The world of ballet is mysterious and attractive. The Russian ballet school is the most recognized in the world. To achieve any results in this art form, you need a lot of work, talent alone is not enough. Natalya Balakhnicheva, prima ballerina at the Kremlin Ballet, knows this firsthand.
Music or ballet?
In December 1974, a girl was born in the city of Kirovo-Chepetsk, who was named Natasha. Her parents were people of creative professions. Papa is a Kirov artist, landscape and portrait painter, a member of the Union of Artists of Russia. Mom is a certified gymnastics choreographer, master of sports. Of course, parents saw creativity in their child and began to develop it.
Natalya Balakhnicheva entered the music school in the violin class. The girl studied well, pleasing teachers and parents. But once at a concert where the children of a music school performed, one of the spectators, seeing Natasha, said: “Only a pack is not enough for such legs.” This is how the fate of the future ballerina suddenly decided.
Captive Terpsichore
WhenNatasha's mother came to pick up documents from the music school, the teachers were at a loss. Natasha was a very capable student. Maybe she would not become a great musician, but she should get a good musical education. But my mother stood her ground: only ballet. Natalya was taken to the Perm State Choreographic College, where she began to study ballet in the class of L. P. Sugar.
In 1995, the film by E. Reznik "Prisoners of Terpsichore" was released, in which Natalya Balakhnicheva starred with her teacher Lyudmila Sakharova. The film tells about the everyday life of the ballet school: nothing romantic, only hard work. Strict, sometimes to the point of cruelty, a teacher, bruises, abrasions, tears, resentment and fear. Natalya went through a harsh school, but thanks to her meek disposition and inner strength, she did not break, but grew stronger and grew up to be a real ballerina.
Free flight
Largely thanks to the film, Natalia was noticed and invited to the Kremlin Ballet Theater in the capital, where the legendary Ekaterina Maksimova was a teacher-repetiteur. Maksimova noticed the talent of young Natalia and began to work with her. Like the former teacher, she did not spare Natasha, because to whom much is given, there is a special demand. Ekaterina Maksimova believed that Balakhnicheva was gifted by God himself. She liked to repeat: “God kissed her.”
In the theater, Natalia Balakhnicheva has achieved a high level of professionalism and has become a prima ballerina who dances all the main parts. They speak of her as a ballerina of bright talent with a specialplasticity, penetration and expressiveness of movements. Her heroines are fragile, tender, lyrical and beautiful. Ballerina Natalya Balakhnicheva in terms of plasticity, proportions and lines is very reminiscent of the great Maximova. But this is purely superficial. Balakhnicheva does not copy the great ballerina, but invests her inner world, reaching a high level in technique and acting expressiveness.
What's next?
The personal life of Natalia Balakhnicheva did not work out, as she devoted her whole life to her beloved work - ballet. Her work was rewarded according to merit. In 2011, she was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation.
Now the ballerina is 44 years old, she is still in demand in the theater. Don't be in a hurry to look into the future. In an interview, when asked about what the ballerina is going to do after the end of her career, she replies that she tries not to think about it. And yet he does not want to become a teacher, because he will worry about the students all the time. As the ballerina herself admits, she likes fabrics and working with color, perhaps she will try to realize herself in this direction. All this is in the future, and now she pleases with her work not only Russian, but also foreign audiences.
