Kurgapkina, Ninella Aleksandrovna

Born Feb. 13, 1929, in Leningrad. Soviet ballerina. People’s Artist of the USSR (1974). Member of the CPSU since 1975.

Kurgapkina, a pupil of A. Ia. Vaganova, graduated from the Leningrad Choreographic School in 1947 and was accepted into the company of the Kirov Theater of Opera and Ballet in Leningrad. Her parts have included Aurora in Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty, Parasha in Gliére’s The Bronze Horseman, Jeanne in Asaf’ev’s The Flames of Paris, Shirin in Melikov’s Legend of Love, and the Bacchante in the “Walpurgis Night” scene from Gounod’s Faust. Kurgapkina has taught the classe de perfectionnement at the Kirov Theater since 1969.