Eva Evdokimova
Eva Evdokimova (born 1 December 1948 in Geneva, † April 3, 2009 in New York) was an American prima ballerina.
Life
Eva Evdokimova, daughter of an exiled Bulgarian and an American mother, grew up in Munich and studied from 1959 at the Royal Ballet School in London. In 1966 she became a member of the Royal Danish Ballet before 1969 went to the Ballet of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. Here they celebrated their first major successes, particularly in Giselle and La Sylphide, and from 1973 to 1985, the Prima Ballerina. 67 curtains were her Berlin record. Under the direction of Gert Reinholm Valery Panov choreographed the custom for her roles.
In addition to their performances in Berlin led Evdokimova guest performances around the world. At the invitation of Natalia Dudinskaya she performed with the Kirov Ballet, where she was named the Prima Ballerina Assoluta. Other engagements have had with the American Ballet Theatre, the ballet company of La Scala in Milan, the Ballet de l' Opéra de Paris, the National Ballet of Canada, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, the Stuttgart Ballet, the Tokyo Ballet, and others. For 15 years, Rudolf Nureyev was her most frequent partner, with whom she " has occurred in almost every city in the world ". First they contacted him in 1971 in La Sylphide on. In 1975 she was the first Sleeping Beauty in its production for the London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), a company for which she worked for many years as a permanent guest ballerina. Well-known choreographers such as George Balanchine (Apollo, Terpsichore ), Anton Dolin ( Pas de Quatre, Maria Taglioni ) and John Cranko, Birgit Cullberg or Glen Tetley worked with her.
After Evdokimova 1970 at the Moscow Ballet Competition received only a diploma, she invited Galina Ulanova the International Ballet Competition in Varna, where she was awarded in the same year as the first American winner of a gold medal. Their repertoire consisted of some 125 different roles, from the classics such as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty with August Bournonville's The Flower Festival in Genzano up to Henning Rübsams litany and spring belief that created the choreographer for one of their last performances in 2002 after two Schubert songs.
1985 left Evdokimova Berlin, as the German opera houses in their opinion, the ballet devote enough attention. She founded in New York own ballet company, but with which it was less successful than her work as a teacher and trainer. To run by her ballet schools included the Bavarian State Opera, and London's Royal Ballet School. When Boston Ballet, she was ballet mistress for one season. Back in New York, she taught at Ballet Arts and flew around the world to be a jury member at ballet competitions or teach in Japan or to Marika Besobrasovas school in Monaco.
In 2005, she was awarded the Ulanova Prize on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
She was married to Michael S. Gregori. Eva Evdokimova died of their cancer.