About the Fund

About Fund

What do great artists leave to future generations? Often very little: letters, quotations, photographs, films or videos which, willy nilly, are unable to convey the feelings of contemporaries, their rapturous admiration and sometimes idolization of their heroes. As the years go by, the artist’s image becomes increasingly eroded by time, while legends, rumors and fabrication gradually impinge on the true portrait, sometimes investing it with colors that are totally unlike the original. Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova never bothered about reinforcing her position in the history of culture. Her rare interviews, few letters, aloofness from quarrels, squabbling, backstage and everyday problems are the best confirmation of this. What the name of Ulanova means for art will become clear when the opinions of people from all walks of life are gathered together: writers, artists, people in the performing arts, scientists, and ordinary members of the public , who were ‘touched’ by the work of the great ballerina. And it is to preserve and hand down to future generations those spiritual and moral ideals which made up the core of her being, that the Galina Ulanova Fund has been founded. The dancer, actress and teacher continues to live on in her pupils. The latter are an example of an ongoing link between the generations. It is they, in the first instance, who bear the responsibility for the purity and truth of feeling of their profession, a symbol of which was, is and always will be Galina Sergeyevna ULANOVA.

Vladimir VASILIEV
President of The Galina ULANOVA Fund

 

 

GALINA ULANOVA’s Fund was established in 1998 with the participation of the Bolshoi Theatre (in 2001 the management of the Theatre decided to withdraw from the Fund’s founders), The Theatre Union of Russia, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, E. Maximova, V. Vasilyev, B. Lvov-Anohin, S. Bruskova, T. Kasatkina.

The main goal of the Foundation is to immortalize the memory of G.S.Ulanova and preserve her creative and spiritual heritage. The Foundation conducts several programs and directions on which its work is based. In 2003, on March 21 – the fifth anniversary of G.S.Ulanova’s, the Foundation holds a gala concert in memory of G.S.Ulanova at the “New Opera” theatre, and in May 16, 2004 and 2005 – a gala concert in memory of G.S.Ulanova.Ulanova at the Bolshoi Theater, where for the first time he announced the scholarship program of the Ulanova Foundation and the establishment of the award “For selfless service to the art of dance” in the form of a statuette of G.S.Ulanova as Odette (sculptor E.Yanson-Manizer). These awards in life received legends of world ballet, among them M.Semenova, O.Lepeshinskaya, R.Struchkova, E.Evdokimova, I.Shovire, I.Moiseev, M.Bejar. In just 16 years, the scholarship programs of the Fund’s scholarship holders have been awarded to the best students of ballet schools, among them S.Polunin, O.Smirnova, K.Shapran, Yu.Kudryavtsev, D.Khokhlova, K.Andreeva, M.Filippova, E.Kruteleva, who became the first dancers in their theaters. The foundation has also helped many needy students from low-income families.

The Foundation’s management has been developing several projects dedicated to G.S.Ulanova. In particular, the festival in her name in Ostashkovo, a festival in honor of Ulanova in VDTs “Orlyonok”, the World Dance Center named after G.S.Ulanova, for which he fought for a long time and the creation of which was offered to the leadership of Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as the creation of a monument to G.S.Ulanova in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the appropriation of her name to the street, the square in these cities, air and sea liners. Unfortunately, not all projects and proposals of the Foundation have found a practical response.

To mark Ulanova’s 100th birthday, with funds from the Russian Ministry of Culture and sponsorship from the Foundation, the Bolshoi Ballet dancers toured Siberia with the gala concert “Mona Lisa of the Russian Ballet. Galina Ulanova is dedicated”. Together with the Mariinsky Theatre and the Bolshoi Theatre he held an evening in honour of Galina Ulanova at the Mariinsky Theatre (8 January 2010) and the Bolshoi Theatre with the Mariinsky Theatre company (16 January 2010) as well as an exhibition dedicated to Galina Ulanova at the Theatre Museum in St Petersburg and published a booklet entitled “Ulanova-100” with fragments of Galina Ulanova’s diary.

The Foundation was also actively involved in organizing a gala concert and exhibition dedicated to Galina Ulanova as part of the “Icons of Russian Ballet” project on May 11, 2011 at the Coliseum Theatre in London (the concert was directed by President of the Foundation V. Vasilyev).

On the day of Ulanova’s 105th birthday, January 8, 2015, the Foundation gathered students and partners at her Museum Apartment who shared their memories of the great ballerina and her teacher. On that day the Foundation gave the Museum-apartment of Ulanova an invaluable archive of the Bolshoi Theatre’s 1956 tour, including posters, programs, newspaper articles of everything that was published in the press in London in those days. The archive was collected and handed over to the Foundation by the English artist R. Vinyarsky, who became a witness to those significant events.

In 2020, on G.S.Ulanova’s 110th anniversary, the Foundation took part in the creation of Vladimir Vasilyev’s author’s film “The Legend Stays Alive” about G.S.Ulanova, which was donated to the “Culture” TV channel. In the jubilee year 2020, the Foundation plans to hold other events, create printed materials about the life and work of G.S.Ulanova. The Foundation continues the programme of fellows of the Galina Ulanova Foundation.

The Galina Ulanova Foundation invites all those who value the name and work of the greatest ballerina, who has become a symbol not only of Russian ballet, but also of world culture as a whole, its true and unique heritage.

THE FOUNDERS OF THE GALINA ULANOVA FOUNDATION:

The Theatre Union of Russia
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
Vladimir Vasilyev
Elena Bruskova ☩ (1926-2014)
Ekaterina Maximova ☩ (1939-2009)
Boris Lviv-Anohin ☩ (1926-2000)
Tatiana Kasatkina

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE GALINA ULANOVA FOUNDATION:

Mikhail Baryshnikov – legendary dancer
Maurice Béjar ☩ (1927-2007) – choreographer, artistic director of the ballet “Ballet Beja-Lausanne”.
John Neumeier – choreographer, artistic director of the Hamburg Ballet.
Valery Gergiev – Conductor, Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Vladimir Gusev – Director of the Russian Museum
Susanna Zvyagina ☩ (1918-2006) – Chairman of the Council of Veterans of the Bolshoi Theatre (take in black frame)
Boris Lyubimov – theater historian, theater critic, PhD in art criticism.
Natalia Makarova – ballerina
Viktor Sadovnichy – Rector of Moscow State University
Ekaterina Maksimova ☩ (1939-2009) – ballerina
Margarita Escina ☩ (1933-2009) – Director of the House of Actor
Tadatsugu Sasaki ☩ (1933-2016) – Head of the Foundation for the Performing Arts of Japan and Tokyo Ballet.