Ballerina magic. Alla Osipenko

Alla Osipenko Career: Ballet
Birth: Russia
Alla OSIPENKO was not just a brilliant ballerina, she remained a legend in the history of the Kirov Theatre, Choreographic Miniatures and Boris Eifman troupes.

For 15 years there was her unique duet with John Markovsky. Osipenko taught in Italy and the USA, today she is a teacher-repetiteur at the Konstantin Tachkin Theater, so more than half a century has been devoted to serving the profession. As befits a ballerina, Alla Evgenievna is taut, slim, elegant. No discount for age.

Money doesn't go to someone who can't manage it.

You successfully worked abroad, why did you return?

When I was offered a job in Italy, I went for a short time and stayed for five years. She left due to circumstances: it was impossible to be on a pension payment of two thousand rubles, the heir got married, and how to exist in one apartment? But I felt so lonely there that all the finances were spent on telephone conversations. I did not learn either Italian or English, because I thought everything, I'm leaving tomorrow, I can't do it anymore. Well, the fact that a teacher is allowed to receive these are all fairy tales. Another occupation is if you dance and get ten thousand dollars for a performance. And I was paid one and a half thousand dollars a salary, but only the apartment cost seven hundred. In addition, in America, I ended up in the most expensive state of Connecticut that I could save! I'm generally not very lucky with money (laughs). Not only do I not know how to dispose of them, they do not come to me.

Did you communicate abroad with your friends Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Makarova?

Rudik really wanted me to run away to him when Margot Fontaine stopped dancing. We kept in touch through his sister, she was a kindergarten teacher, the one that my son went to. But they talked secretly, when she wanted to come, she called: Alla, do you need sausages? If I answered: Needed, then it is permissible to come. She calls once, I refuse sausages, but she insists: I really bought a kg. Rudik, I secretly got notes for La Bayadere, he invited me to the Grand Opera, but we personally met in Florence 28 years after his escape, and then I saw an excellent performance of The Overcoat. Rudik's duet with the new Overcoat still can't get out of my memory.

They called Misha Baryshnikov in America, once he asks: Alla, you are obviously sad? Boring. Well, I'll introduce you to Yuz Aleshkovsky. And I read his works, where there was a mate on a mate, and decided not to get acquainted (laughs). I'm not that kind of person. I also saw Misha in Florence, where he was on tour: I came to his dressing room, and he was in shock.

With Natasha Makarova, we grew up together, and when we meet, we don’t understand how old we are, recalling all sorts of stories from the past. The only thing is, if I start a conversation about men, she sighs: God, and you are not tired of this! But when she came to me for my 70th birthday, she gave me red underwear! And then she wants to say that we have changed a lot!

I could not leave the person with whom I lived for 15 years

Your duet with John Markovsky was called the duet of the century, although in fact, like your novel:

I saw John for the first time in 1965, flew home after that rehearsal, mother is watching TV, I see someone dancing there, mother says: Look what a world boy, at that very moment the boy falls, I say: Good, especially in fall. And John came from Riga to the improvement class. We all paid attention to the good boy and wondered who would get him. Once I went on tour to Perm, I was supposed to dance with Vikulov, but for some reason they replaced him with Markovsky. And so began its own unforgivable romance, because I was 12 years older. Well, after that we left the Kirov Theater together, danced in Choreographic Miniatures, at Eifman's. John was one of those who made up the glory of these groups, but he was not given more than that title of Honored. When I came to apply to Eifman to apply for a title for John, he replied that if you need it, you can apply. Having left for a tiny pension payment, John taught somewhere in clubs, but in principle he remained out of work, useless to anyone. Although we parted, but friends knew about a friend, and then I left. Two and a half years ago, John showed up, asked for a loan and invited me to go to them. I saw that his life friend was a severely disabled person, John said that they were selling the apartment and leaving for his wife's homeland in Nikolaev. And disappeared again. And I began to smell like a devil from a snuffbox on TV these terrible stories about how apartments are being sold, and people are being killed. I asked my friends in the relevant authorities to look for John. It turned out that he was registered in a village near Luga. I wrote a letter: John, where are you? in response: The letter was received, and some kind of squiggle instead of his signature. John was not there. Then they searched the whole of Nikolaev and the district was not registered anywhere. In anxiety, I left with the Tachkin Theater on a tour to England, and on the day of my return, John, a true homeless person, is not difficult to recognize him. It turns out that his wife died, he is truly a bum, frostbitten feet. She placed him in a paid hospital, and after that she contributed huge pennies to the House of Stage Veterans. Then half of the amount was returned to me from John, but the capital still turned out to be in the account. I'm glad that I managed to support him, but John's psyche is torn, he is inadequate.

