Ballerina Raisa Struchkova: biography, photo, private life

In October 1925, Raisa Struchkova was born in Moscow, in the future one of the great ballerinas. The family was simple, nobody had anything to do with art, but her mother, Maria Iosifovna, sang beautifully and only because of the prohibition of her father, a hereditary worker, did not become a professional singer. To actor's profession in the people until recently were treated as frivolous. Raisa Struchkova received from her mother as a legacy a beautiful voice and exceptional musicality.

Childhood

At the age of eight, she soloed in the choir of the Profintern club, when the teachers of the Bolshoi Theater visited him, looking for talents. They liked how little the girl moves during singing, and she was invited to the entrance examinations at the Moscow Choreographic School. Raisa Struchkova loved to dance, although she liked the singing much more. Nevertheless, when the time came, she dressed prettier and with her mother came to the exams.

The girl went to the school willingly, after visiting the teachers during the choir, she simply listened to her wishes better, and the memory told her that she danced even at the funeral. The fact is that their house stood near the Kalitnikovsky cemetery, and people at that time almost always were buried with the orchestra. Even in this sorrowful music, she saw the movement of life, tried to grasp it and convey the sensations of mourning, sorrow, grief. Raisa Struchkova is a ballerina from birth, otherwise she would not have been able to charm the commission, especially since in the ballet girls usually go not at nine and not at ten, but at five.

Elizaveta Pavlovna

She came to the class of Elizabeth Pavlovna Gerdt, who recently came from Leningrad, who at one time studied with the outstanding dancers: E. Vazem, P. Gerdt, M. Fokine, the coryphaeuses of the Russian ballet. Met a great student and no less than a great teacher forever: they spent forty years together, only the death of E.P. Gerdt in 1975 year.

Discipleship

Raisa Struchkova also studied with other, very famous, many they owe and is very grateful and MA. Kozhukhova, N.I. Tarasov, P.A. Gusev, Yu.A. Bakhrushin, TP Nikitina, but also scenic and later pedagogical activity was given to Raisa by Elizaveta Pavlovna. Her role was special, it's the teacher in everything, the teacher of all life.

Raisa was lucky to take part in the performances of such outstanding choreographers as R.V. Zakharov, V.I. Vainonen, LM Lavrovsky, K.Ya. Goleizovsky, and this is a real academy. But the comments, and often impartial, she most of all expected from Elizabeth Pavlovna. She judged severely, wisely and uncompromisingly. Only once after the performance "Romeo and Juliet" Raisa Struchkova (ballerina) fully satisfied the mentor with the performance of the main role, and there were no remarks for her.

The Bolshoi Theatre

In the same place, in the ballet, she met AA. Lapauri, who became not only her partner in the stage, but also a teacher, and a choreographer, and her husband. It was a very strong and unique love - from the school bench. The marriage lasted for many years and brought a lot of happiness. Friends called this relationship the novel of the century. But her grief was boundless when her husband died in a car accident, leaving her alone. But this was borne by the ballerina Raisa Struchkova. Personal life was over, but the work remained.

The school was finished in 1944 with two duets - Odette and Odile with the Prince. She danced in such a way that the whole troupe of the Bolshoi Theater applauded - the team received a very promising ballerina, and they saw it all at once. Her dance was sensible, technical and at the same time unusually warm, with exquisite plasticity, elegance and expressiveness of all movements and poses. She had an individuality, a creative identity, along with a high taste - the manner of the noblest.

"Vain precaution"

The first big role - Lisa from "Futile precaution" - after episodic ("The Little Humpbacked Horse" - Pearl, "Cinderella" - Fairy of Spring, "Coppelia" - "Morning", "Sleeping Beauty" - Little Red Riding Hood and many others) was akin Ballerina, she herself was charming, mischievous, sincere, and the heroines conveyed these qualities. Liza turned out to be charming - young, simple-hearted, natural and organic, the ballerina did not seem to dance, but talked to the audience, her every gesture was so expressive and understandable.

The debut was successful, feedback about how the audience liked Struchkova Raisa Stepanovna as Liza, were numerous and worthy. Reviewers willingly responded to this work, even the play was written that he is younger and is renewed before his eyes from the participation in him of fresh and real talent. They also wrote that the theater was very fortunate that such a talented ballerina as Raisa Struchkova appeared in it.

"Cinderella"

Raisa received this role in 1947 after such a sensational debut. Probably, she was afraid to start dancing, which only recently danced Galina Ulanova, Olga Lepeshinskaya, Marina Semyonova. But afterwards, on the screening, which is usually conducted in the presence of the whole company, she received such a high rating, which she did not expect - her work was recognized by all the colleagues.

The image of Cinderella, which was considered and reported by her dance Struchkova, was very different from all that the troupe had seen before. This is not even a kind-hearted orphan, who was awarded the transformation into a princess, and not dressed as a princess in rags, it's a girl who loves to dream, and now she is in the world of her dreams. Subsequently Struchkova Raisa Stepanovna told that she herself was at that moment the same Cinderella who was in the fabulous beautiful palace with which she was the Bolshoi Theater. And in 1960 it was on this performance that the film-ballet was titled "The Crystal Shoe", it was Raisa Struchkov who was seen by the spectators of many countries of the world, and at the competition in Canada the film won the first prize.

Repertoire

Further work of Raisa in the Bolshoi was entirely in the footsteps of Galina Ulanova, whose repertoire was fully mastered. However, young Raisa Struchkova did not want to repeat or even quote her beloved ballerina. Biography has its own, because life is different, and the dance should be original. Unsurpassed Ulanovskaya Juliet became quite different in the performance of Struchkova, but also great and unsurpassed. On tours in the US and England, Raisa danced on the same scenes where Ulanova had recently shone.

But the success was no less, the criticism was enthusiastic, celebrating the individuality in creating the image. When, after several decades, she brought her works here as a choreographer, she was surprised that she had not been forgotten. The newspapers wrote: "The star has returned!" In her repertoire there were parties from literally everyone known: Aurora, Odette-Odile, Giselle, Kitri, Masha, Maria from the "Bakhchsarai Fountain", Parasha from the Bronze Horseman, Mirandolina, Tao Hoa from the Red Poppy, Leyli, Tamara from "Pages of Life", Bacchante from the "Walpurgis Night", Mavka, Maid of Fame from "Lieutenant Kizhe" ... everything is not listed. But they are all different! And each party was performed exactly as Raisa Struchkova (ballerina) saw it. Photos illustrating the article, clearly demonstrate this exceptional energy, this endless fascination.

Instead of an afterword

Artistic activities Raisa Struchkova graduated in 1978, but the ballet never let her go. Her stage life continued in the students. She started teaching long before she left the stage, at the Institute of Culture, then at GITIS. And already now Raisa Stepanovna became a tutor-ballet master at the Bolshoi Theater. The most interesting thing is that she fell in love with the teacher's profession no less than the dance itself.

She directed the rehearsals of Nina Ananiashvili, Galina Stepanenko, Anastasia Yatsenko, Anastasia Goryacheva, Erica Luzina, Natalia Balandina, Svetlana Uvarova. In addition to the film "Cinderella," the creativity of the great ballerina is dedicated to two more - "Dancing Raisa Struchkova" (film-concert) and a documentary picture, called simply her name. In 2002, a book with the same title was published by G. Belyaeva-Chelobitko.

The memory of this beautiful woman lives in the disciples and pupils of the disciples. She is a legend. She died in May 2005 and is buried in the Vvedenskoye cemetery in Moscow, next to the only and dearly beloved husband, Alexander Alexandrovich Lapauri, who had been waiting for her there since 1975.