Teacher
She married Soviet General Aleksei Antonov in 1956. In 1962 her husband died. The nervous shock was so strong that she became temporarily blind. When her vision returned, after a year of treatment, she found herself unneeded by the Bolshoi Theater or the Bolshoi School. Fortunately, she found a place at the Komische Oper Berlin where she worked as a ballet mistress for ten years.
After this she worked as a trainer in many different companies throughout the world. For thirty years she served as the Chairperson of Ballet competitions in Moscow. She was the president of the Russian Choreographic Association (since 1992) and was the Chairperson for the Choreography Entrance Exams at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (for her last fifty years).
She helped painter Ilya Glazunov during his early career (she was reprimanded for organizing his first exhibition), so he declared Lepeshinskaya to be his godmother in the art.
Lepeshinskaya died of a heart attack on December 20, 2008 in Moscow at the age of 92.
Read more about this topic: Olga Lepeshinskaya (dancer)
Famous quotes containing the word teacher:
“It is not easy to imagine how little interested a scientist usually is in the work of any other, with the possible exception of the teacher who backs him or the student who honors him.”
—Jean Rostand (1894–1977)
“When a bachelor of philosophy from the Antilles refuses to apply for certification as a teacher on the grounds of his color I say that philosophy has never saved anyone. When someone else strives and strains to prove to me that black men are as intelligent as white men I say that intelligence has never saved anyone: and that is true, for, if philosophy and intelligence are invoked to proclaim the equality of men, they have also been employed to justify the extermination of men.”
—Frantz Fanon (1925–1961)
“It is not only a question of who is responsible for very young children. There is no longer anyone home to care for adolescents and the elderly. There is no one around to take in the car for repair or to let the plumber in. Working families are faced with daily dilemmas: Who will take care of a sick child? Who will go to the big soccer game? Who will attend the teacher conference?”
—Fran Sussner Rodgers (20th century)