Women are stronger than men

It turns out that women are stronger than men. You still can't relax, you're working. How did you end up at the Tachkin Theater?

After returning from abroad, for some time I taught at the Planet club, and later I was called to the former Petrograd district committee, and a certain lady said: This is a club for military-patriotic education, your choreography is not needed. But children must grow up cultured. You can't dictate your terms, you used to be a celebrity, but at the moment you are nobody, and I was kicked out. I was left without a job, gave private lessons, and somehow Tachkin invited me to a performance. I saw rich scenery, and after that Ira Kolesnikova, who captivated me with her talent.

As for the fact that I can’t relax, so I have a pension payment of 2219 rubles, one apartment is 950, and a 14-year-old granddaughter, the one who, if he comes to dinner, will not eat one potato. He is far from ballet interested in football. I also had to get carried away, moreover, I learned one name Beckham, and I support Zenith.

Alla Osipenko, in the year of her 75th birthday, is surprised that today everyone is called legends, while she always considered herself an ordinary dancer. She treats the word "ballerina" with trepidation, realizing the full significance of this status. And yet, the legend of Russian ballet Alla Osipenko today is experiencing a new birth in “her teaching life”: since September, she began working as a tutor at the Mikhailovsky Theater, which many still know as the Mussorgsky Theater. In the first ballet premiere of the season, Adana's Giselle, she took part, preparing many dancers, recalling her lessons at the Grand Opera, where Rudolf Nureyev had arranged for her to work at one time.

– Alla Evgenievna, you have an incredibly dramatic biography┘

“They say you always have to pay for something. But the retribution that I suffered... I don't understand why. We are all sinners, but this is the most terrible punishment - the death of my son. I am not Orthodox, although I grew up in a family of believers, I was baptized in 1937 as a 5-year-old girl. But I can’t answer this question... Not so long ago I returned to my former self. I always knew that no one would ever bother about me, they would never give me anything to somehow notice me. I knew that everything was in my legs, which were somehow evaluated. And I understood this very well. My last teacher Marina Shamsheva, with whom I studied for 10 years, always said: “You have beautiful legs. Sell ​​them high."

You speak as if you were writing a novel in the oral genre. At the same time, you have no memoirs.

- I had written two chapters, which were called "Paris in my life." I wrote them in Paris when I had an operation. I was completely alone, I went for a walk in the Luxembourg Gardens, where I began to write. My great friend, who is long dead, Nina Vyrubova, the ballerina of the Grand Opera, inspired me by saying: “You have so many acquaintances in Paris, sit down and write, you still have nothing to do now.” I wrote not so much about myself, but about the people I managed to meet. In these memoirs - the faces of the first emigration. I was also acquainted with His Serene Highness Prince Golitsyn, and with Bobrinsky, and Sheremetevs, I remember Elena Mikhailovna Luke, who in 1956 asked me to take a gift to her sister, who emigrated during the revolution. With all the horrors and fears, I nevertheless reached my sister - at night I made my way, on foot and gave the gift. Lately I have been told that I must write a sequel to these memoirs. I write as I speak, I have no problems in this regard. But I stopped writing when my son died. I had no one to tell anything, and I wrote for my son.

– What were you unable to write about in your Paris memoirs due to time?

- I just remembered everything in great detail - everything is said there. But it is curious that quite recently the Mariinsky Theater did not take this book for sale. Fund director Konstantin Balashov was first told that the book had to go through five instances - they did not say which ones. The book went through five instances, after which it turned out that there was still a sixth. The sixth missed. I could not imagine that they remember the story of 1971 - my departure from the theater. But personally, I don’t write anything about this in this book - I don’t have anything about relations with the theater. I remember my golden age. And those who remember me mention how the theater could part with such dancers as Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Makarova, Osipenko. Therefore, they entered into a lawsuit with the theater. But if I write about theater now, I will.

- Where do the two chapters of your memoirs end?

