Ballerinas of Elena Aleksandrovna Yanson-Manizer

The cycle of works by the remarkable sculptor Elena Aleksandrovna Yanson-Manizer (1890-1971), dedicated to Soviet ballet, is evidence of the highest cultural level of both Soviet ballet and Soviet sculpture. Why did she become such a sculptor?

It’s very simple: she studied with the remarkable, highly professional sculptor M.G.Manizer, who, in turn, received a good academic education at the end of the existence of the Imperial Academy of Arts.

As sometimes happens, the student became the wife of her mentor. It is also obvious that the education was supported by great natural talent.

The wonderful works of Yanson-Manizer do not require special explanations, since their merits and their beauty are clear to everyone.

Elena Yanson-Manizer carried her love for ballet throughout her life. She literally “caught” it when she saw the young, just beginning to shine Galina Ulanova at the graduation party. Elena Alexandrovna immediately realized that she was looking at a future star. Soon a sculpture of Ulanova was ready, which, in an enlarged size, now stands in the courtyard of the Vaganova School, where the outstanding ballerina once took her first steps, and in Gorky Park.

After that, the entire ballet world of St. Petersburg came to Elena Alexandrovna. Maya Plisetskaya, Olga Iordan, Tatyana Vecheslova, Galina Ulanova and many others posed for the talented sculptress. It is worth asking, where did Elena Alexandrovna get such powerful energy and unquestionable talent in depicting the human body? The answer lies not only in natural talent, because in order to truly become great, it is necessary to supplement it, enrich it or even tame it.

Elena Yanson-Manizer became great because she studied and worked all her life. During her student years, in the late 1910s, she truly fell in love with the puppet theater and was already creating magnificent dolls. This experience was colossal in its usefulness for her: later, when Elena Alexandrovna began making her sculptures from life, this experience allowed her to achieve maximum plasticity and decorativeness of her works.

In the period from 1934 to 1937, she created a series of 7 sculptures on the theme of such ballets as “Swan Lake”, “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “Egyptian Nights” and others.

Each sculpture had a note of theatricality, the puppet past of its creator. It was in the ballet theme that her talent was revealed to the maximum: Elena Yanson-Manizer masterfully gave the sculpture of this or that ballerina individuality and originality. She hit the mark every time. Looking at them, you see not a masterfully processed piece of impersonal substance, but the personality that stands behind it.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, the specified parts were performed at the Bolshoi Theatre (GABT USSR State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of the USSR founded under Catherine II in 1776) and the Mariinsky Theatre (GATB named after S.M. Kirov Leningrad State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after S.M. Kirov, founded in 1783).

The productions were not carried out by low-grade London visiting “celebrities”, but by such brilliant directors as A.Ya. Vaganova, M.I. Petipa, V.M. Chabukiani, A.A. Gorsky, M.M. Fokin, A.M. Messerer, L.M. Lavrovsky.

The merit of Janson-Manizer is great and invaluable, for she is not only a remarkable sculptor, but also a true chronicler of Soviet choreographic art, who managed to capture for future generations the inspired images created by the masters of the world-famous Soviet ballet.” Almost every Soviet family had porcelain figurines, and often these were ballerinas.