Friday, March 29

Galina Samsov obituary | Ballet


Galina Samsova, who has died aged 84, was a ballerina with a distinctive Russian style, who was acclaimed in the west at a time when few Soviet-trained dancers were performing there. A radiant and musical dancer, Samsova was noted for her soaring jump, her stunningly eloquent and pliable back, her rich port of bras and her acting ability. Once seen she was not forgotten, despite lacking the advantages of a traditional ballerina’s body.

Not only was Samsova a great dancer but she was also a generous person, ever ready to help her colleagues and young dancers. She was loved and respected by those she worked with, and in the last three decades was in demand as a judge at international ballet competitions. It was through seeing talented young dancers in competitions that she brought, for example, the Czech Daria Klimentová and Spanish Tamara Rojo to Scottish Ballet, where in the 1990s she served as artistic director, launching their careers in Britain.

As she rarely danced with the most publicized companies, making few appearances with the Royal Ballet (although she did dance Kenneth MacMillan’s Isadora in 1982), Samsova was less of a household name in Britain than she deserved to be.

Samsova was permitted to move from Ukraine to the west, initially joining the National Ballet of Canada, in 1960 when she met and married Alexander Ursuliak, a Canadian-Ukrainian teacher who was extending his experience of Russian dance. The marriage eventually ended in divorce.

Her arrival just months before the defection of Rudolf Nureyev attracted nothing like the same attention in the media. She had only been of soloist rank at the Kiev Opera Ballet, but quietly she exerted a similar influence, staging short works from the Russian repertoire such as Laurencia. She also mounted the version of the virtuosic Corsaire pas de deux (in Robert Klavin’s staging) in Canada just weeks before Nureyev presented it partnering Margot Fonteyn in London.

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As the critic James Neufeld noted: “At a time when artistic contact with Russia was virtually impossible, her arrival generated excitement and artistic ferment within the company. Samsova was an electrifying performer, in full command of the Russian strength and athleticism which Canadian dancers had only heard about.”

Samsova secured her position as an international star, dancing the title role in Cinderella, choreographed by Vaslav Orlikovsky, for the first international festival of dance in Paris in 1963.

Receiving the festival’s gold medal opened doors for Samsova to guest with a range of companies, and she eventually found a “home” at London Festival Ballet (1964-73).

Galina Martinova Samtsova (her name was simplified to Samsova in the west) was born in Stalingrad (now Volgograd). On her own initiative, as a child she auditioned for, and was offered a place at the Kiev Opera Ballet school, where she became a pupil of Natalia Verekundova. But she then had to win her parents’ approval to accept. She graduated into the company in Kiev in 1956, and never severed her links with the Kiev Opera Ballet. She returned to dance in Swan Lake and later to research for the acclaimed production of that ballet she mounted with Sir Peter Wright for the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet in 1981.

Samsova dancing with André Prokovsky, 1977.
Samsova dancing with André Prokovsky, 1977. Photograph: ITV/Shutterstock

At the National Ballet of Canada in the early 60s, she was exposed for the first time to choreography by Antony Tudor (whose dramatic work she enjoyed), George Balanchine and John Cranko, a trio of choreographers whose work she would include in Scottish Ballet’s repertory when she became artistic director there three decades later.

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After moving to London Festival Ballet, she could be relied on to add glamor and excitement to the ballet’s divertissement and mixed programmes, dancing Le Corsaire and the lyrically acrobatic Spring Waters. She triumphed as an interpretive artist in Swan Lake with her lyricism and pathos; brought femininity, charm and wit to the lively Kitri in Don Quixote (1970); and her performances as Giselle were ethereal and deeply moving.

In the 1970s she established New London Ballet with her partner and second husband, André Prokovsky, whom she had met while guesting and brought back to London Festival Ballet. They married in 1972. New London Ballet was a small company designed to tour in Europe and Asia, focusing on creating new ballets. Samsova was delighted by opportunities to work closely with leading choreographers, many of whom invited her to dance elsewhere. As she said: “Some things worked choreographically, some things didn’t … but at least it gave me a chance to … see how I could develop in another way.”

For Samsova, Peter Darrell created Desdemona in his Othello (1971) and the mature but still vibrantly passionate courtesan Léa in Chéri (1980). Jack Carter made a powerful 20-minute solo for Samsova as the Delphic sybil in Pythoness Ascendant (1973) in which she developed into a visionary prophetess of awesome grandeur. Prokovsky drew on his wife’s comic ability in his academic showpiece Vespri (1972), and, later, her dramatic talent in Königsmark, as well as Anna Karenina (both 1979), for Australian Ballet.

In the late 70s she began appearing as a guest with Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, joining the company from 1980 until 1990. Here again, her wide repertoire revealed her versatility, and she had the opportunity to create and dance roles for MacMillan. She also became an inspiring and considerate company teacher, and produced the grand pas from Paquita, and, in 1999, Giselle with David Bintley.

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After a brief period in 1990 as a caretaker artistic director for Scottish Ballet in the interregnum following Darrell’s death, she was officially appointed to the post in 1991. While there, she built up the company’s academic ballet repertoire and invited Jasper Conran to design new productions of Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. She also invited Robert Cohan to choreograph full evening ballets. Eventually, frustrated by funding cuts, in 1997 she resigned.

Samsova and Prokovsky divorced in 1981.

Galina Samsova (Galina Martinova Samtsova), born March 17, 1937; died 11 December 2021


www.theguardian.com

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