Digital exhibits
THE SUN AND MOON OF RUSSIAN BALLET.
MARINA SEMENOVA – GALINA ULANOVA.
In the history of ballet in the second half of the 20th Century it is difficult to find two dancers so different from each other. Semenova – passionate, bright, magnificent, like an ancient goddess descended from the heights of Mount Olympus and Ulanova – delicate, refined, almost ephemeral, with an appearance reminiscent of Botticelli’s Madonnas. It is no wonder that when comparing their talents one was called the Sun and the other the Moon. They were not only contemporaries, but also pupils at the St. Petersburg school and students of A.Vaganova. Semenova graduated in 1925 and Ulanova in 1928. First they were soloists at the Kirov Leningrad Theatre of Opera and Ballet, then the Bolshoi Theatre, and later on they both became teachers and tutors at the Bolshoi Theatre. They lived a long life in the theatre. Each one hardly noticed the other…As happens with the Sun and the Moon.
