Danilova, Alexandra Dionysievna 1904-97
US dancer and teacher

Born in Petergof (Petrodvorets), she trained at the Imperial Ballet School, Petrograd (now St Petersburg), before joining the Maryinsky Theatre (now Kirov Ballet) in 1922. She defected on a tour to Europe in 1924 and that year became a member of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, leaving in 1929. She danced for Colonel de Basil's Ballet Russe (1933-38) and its splinter group the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo (until 1952), as well as making guest appearances with many companies. She formed her own group, Great Moments of Ballet (1954-56) before retiring in 1957. After this, she staged ballets for opera companies and in collaboration with George Balanchine, at whose School of American Ballet she earned an impressive reputation as a teacher.

Bibliography: A E Twysden, Alexandra Danilova (1947)