Happy Birthday, Irina Kolpakova!
Irina Kolpakova in rehearsal with American Ballet Theatre Principal Dancer Gillian Murphy. Photo: Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy of American Ballet Theatre.
On 22 May 2023, the great Russian ballerina and coach Irina Kolpakova turned 90. Kolpakova was one of the most celebrated Soviet ballerinas of her generation, admired for the purity of her classical academic style and her extraordinary lines. Her interpretations of the classics (Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Raymonda and Giselle) embodied for many the best of St. Petersburg’s classical ballet tradition. Since 1990, Kolpakova has been American Ballet Theatre’s (ABT) principal coach. At ninety, she continues to coach ABT’s dancers in all variations and pas de deux from the company’s classical repertoire. Here some interesting facts about Kolpakova’s life.
A Stalinist Childhood
Kolpakova was born on 22 May 1933 in Leningrad (today’s St. Peterburg). Her father was a mathematician, her mother an economist. At the time, Russia was part of the Soviet Union, a Communist dictatorship that lasted from 1917 until 1991. Kolpakova grew up under the bloody rule of the dictator Joseph Stalin, who mercilessly supressed even the slightest criticism of his regime. When Kolpakova was nine, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Her city was put under a siege that lasted 900-days, leading to the largest loss of life in a modern city. Luckily, Kolpakova and her parents evacuated to Molotov (today’s Perm), a city in the Ural Mountains.
Agrippina Vaganova
Leningrad’s Kirov Theatre (today’s Mariinsky Theatre) and its ballet school had also been evacuated to Molotov. Kolpakova enrolled at the school. After the war, everyone returned to Leningrad. In 1951, Kolpakova graduated from Agrippina Vaganova’s last graduating class into the Kirov Ballet (today’s Mariinsky Ballet). Vaganova was one of the most important teachers in the history of ballet: she so successfully systematised the ballet training at Leningrad’s school that it came to be known as “Vaganova method,” until today considered one of the best systems to train classical ballet dancers. But Vaganova was also a living link to Marius Petipa and St. Petersburg’s imperial ballet, the birthplace of ballets such as Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère, Raymonda and The Nutcracker. Vaganova had joined the Mariinsky Ballet in 1897, when Petipa was still its director. She was known as “queen of variations” but only achieved ballerina status in 1915, a year before she retired. Kolpakova was Vaganova’s last major student.
Kolpakova as Youthful Rebel
Kolpakova is famous for the purity of her classical interpretations, but as a young dancer at the Kirov Ballet, she also created leading roles in new ballets trying to overcome the limits set on choreography by Soviet censorship. When Kolpakova joined the company, it was ruled by artistic director Konstantin Sergeyev and his wife, the ballerina Natalia Dudinskaya. There were almost no new ballet productions, and Dudinskaya held a monopoly over some roles such as Giselle: when she was sick, the ballet was cancelled. In 1955, Sergeyev was removed as artistic director after a successful revolt that received political backing. This paved the way for the young choreographer Yuri Grigorovich, who lost no time to choreograph two ballets that were revolutionary for Soviet standards. Kolpakova created two of the female leads in both ballets: Katerina in The Stone Flower and Shirin in Legend of Love.
Kolpakova Today
Today, Kolpakova passes on her unique knowledge of the classics to a new generation of dancers. As Vaganova’s student, she is one of the last direct bridges to the great figures of 19th century ballet. If you want to see her magic in action, try to watch a rehearsal clip of Kolpakova and David Hallberg in the Giselle act two pas de deux originally posted on 12 May 2017 on Instagram (#IrinaKolpakova). You can see the unmatched poetry of her delicately expressive arms, arms that belong to a different era but that are timeless in the perfection of their romantic lines.