Home
Ballet Talk
Magazines
Specials
Reviews
Ballets
Dancers
Companies
Studio
Shop
Links
Subscribe

---

November 17, 1998

This week's Dancer of the Week is, alas, another In Memoriam. Svetlana Beriosova died last week at the age of 67.   She was one of the most beloved of the British ballerinas during the great days of the Royal Ballet, renowned in the classics, especially Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty,  but also for more exotic parts, such as The Hostess in Les Biches and The Bride in Les Noces when Sir Frederick Ashton revived those ballets. She also created some of the most unusual roles in the British repertory -- Persephone in Ashton's ballet of the same name, the Fairy in MacMillan's The Fairy's Kiss, Lady Elgar in Ashton's Enigma Variations. She was mysterious, magisterial and vulnerable, with huge sad eyes and a sweet clear line; she was the Royal's ballerina between Fonteyn and Sibley; she had a too-short career as a coach after retiring from the stage in the early 1970s; and she's one of the very few dancers who was genuinely loved by her colleagues and her audience. 

There's a wonderful Appreciation by Jane Simpson, at Ballet.co.

For more information about Svetlana Beriosova, read about her in the Ballet.co Legends section.