- The thread of the story is interrupted by 1956. In 1956, Leonid Myasin, who was then director of the Ballet russes in Monte Carlo, offered me a one-year contract. Imagine - in 1956! I am 24 years old. I agreed. But first she called her grandmother to ask if it was possible to stay in Paris for a year. They suffered for a long time with the answer, but decided that it was possible for a year. Myasin and I rehearsed Vision of the Rose. After that, I nevertheless told the escorts that I would not go back, that I would stay. To which she received from him in response: “What, do you want to fly away now and never come on tour again?” I apologized to Myasin, said that I have a lot of work. We met again in 1961, I asked how he was doing, and he told me: “But I left because I did not find a real Russian ballerina. And I needed you, a Russian, Petersburg dancer. Nureyev remained in Paris. And after that, I still became restricted to travel abroad. For 10 years, they didn’t take me anywhere with the theater.

- How do you assess today that you did not stay abroad?

“I did everything right. When they say that we are building our own destiny - nothing like that. Fate controls us.

- How do you remember Rudolf Nureyev?

- He probably understood that he had given me some life difficulties, that because of him I “flew”. And he rewarded me with what was in his power. After 28 years from the moment I became restricted to travel abroad, and he remained in France, asking for political asylum in 1961, in 1989 in Paris, at his home, he arranged a birthday for me. In the same year, he offered me a job as a tutor at the Grand Opera. I told him: “Rudik, I don’t know how to give lessons! I have no practice." - "I'll help you". I am very grateful to him. He rewarded me in my second life - teaching - what was taken from me in the dance. At the Grand Opera, he went to my lessons, after each he told me what they should and should not be taught - he advised me. He was very supportive of my position by coming to my lessons, although in Paris I was known by many as a dancer. Can you imagine that I learned to teach French dancers at the Grand Opera? Quite recently, when a French ballerina from the Grand Opera, who remembers me, gave master classes in the Mikhailovsky Theater in St. Petersburg, it turned out that our lessons are very similar. I didn’t teach the system, the Vaganova system, neither then nor now: I don’t know it - I know the style. But Vaganova was a genius. Now I am trying to convey to the girls at the Mikhailovsky Theater what I learned at the Grand Opera. Russian hands, which Vaganova gave like mother's milk, I will not lose. But in those years, Agrippina Yakovlevna did not pay such attention to her legs as the French do and did. Rudolf Nureyev said that he dreams of a school where there will be Russian hands and French legs.

– Legs seem to be the most important thing in ballet┘

- Yes, it is very important. Now the main thing for me is to try to teach them to love their legs the way they need to love them, so that they “sell them at a high price” to the viewer, as Marina Nikolaevna Shamsheva told me. I have never been a blinkered horse and did not say that we are the best in the world. I wanted to learn what we didn't learn here. My lessons are not at all like the lessons they give today in St. Petersburg. They are like lessons at the Grand Opera. And the hands remain the main thing for me: the expressiveness of the hands and body. The harmony and cantilena of the body is ours, the whole world is striving for this.

- In Giselle, which Nikita Dolgushin recently staged at the Mikhailovsky Theater, did your lessons already manifest themselves in someone?

- In someone, of course, they have already manifested themselves. I am lucky because I work with girls who listen to me and believe - and Nastya Matvienko, and Ira Perren, and Olga Stepanova.

– Today there are Russian ballerinas who were once lacking for Leonid Myasin?

– On your part, this is a provocative question, which, probably, I have no right to answer. A ballerina is a ballerina of the Imperial Theatre. But none of them were "divine". They were just ballerinas - they were awarded this title. Kshesinskaya, Pavlova. You can count on your fingers. Today everyone is a ballerina. For me they are all dancers. Now little girls say: "I am a ballerina." We didn't answer that. Where are you studying? I am a ballerina, I study at a choreographic school. Now it is the Academy of Russian Ballet. Everything has changed now.

St. Petersburg

For 15 years there was her unique duet with John Markovsky. Osipenko taught in Italy and the USA, now she is a teacher-repetiteur at the Konstantin Tachkin Theater, so more than half a century has been devoted to serving the profession. As befits a ballerina, Alla Evgenievna is taut, slim, elegant. No discount for age.

Money does not go to those who do not know how to manage it

- You successfully worked abroad, why did you return?

