Nadezhda Nadezhdina

Ballerina. Born in Vilna (1908) in the family of physiotherapist Sergei Brustein (1873–1947) and writer Alexandra Vygodskaya (1884–1968). Studied under Nikolai Legat and Agrippina Vaganova at the Petrograd School of Ballet (1918–24). Danced at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (1925–34), balletmaster (from 1941). Married Vladimir Lebedev (1930s). Founder of the Little Birch Tree choreographic group (1948). Died in Moscow and buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery (1979). Winner of the State Prize (1950) and the Frédéric Joliot-Curie Prize (1959), People’s Artist of the USSR (1966).