Galina Ulanova; ‘Conscience of Russian Ballet’

MOSCOW —  Galina Ulanova, one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century, died Saturday. She was 88.

Ulanova died at Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital after a lengthy illness, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. It did not elaborate.

In a telegram to the Bolshoi Theater, Russian President Boris Yeltsin called Ulanova “a symbol of the conscience, honor and dignity of a true artist. Her life in art will . . . be an example for many generations of Russian artists.”

“Many people consider her to be the conscience of Russian ballet,” said Vladimir Vasiliyev, artistic director of the Bolshoi. “She always was a bright example of amazing service to the profession.”

She was twice named a Hero of Socialist Labor and was decorated with the Order of Lenin, the highest award given by the former Soviet Union. She also was given the Stalin Award four times for her outstanding performances in many of the great roles in classical ballets, including “Swan Lake,” “Giselle,” “Cinderella,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “The Nutcracker” and “Romeo and Juliet.”

Ulanova was born in St. Petersburg in 1909, eight years before the Bolshevik Revolution. Her father was a choreographer, her mother a performer and ballet teacher.

She completed Leningrad’s ballet school in 1928 and joined the city’s famed Kirov Ballet the same year. Her transfer to Moscow’s Bolshoi in 1944 helped establish it as the preeminent ballet center in the country.

On the Bolshoi company’s first visit to London in 1956, she impressed critics with her performance in “Romeo and Juliet.” She also toured in the United States. Ballet fans consider her one of the century’s greatest dancers.