When I was offered a job in Italy, I went for a short time and stayed for five years. She left due to circumstances: it was impossible to exist on a pension of two thousand rubles, her son got married, and how to live in one apartment? But I felt so lonely there that all the money was spent on telephone conversations. I did not learn either Italian or English, because I thought - that's it, I'm leaving tomorrow, I can't do it anymore. Well, the fact that you can earn money as a teacher is all a fairy tale. Another thing is if you dance and get ten thousand dollars for the performance. And I was paid one and a half thousand dollars a salary, but only the apartment cost seven hundred. In addition, in America, I ended up in the most expensive state - Connecticut, what could I save! I'm generally not very lucky with money (laughs). Not only do I not know how to dispose of them - they do not come to me.

- Did you communicate abroad with your friends - Nureyev, Baryshnikov, Makarova?

Rudik really wanted me to run away to him when Margot Fontaine stopped dancing. We kept in touch through his sister - she was a teacher in the kindergarten that my son went to. But they talked secretly, when she wanted to come, she called: Alla, do you need sausages? If I answered: Needed, then you can come. She calls once, I refuse sausages, and she insists: I really bought a kilogram. Rudik, I secretly got notes for La Bayadere, he invited me to the Grand Opera, but we personally met in Florence 28 years after his escape, and then I saw a wonderful performance of The Overcoat. I still can't forget Rudik's duet with the new Overcoat.

They called Misha Baryshnikov in America, once he asks: Alla, you must be bored? - Boring. - Well, I'll introduce you to Yuz Aleshkovsky. And I read his works, where there was a mate on a mate, and decided not to get acquainted (laughs). I'm not that kind of person. I also saw Misha in Florence, where he was on tour: I came to his dressing room, and he was in shock.

After all, we grew up together with Natasha Makarova, and when we meet, we don’t understand how old we are, remembering all sorts of stories from the past. The only thing is, if I start a conversation about men, she sighs: God, and you are not tired of this! But when she came to me for my 70th birthday, she gave me red underwear! And after that she wants to say that we have changed a lot!

I couldn't leave the man I lived with for 15 years

- Your duet with John Markovsky was called the duet of the century, however, like your novel:

I saw John for the first time in 1965 - I flew home after a rehearsal, my mother is watching TV, I see someone dancing there, my mother says: Look what a good boy, at that moment the boy falls, I say: Good, especially in the fall. And John came from Riga to the improvement class. We all paid attention to the good boy and wondered who would get him. Once I went on tour to Perm, I was supposed to dance with Vikulov, but for some reason they replaced him with Markovsky. And so our unforgivable romance began, because I was 12 years older. Well, then we left the Kirov Theater together, danced in Choreographic Miniatures, at Eifman's. John was one of those who made up the glory of these teams, but he was not even given the title of Honored. When I came to ask Eifman to apply for a title for John, he replied that if you need it, you can do it. Having retired on a tiny pension, John taught somewhere in clubs, but, in principle, remained out of work, useless to anyone. Although we broke up, we knew about each other, and then I left. Two and a half years ago, John showed up, asked for a loan and called to go to them. I saw that his wife was a severely disabled person, John said that they were selling the apartment and leaving for his wife's homeland in Nikolaev. And disappeared again. And I suddenly began to hear these terrible stories on TV, how apartments are being sold, and people are being killed. I asked my friends in the relevant authorities to look for John. It turned out that he was registered in a village near Luga. I wrote a letter: John, where are you? - in response: The letter was received, and some kind of scribble, instead of his signature. John was not there. Then they searched the whole of Nikolaev and the district - it was not registered anywhere. In anxiety, I left with the Tachkin Theater on tour to England, and on the day of my return - well, just mysticism - John appears, a real bum, I did not recognize him. It turns out that his wife died, he really is a bum, frostbitten feet. She placed him in a paid hospital, and after that - having made a lot of money - in the House of Stage Veterans. Then half of the amount was returned to me - John still had money in his account. I am glad that I managed to help him, but John's psyche is torn, he is inadequate.

Women are stronger than men

- It turns out that women are stronger than men. You still can't relax, you're working. How did you end up at the Tachkin Theater?

After returning from abroad, I taught at the Planet club for some time, and then I was called to the former Petrograd district committee, and a certain lady said: This is a club for military-patriotic education, your choreography is not needed. - But children should grow up cultured. - You can't dictate your terms, you used to be a celebrity, but now you're nobody, and I was kicked out. I was left without a job, gave private lessons, and somehow Tachkin invited me to a performance. I saw luxurious scenery, and then Ira Kolesnikova, who captivated me with her talent.

