Nina Belikova

Nina Belikova (6th of November 1913, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire – 27th of September 2000, Moscow, Russian Federation) – a ballet dancer and a pedagogue.

In 1932, Nina Belikova graduated from the Leningrad Choreographic School, where she studied in the class of Agrippina Vaganova. For more than a quarter of a century—from 1932 to 1959—she had been a soloist of the Leningrad State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after S. Kirov (since 1992 known as the Mariinsky Theatre).

Alongside her stage career, from 1933 to 1938 Belikova had been working as a ballet teacher at the Leningrad Choreographic School. In 1938–1941 and again in 1949–1970, she had been serving as a ballet instructor for advanced training classes at the Leningrad Theatre of Opera and Ballet named after S. Kirov. From 1959 to 1970 she had been a senior ballet teacher at the Leningrad Choreographic School, and from 1970 to 1973 she had been teaching at the Moscow Choreographic School.

From 1973 to 1977, Nina Belikova had been productively working in Poland as a répétiteur and ballet coach at the theatre in the city of Łódź. From 1980 to 1985, she had been working as a ballet répétiteur in Berlin (GDR).

In 1979, she worked as a ballet répétiteur at the Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet. That same year, with Nina Belikova’s participation, the theatre premiered a new version of the ballet Paquita by Édouard Deldevez and Ludwig Minkus. From 1986 to 1989, she had been working as a ballet répétiteur at the Moscow Academic Musical Theatre named after Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.

From 1987 to 1992, Nina Belikova had been a ballet teacher at the Riga Choreographic School and also a répétiteur for the ballet company of the Latvian Theatre of Opera and Ballet (since 1990 known as the Latvian National Opera and Ballet).

In 1966, Nina Belikova was awarded the honorary title Merited Art Worker of the Chuvash ASSR.

One of Nina Belikova’s finest students in Latvia was the ballerina Yulia Gurvich, who became a diploma laureate of the Sergei Diaghilev Competition for Young Ballet Dancers in 1992, and in 1995 was named Latvia’s Best Ballerina. She received numerous prestigious awards, including the Aldaris Award, the Grand Music Award, the annual Spēlmaņu nakts (“Night of the Actors”) Theatre Award in the Ballet Artist category, the Latvijas Gāze Annual Award, and the Elena Tangieva-Birzniece Prize.

Among Belikova’s most distinguished students in Russia was the ballerina and choreographer Lyudmila Semenyaka.

Sources of information:

Gadsimts vai viens mirklis? Latvijas Nacionālajam baletam 100. – Rīga: Latvijas Nacionālā opera un balets, 2022.

Ija Bite. Latvijas balets. – Rīga: Pētergailis, 2002.

Latvijas baleta un dejas enciklopēdija. Projekta vadītāja un autore Dr. paed. Gunta Bāliņa. Līdzautori: Mag. art. Ramona Galkina, Mag. art. Regīna Kaupuža. – Rīga: SIA “ULMA”, 2018.