Kaptsova Nina Aleksandrovna - famous Russian ballerina, people's artist of the Russian Federation, prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater.
General biography
Nina Kaptsova was born on October 16, 1978 in the city of Rostov-on-Don. From childhood, the girl dreamed of becoming a ballerina and shining in the halo of fame on the stage of one of the largest theaters in Russia. Already at the age of 5, being a little girl, Nina set herself the goal of becoming a professional ballerina and in the future to perform the role of the Black Swan in the ballet Swan Lake by PI Tchaikovsky.
First steps to ballet
Getting into the ballet circle was not a big deal. Nina Kaptsova, whose height, the weight of which always corresponded to the parameters necessary for the ballet, was immediately accepted into it. From early childhood, she was graceful and flexible, loved to dance and be in the spotlight. Perhaps that is why she was able to manage difficult ballet positions and pirouettes with amazing ease.
Gradually moving towards a dream, the girl began to study ballet in a circle, and then in 1988 her fate fell into the hands of Lyudmila Alekseevna Kolenchenko, choreographer of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, who became her first teacher. Getting older and gaining mastery, Nina Kaptsova moved into the classroom to a more serious teacher - Larisa Valentinovna Dobrozhan. And, finally, when the young ballerina was already ready to enter the stage of a real ballet production, the rector of the Moscow Art Theater, People's Artist of the USSR S. N. Golovkina became her last teacher.
A family
At the moment, Kaptsova Nina Alexandrovna is a happy wife and mother. She is married to the pianist and accompanist of the Bolshoi Theater, Alexei Melentyev. And in 2014, the famous ballerina gave birth to a daughter and gave her the name Elizabeth.
First successes
The girl’s life changed dramatically from 1991 to 1992: she became a diploma winner of a new program that made it possible for new talents to fulfill their potential — New Names. Young Tsiskaridze Nikolai and Dmitry Belogolovtsev were among the same lucky ones. After this event, luck began to favor the future prima ballerina. In 1994-1995, the girl became the youngest laureate of "New Names", and then her long-awaited career in the Bolshoi Ballet began.
In 1996, Kaptsova was already a scholar of OK Russia, and only this spoke of how rapidly her level of professionalism was increasing. Having become not just a student, but a student, Nina tried more and more on the big stage in such famous ballet productions as “Vain Precaution” by A. Gorsky, “The Nutcracker” by V. Vainonen, “Coppelia” by A. Gorsky and others. Her partners were Denis Medvedev, Sergey Vasyuchenko, Andrey Bolotin are people, some of whom were the same graduates and young talents of the Moscow State Academic Art Festival as she, but there were also those who had already shown themselves to be quite successful at the Higher School of Classical Ballet.
Career start at the Bolshoi Theater
Thanks to her zeal and ability to give herself completely to the art of dance, in 1996 Nina Kaptsova graduated from the academy perfectly, after which she was invited to the troupe of the Bolshoi Theater. An amazing breakthrough at such a young age helped her immediately establish herself as a responsible and able-bodied student. And, of course, patience and the first failures that invariably comprehended every great man, and how the girl easily experienced them, made her notice. As a result, she began to work under the guidance of the main teacher of the Bolshoi Theater, People's Artist of the USSR Marina Kondratieva. Thanks to the attention and instructions of his teacher, the talent of a young ballerina began to reveal more and more.
New productions - new experience
And in November 1997, Nina Kaptsova first danced a variation in the ballet Raymond. A beautiful chivalrous love story, combined with the talent of a young ballerina, was a huge success. In December of the same 1997, Nina made her debut in the role of Cupid in a ballet production called Don Quixote. The following spring, in the ballet Paganini, Nina Kaptsova played the character of Musa, while her friend and classmate at the academy, Dmitry Gudanov, made his debut.
Improving her skills a little, the girl was getting closer to her cherished dream - to go down in history as one of the best ballerinas of our time.
The Nutcracker Ballet
The efforts of a ballerina and constant work on herself lead to new achievements. So was Nina Kaptsova, a ballerina who, sparing no time and energy in rehearsing and honing ballet performances, got to the main role in one of the most famous ballet productions of composer P. I. Tchaikovsky “The Nutcracker”. Performing the role of Marie, the girl once again proved her professionalism to teachers, viewers and, above all, to herself. The event took place on January 14, 1999 and was dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Simon Virsaladze. Nikolai Tsiskaridze, already familiar to the girl under the New Names program, became the partner of the ballerina, where they both became honored laureates.
The performance was broadcast on Central Television and gathered a lot of admiring reviews, not to mention the standing ovations from the audience of the live performance. For the performance of this role, Nina Kaptsova was nominated for the Benois de la dance prize, but this time luck did not smile at the young ballerina, which, however, did not upset her much, since it was much more important for the girl to give development to her talent.
New dance season in BT
April 1999 was the season of new premieres: the ballets of the author George Balanchine's "Agon" and "Symphony in C Major" inspired new ideas in the art of ballet. Nina Kaptsova was also a member of this production - she was part of a dance trio. In general, 1999 was the heyday of Kaptsova as a ballerina. She participated in such brilliant productions as Chopiniana, Fantasy on the Theme of Casanova, Anyuta, Don Quixote and much more.
At the end of 1999, a competition was held at the Bolshoi Theater for the selection of new soloists for the main troupe. That time was the moment of truth, which showed that all the efforts were not in vain - Nina Kaptsova became the soloist of the Bolshoi Theater. Ballet really was her whole life, so the victory in the competition did not become so amazing.
Prima ballerina
In 2000, the ballerina opened up new perspectives. Now she constantly took part in a wide variety of projects: she played a solo role in Mozartian, first participated as a dancer in the opera Ivan Susanin, and a little later she performed with her part of The Nutcracker at a concert held in honor of the anniversary of her former mentor , teacher of Moscow State Academy of Arts S. Golovkina. In the fall of 2000, the girl began work in the ballet Sleeping Beauty, where she received the main role of Princess Aurora. Konstantin Ivanov in that production became her partner with whom she did not stop communicating after the dance season.
Subsequently, it was for this role that the famous ballet dancer, and then the chief director of the Bolshoi dance troupe,
Sergei Filin, announced that now Nina Kaptsova is the new prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater. It happened on November 19, 2011.
Ballet "Romeo and Juliet"
Coming back a little, one cannot fail to note another role, thanks to which the name of Nina Kaptsova became famous not only throughout Russia, but also went beyond its borders. The ballet “Romeo and Juliet” by Sergei Prokofiev was another serious work in the career of the prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theater.
The debut in the role of Juliet took place in 2010. The partner of the dancer was Artem Ovcharenko. And in the future, it was this ballet performance that became one of the most striking projects in the life of Kaptsova.
Ballerina preferences in ballet
As the prima ballerina herself said, she prefers to play, or rather live, the roles of negative or complex antagonistic characters. By nature, tender and fragile, Nina Kaptsova, from the age of 5, wanted to play the part of Odile, the Black Swan in the ball of P.I. Tchaikovsky.
The power, strength and characteristic charisma of this character have always attracted a ballerina. And although in her career she did not have so many opportunities to play on the stage of a “dark” character, each time she with all enthusiasm undertook to play the role she received. By the way, the dream to dance Swan Lake was fulfilled, but not on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater.