Olga Chenchikova

Olga Chenchikova was born just outside Moscow on 17 May 1956. Initially her mother took her to audition for the Moscow Choreographic Institute but she was not accepted. Her mother decided to try again this time with the Ballet school attached to the theatre in Perm in the Urals. The city boasts one of the leading schools in Russia, headed by the distinguished teacher Ludmila Sakharova with whom Chenchikova studied. She won a silver medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition in 1973 and was awarded a special commendation from Konstantin Sergeyev from the Vaganova School. She graduated from the Perm School in 1974 and was immediately taken into the ballet company of the Perm Theatre. She remained there for three years performing a number of the classical roles, such as Paquita, Kitri, and Aurora, which were to bring her great success and acclaim in St Petersburg. During this time she also performed in company tours in Western Europe and had already received the plaudits of critics in Austria for her performances in Paquita and Swan Lake.

In 1977 she guested at the Maryinsky Theatre as Odette-Odile, dancing with Sergei Vikulov. Alla Shelest prepared her for this auspicious debut and after the performance she was invited to join the company. She quickly became one of the leading lights of the Kirov Ballet. Initially, she was often cast in more dramatic roles, such as Aegina in Spartacus by Jacobson and Zarema, but it was quickly apparent that here was a classical ballerina of exceptional gifts and the mainstay of her repertoire became Aurora, Kitri, Nikiya, and Raymonda. Her well-defined gifts of plastique enabled her to triumph in contemporary ballets, which use a classical style vocabulary. The works of Vinogradov, Béjart, and Petit all found in her an epic grandeur that gave their creations a real sense of emotional depth. The role of Mekhmene Banu in The Legend of Love became one of her finest assumptions.

The role with which most Western audiences associate her is the sparkling divertissement Paquita in which many consider her unsurpassed. The pride, grandeur, true classicism, allied to her perfect technique and complete harmony of movement made this one of the finest Petipa creations in the history of the Kirov.

Chenchikova is a fine actress but the driving force of her classical interpretations is the structure of the classical dance itself. She is able to build the classical steps with a finesse and subtlety of shade, which is quite unique. She can infuse the actual steps with an emotional weight, which in turn by varying the plastique enables her to create the required mood. The role of Nikiya in La Bayadère, one of the most challenging in the classical repertory for any dancer, demands an understanding of the choreographic dynamic and plastique to give her solo passages the required emotional and spiritual qualities. The dances of the first act are at first naive, then passionate, affectionate and dramatic, the second act solo is of melancholy and the final 'Kingdom of the Shades' requires a strict adherance to Petipa's classical style, where the technical challenges must be despatched with ease to recreate the quality of the lifeless 'shade'. Chenchikova's Nikiya was totally convincing purely by the mastery and variety of her classical plastique alone.

She was also able by these means to compensate for the lack of a high elevation. Her Giselle was an artistic triumph because of her dramatic power conveyed firstly from her deeply felt acting in the first act and the emotions in the second act coming from within the sphere of the choreography and not concentrating solely on the height and lightness of the elevation in Act 2.

But in final analysis Chenchikova's legacy to the Maryinsky is in the realm of the full length classical ballet where her performances in Swan Lake, La Bayadère, Raymonda, Le Corsaire and Don Quixote all uncovered aspects of the majesty and genius of Petipa.

Chenchikova suffered a major injury during a performance of Don Quixote in 1995 and took three months rest to tend the injury. She rehearsed again to prepare for some of her classical roles but feeling less than satisfied with the results decided to turn her complete attention to teaching. However, she did perform in the new production of Goya by José Antonio in 1996. They have been her last performances on stage.

As a teacher she is primarily engaged as a senior repetiteur at the Maryinsky. Whilst her main pupils include Diana Vishneva, Maya Dumchenko and Sofia Gumerova she has also worked with Irina Zhelonkina, Tatiana Amosova, Anastasia Volochkova, and Natalia Sologub.

Geoff Whitlock

Her repertoire includes:

title role in Carmen Suite (chor. Klimova - Perm)
Beatrice in Servant of Two Masters (chor. Boyarchikov - Perm)
Swanhilda in Coppelia
Odette-Odile in Swan Lake
Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty
Medora in Le Corsaire
title role in Giselle
Kitri, Street Dancer, Queen of the Dryads in Don Quixote
title role in Raymonda
Zarema in The Fountain of Bakhchisarai
Nikiya, Gamzatti in La Bayadère
Mekhmene Banu in Legend of Love
Aegina in Spartacus (chor. Jakobson)
Soloist in Paquita
Fairy in Fairy of the Rondsky Mountains (chor. Vinogradov)
Esmeralda in Notre Dame de Paris (chor. Petit)
Soloist in Theme and Variations
Waltz in Ivan Susannin
Baya in Goya (chor. Antonio)