна Ваганова; 26 June 1879 – 5 November 1951) was a Soviet and Russian ballet teacher who developed the Vaganova method – the technique which derived from the t ...
, the ballet pedagogue. Krasovskaya graduated from the school in 1933.
Career
Krasovskaya began performing with the
Kirov Ballet
The Mariinsky Ballet (russian: Балет Мариинского театра) is the resident classical ballet company of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russ ...
at the
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre ( rus, Мариинский театр, Mariinskiy teatr, also transcribed as Maryinsky or Mariyinsky) is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music th ...
in 1933. She continued to dance for the following eight years because she desired to learn about art history and was not active enough to improve her dancing ability.
In 1946, Krasovskaya began studying at the Leningrad Ostrovsky Institute of Theatre. She joined the theatre as a faculty member working as a senior scientific worker five years later, taking over from Yuri Slonimsky.
In the 1950s, Krasovskaya was a prominent figure in urging new approaches to dancing in drama, publishing in pamphlets and the press as well as on meaning and content in ballet, which resulted in some relaxation of certain attitudes considered limited. In 1955, Krasovskaya earned an arts criticism doctorate.
She travelled to the United States in 1989 to present at the Balatine Conference in Miami and at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
.
Publications
Krasovskaya published her first piece of criticism on dance called about
Alla Shelest
Alla Yakovlevna Shelest (russian: Алла Яковлевна Шелест; 26 February 1919 – 7 December 1998) was a Citizenship of Russia, Russian Ballet dancer, ballerina, Choreography, choreographer and dance director, "a star of the Kirov Ba ...
in the magazine ''Iskusstvo i Zhisn'' (English: ''Art and Life'') 1941.
In 1956, she published her first study on the Georgian choreographer and dancer
Vakhtang Chabukiani
Vakhtang Mikheilis dze Chabukiani (Russian: Вахта́нг Миха́йлович Чабукиа́ни, ka, ვახტანგ ჭაბუკიანი) (March 12, 1910 – April 6, 1992) was a Soviet and Georgian ballet dancer, choreogra ...
. Krasovskaya went on to publish the first of two volumes of four books on Russian ballet assessing Petipa's,
Michel Fokine
Michael Fokine, ''Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokin'', group=lower-alpha ( – 22 August 1942) was a groundbreaking Imperial Russian choreographer and dancer.
Career Early years
Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant an ...
's as well as other Russian choreographers principles and work between 1958 from 1972. The first of which was called ''Russkii baletnyi teatr ot vozniknoveniya do ceredinii XIX veka'' (English: ''Ballet Theater from Its Origins to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century'') in 1958. Krasovskaya's second book was published in 1963 as ''Russkii baletnyi teatr vtoroi polovinii XIX veka'' (English: ''Russian Ballet Theatre of the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century'') and her third and fourth books were published in two volumes in both 1971 and 1973 as ''Russkii baletnyi teatr nachala dvadtsatogo veka'' (English: ''Russian Ballet Theater From the Beginning of the Twentieth Century'').
After completing her first volume, she went on begin authoring a larger second volume focusing on the history of ballet in Western Europe. The first of Krasovskaya's three volumes were published as ''Zapadnoevropeiskii baletnyi teatr: Ocherki istorii'' (English: ''West European Ballet Theater''); Volume I: ''Ot istokov do seredini XVIII veka'' (English: ''From the Beginning to the Middle of the Eighteenth Century''); Volume II: ''Epokha Noverra'' (English: ''The Epoch of Noverre''); Volume III: ''Preromantizm'' (English: ''The Preromantic Ballet'') between 1979 and 1983, and the fourth ''Western European Ballet Theater'' in 1996. She also authored biographies of
Anna Pavlova
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20t ...
,
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav (or Vatslav) Nijinsky (; rus, Вацлав Фомич Нижинский, Vatslav Fomich Nizhinsky, p=ˈvatsləf fɐˈmʲitɕ nʲɪˈʐɨnskʲɪj; pl, Wacław Niżyński, ; 12 March 1889/18908 April 1950) was a ballet dancer and choreog ...
,
Natalia Dudinskaya
Natalia Mikhailovna Dudinskaya (russian: Ната́лия Миха́йловна Дуди́нская; , in Kharkiv – 29 January 2003, in Saint Petersburg) was a Soviet prima ballerina who dominated the Kirov Ballet from the 1930s to the 1950 ...
,
Irina Kolpakova
Irina Aleksandrovna Kolpakova (russian: Ирина Александровна Колпакова; born 22 May 1933)Nikita Dolgushin and Agrippina Vaganova. Krasovsaka's final book, ''Profiles Of The Dance'', was published in March 1998. Several of her books were translated into Czech, English, German and Polish.
She also contributed to various booklets, encyclopedias, foreign media, the Russian press, introductions to books on the art of ballet and reference books on ballet.
Recognition and other roles
Krasovskaya's works led to her privately receiving the arts and literature Triumph Prize in December 1998 for her contribution to Russian culture. This was the first occasion in which a recipient was honoured for their work on dance since it was first presented in 1992.
She was a member of the
Union of Soviet Writers
The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers (russian: Союз писателей СССР, translit=Soyuz Sovetstikh Pisatelei) was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded ...
; the Council on Choreography; the Council on the Coordination of Scientific Research Work; the U.S.S.R. Ministry of Culture and the Arts Council of Leningrad.
Personal life
She married the writer David Zolotnitskiy in October 1949. Krasovskaya had a son who went on to become a professor at St Petersburg Theatre Academy and was stepmother to one daughter. On 15 August 1999, she died at her home in Saint Petersburg following a long and serious illness. Four days later, Krasovskaya was buried at the Memorial Komarovo cemetery in Komarovo.
Legacy
Krasovskaya was outspoken on the current development in ballet. The St Petersburg correspondent for the ''
Dancing Times
''Dancing Times'' is a dancing magazine based in the UK, the oldest dance magazine to be still published. The magazine helped found the Royal Academy of Dance, the Camargo Society, and the British Dance Council
The British Dance Council was f ...
'' and friend of hers Igor Stupnikov called her "a woman of sharp mind and great sense of humour who was a staunch advocate of everything new and progressive. She helped greatly the young choreographers, such as Yuri Grigorovich and Igor Belsky, passionately defending their first ballets on the Kirov stage."