La Bayadere Paquita |
Natalia Makarova began her
career in her native Leningrad,
entering the Vaganova School
at the age of thirteen where she
was placed in a special
experimental class condensing
the nine-year program into six.
After graduating in 1959, she
joined the Kirov Ballet where
she rapidly rose to the rank of
ballerina, and won the Gold
Medal in Varna in
1965.
On September 4, 1970 in
London, while on tour with the
Kirov, Makarova requested
asylum in Britain. She joined
American Ballet Theatre
making her debut with the
Company in Giselle in
December, 1970. After that
she danced many of the roles in
ABT's vast repertoire -- working
extensively with Tudor,
Balanchine, Robbins and
Tetley.
Her association with The Royal
Ballet began in 1972 and her
repertoire with the company
included Swan Lake,
Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty,
Les Sylphides, Manon, Song of
the Earth, Concerto,
Cinderella, A Month in the
Country, Voluntaries, Dances
at a Gathering, Serenade, Elite
Syncopations, Rituals,
Checkmate and Les
Biches. Her most recent
appearance with The Royal
Ballet was in MacMillan's
Romeo and Juliet in
January,
1989.
Natalia Makarova has appeared
as a guest artist with major
ballet companies throughout
the world including the Paris
Opera Ballet, National Ballet of
Canada, Stuttgart Ballet, Royal
Danish Ballet, London Festival
Ballet, Bejart's Ballet of the
20th Century, and Roland
Petit's Ballets de
Marseille.
In 1976 she married
businessman Edward Karkar
and gave birth to her son Andre
Michael in February, 1978. She
has also written a book A
Dance Autobiography,
published in
1979.
Natalia Makarova staged the
"Kingdom of the Shades" from
La Bayadère
for American Ballet Theatre in
1974. In 1980, she staged the
full-length production of La
Bayadère making
ABT the first western company
to acquire this work. Her
production included for the
first time since 1919 a
reconstruction of the ballet's
last act with Makarova's
choreography after Marius
Petipa.
Her television work includes
her much-acclaimed
Ballerina Series for the
BBC 1987; In a Class of
Her Own for Channel 4;
Assoluta for the BBC,
and her television special
Natasha -
1985.
Miss Makarova made her
musical comedy debut on
Broadway in George Abbot's
On Your Toes for which
she won the Tony Award as
"Best Actress in a Musical" as
well as seven additional awards.
In 1984, she starred in the
West End production of On
Your Toes where she won
the coveted Laurence Olivier
Award.
Natalia Makarova's reunion
with the Kirov Ballet took place
in London on August 6, 1988
when she danced an excerpt
from Swan Lake with
the company. Miss Makarova
also became the first ever
Russian artistic exile to be
invited back to dance in her
native land. After nineteen
years' absence, she performed
once again on the Kirov stage
on February 1, 1989, an event
which was shown as part of a
BBC documentary called
Makarova
Returns.
In 1991, Miss Makarova made
her straight acting debut in the
play Tovarich at the
Chichester Festival in England
which was then transferred to
the West End. In 1992, she
returned to Russia as an actress
where she performed in the
play Two for the
Seesaw in Moscow and St.
Petersburg.
Miss Makarova wrote and
presented the highly-acclaimed
documentary for the BBC
Great Railway Journeys series --
St. Petersburg to Tashkent
which was shown world-wide in
1994. |
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