Prima ballerina Valentina Pereyaslavec dies at age 90

by Ika Koznarska Casanova

WOODSIDE, N.Y. - Valentina Pereyaslavec, prima ballerina of major theaters of opera and ballet in Ukraine, choreographer, faculty member at the American Ballet Theatre School in New York, and coach and teacher to world renowned dancers, died on January 4 at the age of 90.

Mme. Pereyaslavec dedicated her whole life to the ballet. As a teacher, she was known for her demanding and exacting teaching method and relentless discipline. She was wont to say that "There is no secret method ... only work, work, work. And passion ... inner passion."

Some of the world's foremost dancers, from leading companies in the U.S. and abroad, came to her famous 11:30 a.m. class at ABT School, among them, Rudolf Nureyev, Alicia Alonso, Erik Bruhn, Anton Dolin, Margot Fonteyn and Carla Fracci.

Mme. Pereyaslavec also served as consultant at the Royal Ballet in London and at seminars and festivals in Copenhagen, Cologne and Cannes. In Vienna, she worked with Nureyev and Dame Fonteyn in the film production of "Swan Lake."

Born February 10, 1907, in Yalta, she was accepted at the age of 9 at the Imperial School of Ballet in Moscow. Upon completing her training and education in 1926, she was engaged by the Kharkiv Ballet and embarked on a 22-year career as prima ballerina in Kharkiv, Kyiv and Odesa.

As prima ballerina she went to Leningrad with the Sverdlovsk opera-ballet theater and remained there for three years to study under Agrippina Vaganova.

In 1939 she was invited to the Lviv Opera and Ballet Theater as prima ballerina.

With the outbreak of the war, Mme. Pereyaslavec was sent to work by the Germans in a factory in Leipzig. At war's end, she was in a camp for Ukrainian displaced persons in Ingolstadt, where she taught children, free of charge, forming a small yet select and well-trained dance group. The group gave numerous performances under the auspices of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA).

Upon coming to the United States in 1949, with $11 to her name, she found work in factories in Philadelphia, first cleaning peaches and then packing cigarettes (to which she aptly referred to as "something à la Carmen").

In 1949 she moved to New York where she obtained a teaching position at Tatyana Semyonova's Studio 819 at Carnegie Hall.

In 1951 she was invited to teach at the newly opened American Ballet Theater School, under the direction of Lucia Chase.

Mme. Pereyaslavec taught at the ABT for over 30 years, imparting her experience and knowledge to several generations of dancers.

Apart from her classes at the ABT, Mme. Pereyaslavec also taught, as she referred to them, "my Ukrainian children," in downtown New York.

At all classes, be it at the ABT or at Ukrainian community venues in downtown Manhattan, Mme. Pereyaslavec was perceived as a teacher with high expectations, a strict disciplinarian, and as a source of inspiration.

In an interview with Mme. Pereyaslavec, which appeared in Dance Magazine (November 1960), Mme. Pereyaslavec, in response to a question regarding the difference between the Ukrainian and American students, noted: "Americans have good bodies, but are less passionate. However, Ukrainian dancers raised in the U.S. suffer the same lack. It must be the comfortable life."

In 1976, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of her teaching career at the ABT School, Dance News (December issue) carried an article by Mme. Pereyaslavec as well as tributes from the world's leading ballet dancers (see sidebar).

The Ukrainian community honored Mme. Pereyaslavec on her diamond jubilee at an event organized by her former students and emceed by ballet dancer and teacher Roma Pryma-Bohachevsky, which was held at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York in February 1983.

Funeral services for Mme. Pereyaslavec were held January 7 at St. Mary's Christian Church in Woodside, N.Y. Internment was at St. Michael Catholic Cemetery in Jackson Heights, N.Y.

Tributes to a remarkable teacher

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 1, 1998, No. 5, Vol. LXVI

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