Natalia Makarova

Natalia Romanovna Makarova was born on 21 November 1940 in Leningrad and trained at the Leningrad Choreographic School in the Vaganova tradition before joining the Kirov Ballet. Her early career established her as a refined classical and dramatic dancer, shaped by the precise épaulement and line that defined her schooling.

In September 1970, while the Kirov was performing in London, Makarova requested political asylum. She soon began an international career centered on American Ballet Theatre and the Royal Ballet, making her American Ballet Theatre debut in *Giselle* that same year. The move opened access to a broad Western repertory: she danced works by Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Glen Tetley while continuing to perform the nineteenth-century classics that had formed her at the Kirov.

Makarova's Western dancing was distinguished by stylistic range. She could honor the detailed schooling of her Russian training while adapting to MacMillan's dramatic naturalism, Ashton's musical wit, and the formal clarity of Balanchine and Robbins. Her partnerships with dancers including Anthony Dowell and Mikhail Baryshnikov became significant presences in international ballet during this period. In 1965, she had won a gold medal at the Varna International Ballet Competition, a recognition of her technical and interpretive standing that preceded her Western career.

Her most consequential contribution came through *La Bayadère*. After staging the Kingdom of the Shades for ABT in 1974, Makarova mounted a full-length production that premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House on 21 May 1980, with Makarova as Nikiya, Anthony Dowell as Solor, and Cynthia Harvey as Gamzatti. The production made the complete ballet available to a major Western company and became a durable vehicle for transmitting nineteenth-century Russian repertory beyond Russia's borders.

Makarova also performed on Broadway. In the 1983 revival of Rodgers and Hart's *On Your Toes*, with choreography by Donald Saddler, she played the ballerina Vera Baronova and won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, a recognition of theatrical versatility that extended her artistry beyond ballet.

In 1989 she returned to the Kirov stage after nearly two decades away, an event documented in the film *Makarova Returns*. As her performing career receded, she continued staging *La Bayadère*, *Swan Lake*, and *The Sleeping Beauty* for international companies. The Kennedy Center honored her in 2012, recognizing a career that joined Soviet schooling, Western repertory expansion, Broadway performance, and preservation work across generations.