Alla Osipenko is the gripping story of one of history's greatest ballerinas, a courageous rebel who paid the price for speaking truth to the Soviet State.
The daughter of a distinguished Russian aristocratic and artistic family, Osipenko was born in 1932 but was raised in a cocoon of pre-Revolutionary decorum and protocol. In Leningrad she studied with Agrippina Vaganova, the most revered and influential of all Russian ballet instructors. In 1950, she joined the Mariinsky (then-Kirov) Ballet, where her lines, shapes, and movements both exemplified the venerable traditions of Russian ballet and propelled those traditions forward into uncharted and experimental realms. She was the first of her generation of Kirov stars to enchant the West when she danced in Paris in 1956. Five years later, she was a key figure in the sensational success of the Kirov in its European debut.
But dancing for the establishment had its downsides, and Osipenko's sharp tongue and marked independence, as well as her almost-reckless flouting of Soviet rules for personal and political conduct, soon found her all but quarantined in Russia. An internationally acclaimed ballerina at the height of her career, she found that she would now have to prevail in the face of every attempt by the Soviet state and the Kirov administration to humble her, even as her friends and schoolmates (including Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov) defected to the West.
In Alla Osipenko, acclaimed dance writer Joel Lobenthal tells Osipenko's story for the first time in English, drawing on 40 interviews with theprima ballerina, and tracing her life from Classical darling to avant-garde rebel. Throughout the book, Osipenko talks frankly and freely in a way that few Russians of her generation have allowed themselves to. She discusses her traumatic relationship to the Soviet state, her close but often-fraught relationship with her family, her four husbands, her lovers, her colleagues, and her son's arrest in Leningrad and his subsequent death. Her voice rises above the incidents as unhesitating and graceful as her legendary adagios. Candid, irreverent, and, above all, independent -- Osipenko and her story open a window into a fascinating and little-discussed world.
Industry Reviews
"The subject of the book Alla Osipenko: Beauty and Resistance in Soviet Ballet by Joel Lobenthal is the history of ballet. A ballerina born with a physique perfect for classical ballet, Osipenko strove with entire artistic passion toward new discovery inside classical ballet. She criticized the system of classical dance created by her teacher Agrippina Vaganova, who is known as the 'Queen of the Variation.' But ironically, Alla Osipenko's name is very
well known inside the professional ballet world as the 'Queen of Adagio.'" -- Nina Danilova, author of Eight Female Classical Ballet Variations
"This is a marvelous book about the legendary Russian ballerina, Alla Osipenko, who defied the repressive Soviet regime with the power of her art and ultimately won. An absorbing and gratifying read! Great gift for Russian ballet lovers!" -- Alexander Poznansky, Yale University
"Joel Lobenthal's account of Alla Osipenko's life and thoughts is a wonderfully intimate history of one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th Century. He provides an unparalleled view into her personal world not only as a Kirov dancer but also as a Soviet citizen, who suffered and benefitted from a regime that valued ballet but not individuality. Lobenthal has written a book that does justice to his subject. It dances and pirouettes from topic to topic, while
at the same time telling a compelling history of success and setbacks, of beauty and its adversaries, and of a life in the limelight from Stalin to Putin." -- Juliane Fürst, author of Stalin's Last
Generation: Soviet Post-War Youth and the Emergence of Mature Socialism
"[A] must-read for ballet historians, documenting the trials and tribulations of the life of one of the Kirov Ballet's most important ballerinas...what a story [Lobenthal] tells, and what a valuable insight he gives us into the tragic life of a true star and a true artist."--Dance Europe
"Alla Osipenko: Beauty and Resistance in Soviet Ballet is a thoroughly researched, expertly crafted biography, full of care, endearment and attention...Academic yet accessible, the book tells a compelling and engaging story - the true story of a celebrated ballerina's distinct journey onstage and off."--Heather Desaulniers Dance Commentary
"[T]he ballet world outside the walls of Osipenko's home theater deserves to know more about the story behind the legend. Joel Lobenthal's book conveys exactly this...As any well-narrated biography, this book is a page-turner...we must be grateful to the author for the unique opportunity to look at the life of the legendary ballerina through her own eyes."--The Russian Review
