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Famous Russian ballet dancer marks 80th birthday

The British press called him the most “aristocratic Communist”
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, January 27 (Itar-Tass) - Russian ballet dancer and People’s Artist of the USSR Nikolai Fadeyechev is marking his 80th birthday on Sunday. He danced in many ballets, including the Nutcracker, Raimonda, the Sleeping Beauty, Laurencia, the Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Gayane, the Stone Flower and Romeo and Juliette. However, the Swan Lake was the number one ballet in his career. The Bolshoi Theatre will show the Swan Lake on February 3 on the occasion of Fadeyechev’s 80th birthday.

Nikolai Fadeyechev was born in Moscow. He studied at the Moscow choreography school. In 1952, he joined the Bolshoi ballet troupe in which he danced for the next 25 years.

In 1956, Fadeyechev went to London on Bolshoi's first foreign guest tour that opened Russian Soviet ballet to the world. Fadeyechev danced with Galina Ulanova in Giselle. The British press called him the most “aristocratic Communist”.

In 1971, Fadeyechev and Maya Plisetskaya became the first Soviet soloists to be invited by Opera de Paris to dance the leading parts in the Swan Lake.

Thanks to good natural qualities, inborn delicacy and responsiveness and consideration in a duet dance, Fadeyechev was an irreplaceable partenr for many leading ballerinas of his time. Apart from Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya, he also danced with Raisa Struchkova, Marina Kondratieva, Yekaterina Maksimova and Lyudmila Semenyaka.

He was a true man on the ballet stage.

Upon ending his ballet career, Fadeyechev started working as a tutor at the Bolshoi. He worked with many leading Bolshoi dancers – Andrei Uvarov, Sergei Filin and Nikolai Tsiskaridze. At present, Fadeyechev is teaching the next generation of soloists – Ruslan Skvortsov and Anton Ovcharenko. Even at 80, Fadeyechev’s life is closely linked to ballet. Fadeyechev’s wife Irina Kholina is a former soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre. Their children Alexei and Alexander are also ballet dancers.