NINEL KURGAPKINANinel Kurgapkina, who died on 8 May, 2009, was the first female ballet partner to two of Russia’s most famous dancers.As prima ballerina of the Kirov Ballet, she partnered both Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov to great acclaim all over the world.Born in Leningrad on 13 February, 1929, Kurgapkina joined the Kirov Ballet Company in St Petersburg in 1947, where she danced such roles as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Myrtha in Giselle, Odette-Odile in Swan Lake, Kitri in Don Quixote and Parasha in The Bronze Horseman.Despite the difference in their ages, she was first partnered with Nureyev in a performance of Gayane in 1959. Nureyev, who had trained at the Kirov, was then aged 21 and one of the rising stars of the company, while she was nine years older.The partnership, however, proved a successful one and later that year they toured Cairo and Beirut.She also danced with him in numerous other productions, including Don Quixote, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake until he defected to the West in 1961.Later she performed with another one-time Kirov trainee, Mikhail Baryshnikov before concentrating on training other ballet dancers. From 1969 she was a primary coach at the Kirov and in 1972 was appointed a director of the world renowned Vaganova Ballet Academy in St Petersburg, where she herself trained.Kurgapkina also gave master classes at some of the world’s greatest dance institutions, including the New York City Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet and La Scala Opera Ballet.She died aged 80 in a road accident in St Petersburg.One fan, writing on the dance.net website, paid tribute to her, saying: "She had incredible precision and fire in her technique, making her an absolute magician on virtuoso pieces, though her skill was matched as a teacher, turning out such wonderful ballerinas, like Anna Polikarpova."
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