Јелена Пољакова: почетак балетске уметности у Београду
International Ballet Experience of Elena Poliakova as the Basis of Origin of Ballet Art in Belgrade

Summary/Abstract: Elena Dmitrievna Poliakova holds the distinction of being the first Belgrade prima ballerina, choreographer, and teacher of classical ballet. Poliakova arrived in Belgrade in the 1920s, among numerous émigrés from Imperial Russia following the October Revolution, as a former member of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and Diaghilev’s Bal­lets Rus­ses in Paris. She was central to the beginnings of the Ballet of the National Theatre in Belgrade, evidenced by their first full-length performance on March 19, 1923 – the one-act ballets Sche­he­ra­za­de and Les Sylphi­des – for which Poliakova created the dances, performed as the prima ballerina, and directed Les Sylphi­des. Poliakova also established the first classical ballet curriculum in Belgrade at the Acting and Ballet School. Her students included leading ballet artists of the Belgrade National Theatre such as Dimitrije Parlić, Nataša Bošković, Mile Jovanović, and Vera Kostić.

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