As for the fact that I can’t relax, so I have a pension of 2219 rubles, one apartment 950, and a 14-year-old grandson who, if he comes to dinner, will not eat one potato. He is far from ballet - he is fond of football. I also had to get carried away, I even learned one name - Beckham, and I support Zenith.

Alla Evgenievna Osipenko, whose life story will be described in the article, is a theater legend, a bright star among ballerinas. She was a student of A. Vaganova, participated in the productions of outstanding choreographers of her time. With her grace and dramatic talent, she conquered both the inhabitants of the RSFSR and the foreign audience.

Alla Osipenko: biography

Alla was born in Leningrad on June 16, 1932. She lived with her mother, nanny, grandmother Maria and great-aunt Anna.

Osipenko's mother came from the Borovikovsky family. The ballerina's ancestors were the artist Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky, the poet Alexander Lvovich and the photographer Alexander Alexandrovich - also Borovikovsky. Alla's father was from Ukrainian nobles. In 1937 he was imprisoned because he began to publicly revile Soviet power and demand the release of tsarist officers. His mother divorced him. Then, when it came time to get a passport, despite the requests of her mother, Alla left her father's surname behind her - she considered that a different decision would be a betrayal.

Vocation

The girl was brought up strictly. She spent almost all the time with adults, they didn’t even let her out into the yard. And she lacked communication with her peers, her obstinate nature demanded to break out from under excessive guardianship. The opportunity presented itself in the first grade - she read about the choreographic circle and persuaded her relatives to let her join there. If only to return at least a couple of times a day later, not to sit in four walls! But the girl herself at that time was far from dancing - her mother wanted to become a ballerina, not she.

But thanks to the Osipenko circle, Alla Evgenievna found her calling. Her teacher noted her talents and persuaded her mother to send her daughter to a choreographic school. She was enrolled there on June 21, 1941, and on June 22 the war began.

The children were transported to Kostroma, then to Molotov (now Perm). Ballet was taught first in the church, then, when they were transferred to Kurya, in the barracks. “Hunger and cold,” Alla recalls those times. Students practiced often without taking off their coats and mittens. Those were hard times, but it was during the evacuation, and perhaps thanks to it, that Osipenko fell in love with art forever.

New stage

After the Osipenko School, Alla came to the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater named after Kirov (now the Mariinsky Theater). Her work here did not always go smoothly. The first test was a severe injury to the legs. A young twenty-year-old Osipenko, on a wave of inspiration after a rehearsal, did not get off - she jumped out of a trolley bus ... and was forced to forget about the stage for almost a year and a half. Only stubbornness helped her to return. According to her, this incident helped her realize what she really wants.

The Kirov Theater turned out to be a difficult school. He demanded a special, penetrating character. But off the stage, Alla was by no means a fighter, on the contrary. She believed critics who questioned her talents. I had to give all the best and physically - rehearsals took almost all the time.

The crown of her work was the role in "The Stone Flower" (1957), where she danced in the image of the Mistress. The next day she woke up famous. Osipenko Alla herself once noticed that fame may have come to her not so much because of talent, but because of the originality of the image. For the first time, a ballerina appeared on stage in only one tight tights.

KGB

Success had a downside. Firstly, they began to consider her an actress of one role. Secondly, her fame attracted the attention of the KGB. They began to control her especially strictly after 1961, when her partner fled the USSR. Alla witnessed this flight - the famous "jump" of Nureyev.

It happened while on tour. Nureyev refused to follow the routine, for which they decided to send him back to Moscow. But Nureyev wanted to continue touring. He managed to escape and rushed to the plane in which his comrades were leaving for London. I did not have time - and in the same place, in Paris, I asked for political asylum. Later in the USSR, despite his absence, Nureyev was sentenced to seven years for treason. Allah acted as his protector.

Meanwhile, they literally did not take their eyes off Alla. In London, she was settled in a separate room. They let her out and locked her up, leaving her nowhere unaccompanied. She was forced to hide from her fans, and journalists' inquiries were invariably answered that Alla Osipenko could not give an interview, as she was "giving birth". In the future, she was allowed to visit only socialist countries.

Alla had tested the patience of the KGB before. During her first tour in Paris, back in 1956, she (the first among Soviet ballerinas) received the A Prize. Once, fulfilling the request of a friend, she handed over the package to her sister, while escaping from the observers - through the back door.

