Olga Vasiliyevna Lepeshinskaya

Olga Vasiliyevna Lepeshinskaya (Russian: Ольга Васильевна Лепешинская; 28 September [O.S. 15 September] 1916 – December 20, 2008) was a Russian ballerina, People's Artist of the USSR (1951). Lepeshinskaya was born to an old Polish noble family in Kiev, Russian Empire (now the capital of Ukraine). Her grandfather, Vasily Pavlovich Lepeshinsky, was arrested as a member of the revolutionary organization Narodnaya Volya. Her father, Vasily Vasilievic... more

Olga Vasiliyevna Lepeshinskaya (Russian: Ольга Васильевна Лепешинская; 28 September [O.S. 15 September] 1916 – December 20, 2008) was a Russian ballerina, People's Artist of the USSR (1951). Lepeshinskaya was born to an old Polish noble family in Kiev, Russian Empire (now the capital of Ukraine). Her grandfather, Vasily Pavlovich Lepeshinsky, was arrested as a member of the revolutionary organization Narodnaya Volya. Her father, Vasily Vasilievich Lepeshinsky, was a railway engineer, one of the builders of the Chinese Eastern Railway. From the early years Lepeshinsky showed her talents in dancing and in the 1925 she was admitted to the Bolshoi Choreographic School. She appeared for the first time on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre at the age of ten as one of the little birds in the ballet The Daughter of the Snows. In 1932 she played the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker ballet. Lepeshinskaya graduated from Bolshoi Choreographic School and started working the Bolshoi Theatre. She... less