Jia Ruskaja

Jia Ruskaja (born Evgeniya Fyodorovna Borisenko, Russian: Евгения Фёдоровна Борисенко; 6 January 1902 – 19 April 1970) was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer who established a national dance school in Italy. Her stage name "Jia Ruskaja", which means "I am Russian", was used for the first time by Anton Giulio Bragaglia.

Jia Ruskaja during the rehearsal of Medea in the 1950s.
Jia Ruskaja established the Accademia nazionale di danza.

Biography

With her father, an officer in the Russian Imperial Army, Ruskaja fled Russia in 1918 just after the October Revolution. She studied dance in Crimea, before attending medical school in Geneva. Ruskaja married Evans Daniel Pole in Constantinople in 1920; after their marriage was annulled, their son lived in London with his father. Her dancing debut occurred 4 June 1921 in Rome at the Casa d'Arte Bragaglia. She opened her first ballet school in Milan at the Teatro Dal Verme in 1929. From 1932–34, she directed the La Scala Theatre Ballet School. After her marriage to Aldo Borelli, editor of Corriere della Sera, Ruskaja received Italian citizenship. In 1940, she founded the Royal School of Dance, initially attached to the Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico, which became independent in 1948 as Accademia nazionale di danza, a school which only admitted women. She was its director until 1970.[1] Daisy Parrilla and Eleonora Abbagnato had contentious claims to the “Premio Roma Jia Russkaja” prize in 2011.[2]

Selected filmography

Awards
  • 1962, Premio Minerva d’Oro

References
  1. "Jia Ruskaja" (in Italian). FONDAZIONE DELL’ACCADEMIA NAZIONALE DI DANZA. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
  2. "Premio Roma Jia Ruskaja. Cinque scuole in scena per il Gala organizzato dalla FAND e diretto da Eleonora Abbagnato" (in Italian). Retrieved 26 June 2019.
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