L. V. Yakobson

In the Kirov Theater Osipenko Alla played in a considerable number of productions, among them - "The Sleeping Beauty", "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai", "Cinderella", "Othello", "The Legend of Love". But the difficult atmosphere, scandals, tense relations with the management, creative dissatisfaction - all this gave rise to unbearable fatigue in the ballerina. After 21 years of work in the theater, she left him.

Together with her partner John Markovsky, she joined the troupe of L. V. Jacobson, to his "Miniatures". It was a risky step - Yakobson's productions were constantly censored, they looked for signs of anti-Sovietism in them, and they tried to ban them. The rebellious character of the ballerina manifested itself here as well. When the commission banned the dance number "The Minotaur and the Nymph" for its "eroticism", Alla, together with the choreographer, rushed to the chairman of the city executive committee. To their surprise and joy, the number was allowed to be staged.

Jacobson's character was difficult. He was ready to rehearse at any time, around the clock. Moreover, the rehearsals were held in a small uncomfortable room. The choreographer forced the actors to devote themselves completely to work, to act almost to the point of exhaustion, to the point of full return. Perform complex, almost impossible movements. But Alla was glad to work with Jacobson. She considered him a genius, idolized him and was even a little in love with him. This is how the productions of The Firebird, The Swan and The Idiot arose, which Yakobson staged especially for Osipenko. But the relationship between the ballerina and the choreographer gradually cracked.

When Osipenko was injured again in 1973, Yakobson did not want to wait for her to recover.

End of career

After leaving Yakobson, Osipenko and Markovsky found themselves on the street. It was a difficult time, there was almost no work. Luck smiled on them in 1977, when they agreed with the choreographer B. Ya. Eifman, becoming the leading actors of his New Ballet troupe. The ballerina worked there until 1982. But this was already the end of her career, largely predetermined by her break with Markovsky.

In the future, Alla auditioned for films - Averbakh's "Voice", half-naked Ariadne in A. Sokurov's "Sorrowful Premonition". Theatrical performances. Then, after Perestroika, Osipenko went abroad, where she taught choreography for a long time. She continued to do this in Russia.

Love

Ballerina Alla Evgenievna Osipenko was married several times. A tragic trace in her life was left by the death of her only son, born from the actor Gennady Voropaev.

More famous is her marriage to John Markovsky. Their brilliant duet was called the "couple of the century." Alla called Markovsky her best partner. According to her, in the dance they seemed to become one. For the first time they performed together in Perm, and at the same time their romance began, although she was twelve years older. They were together for 15 years. After breaking up with him, Alla could not find another partner of the same kind, according to her, this was their end as dancers.

Teachers and idols

The idol of the ballerina for a long time was Natalia Dudinskaya. Osipenko passionately imitated her. Imitation did a disservice - after all, it prevented her from showing her own individuality, and Alla had to relearn. She also had other idols among ballerinas, for example, Vera Arbuzova.

Among the people who pushed her talent, Alla especially notes Boris Fenster. At one time, he saw and helped to reveal the girl's abilities. At the time, she was called the "oar girl" because she was too plump for a ballerina. But Fenster noticed her and offered her the role of Pannochka in Taras Bulba. He became a strict mentor, forcing her not only to lose weight, but also to think about herself.

Lydia Mikhailovna Tyutina also helped the ballerina a lot. Largely thanks to her, Osipenko was able to return after an injury.

It is impossible not to mention Agrippina Vaganova. She was a strict teacher, often yelled at her student and often noticed that due to her character she would end her life in the music hall. But at the same time she was a wonderful, extraordinary teacher.

Ballerina is a title

As Alla Osipenko herself noted in an interview, a ballerina is a title, not a profession. And to become one, you need character. Osipenko proved this statement with her whole life. Success and failure, happiness and drama - all this has shaped her such an extraordinary personality.

The meeting took place in the Sheremetyevsky Palace, in the very hall where the exhibition dedicated to the 75th anniversary of A. Osipenko was held. The people came mostly "aged", but there were also young spectators. As it happens, there were not enough chairs for everyone, but the admirers of the artists were not offended.

I stood next to the front door. Osipenko appeared somehow imperceptibly. It turned out that she was very short... The scene transforms, of course.
The meeting was led by O. Rozanova, a well-known critic. N. Zozulina, who wrote a book about the ballerina, was also present. At first, Osipenko spoke about what she is doing now, namely, about working with the artists of the Mikhailovsky Theater. She especially emphasized the fact that at the end of her life she again works in the theater. The Yakobson and Eifman troupes belonged to the Lenconcert, but this is a completely different matter. She said that she didn't care who was the owner of the theatre. "I work with artists, and that's the most important thing," she said.
After a while, a message ran through the hall that John Markovsky had also come. "Imagine - he bought an entrance ticket" - said the caretaker of the hall. Osipenko smiled and replied that this was all Markovsky. "By the way, if he bought a ticket, it does not mean at all that he will come to meet us," said the ballerina. Everyone laughed...
Markovsky, like Osipenko, the audience met with applause. At first he behaved very modestly, but then he began to insert remarks, and generally spoke in response to some questions very animatedly.
At this exhibition, frames from the best works of the Osipenko-Markovsky couple were constantly shown: Minotaur and Nymph, Ice Maiden, Swan Lake, Anthony and Cleopatra, Double Voice, Flight of Taglioni. The meeting was built on the demonstration of these frames and the comments of the performers themselves.

In general, both of them, despite a very hard life, looked great for their age. Osipenko is 75 years old, but she is slim and mobile. Markovsky retained a magnificent figure and posture. He is 63 years old, but personally he seemed like a big kid to me. He lives in the House of Stage Veterans. By the way, at the end of the meeting, Markovsky quite frankly stated that he was an alcoholic, but had not been drinking for the last three years. He goes "on a group", supports the same as he is, than he can.

When the frames were played, Alla Evgenievna watched them with great interest. John Ivanovich closed his eyes. He was offered to rotate the screen to make it easier to watch. The artist replied that it was absolutely useless. "I see it all and feel it internally," he said. I thought that he was tired of ballet, and tired for a very long time. In response to the question why he does not work as a tutor, Markovsky replied that he was not interested ... "I love nature, silence. I'm actually very lazy," he said.
How it was necessary to break a man, to break such a magnificent master as Markovsky, so that he would lose interest in his work!

Throughout the viewing, the audience expressed admiration for the artists. It was a DUET! Everyone understood this when they danced, and they understand it now. Both of them said that the main thing in a duet is not even the proportions of the bodies (although this is very important), but spiritual kinship. If it is not there, there is just a successful partnership.
Markovsky, however, gave very interesting explanations of the purely physical side of duets. "My height - 186 cm - did not allow me to dance masterfully, do all sorts of cabriols and so on (the artist showed these movements with his hands, crossing them), but I could be a good partner. Alla had ideal proportions. Her torso weighed as much as her legs ", and it was very convenient. Moiseeva's legs were much heavier than her torso. Fedicheva's were both heavy. Yura Solovyov had a very hard time!" (Soloviev danced for some time with Kaleria Fedicheva, a lady pleasant in every way, but really heavy).
The most inconvenient partner of Markovsky is Ryabinkina from the Bolshoi Theater (he did not say - Elena or Ksenia). He also danced with Plisetskaya (Swan Lake), and both were very worried and literally shook backstage before going out. As John Ivanovich said, this was the only case when he held on to the ballerina, and not she to him. After these experiments, Markovsky decided not to dance at the Bolshoi (obviously, he was invited to a permanent job).

And one more statement by Osipenko, which I remember from this meeting. When asked why they had such wonderful works with Markovsky, the ballerina replied that the answer is very simple: you need to love a lot and suffer a lot. Once Igor Markov, an artist of the theater of B. Eifman, was present at the rehearsal of Osipenko with the artists of the Mikhailovsky Theater. There was talk of "two voices". Markov said: “Yes, I danced your“ Two-Parts ”- there is nothing difficult there!”. Osipenko answered: "But I LIVED it!".
After this meeting, I was both sad and light. These wonderful artists made many, many people happy, but at the end of their lives they found themselves in the most difficult material circumstances. But they live the best they can. The audience remembers them. It is impossible to forget this couple! Everyone who saw them on stage at least once remembers the beautiful, passionate, loving heroes of Alla Osipenko and John Markovsky.

One of the exhibits

Costumes by A. Osipenko

The ballerina is greeted by the audience
Alla Evgenievna is in a good mood!

Markovsky is embarrassed by the increased attention...

O.Rozanova. D. Markovsky and A. Osipenko